JLee, that's a great question.
I always like to see management's interests tied to shareholders' interests, and you're right that in this case retail investors tend to own a lot more than management does.
However, zoom out at the longer term price chart. Having 40k shares today is nothing. But how many of us would have owned 40k shares when the stock was $5, $10, etc?
So the bigger question is why hasn't management been buying shares? And the "basher" answer is that management doesn't want to throw good money after bad. But, as insiders, there are all kinds of rules and laws about insider trading. If you're the CEO of Wal-Mart, chances are there's not much material information on a day to day basis. The stock is relatively stable. So you can buy or dispose shares easily. With a company like Delcath, I think it's much harder to do so without triggering potential insider trading claims.
Which leads into your next question: what does management stand to gain financially? I don't know the details of their contracts but typically there are bonuses and other incentives ties to financial performance. Many times management would become high ranking executives of the acquiring company. And most importantly, management has a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interest of the company and for the shareholders. Breach of this fiduciary responsibility would lead to, best case, civil lawsuits that may pierce the corporate veil and go after them personally, and worst case, criminal charges if they breached fiduciary intentionally for personal gain.
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