"isn't the Aspire deal such that they are virtually assured of making a profit on each purchase unless they try to sell too quickly and drive the price down too fast?"
I have a problem with the question, which assumes that Aspire is the sole force driving the price, so I'll answer it after an adjustment: Aspire attempts to assure itself a profit by requiring "commitment shares"*** as compensation at the outset of their agreements. They are pure profit, can be sold at any time and in fact can provide Aspire some flexibility regarding when they sell. (Aspire can't sell short by the terms of the agreement but retaining those shares essentially allows them to effectively do so to the extent of that holding.) But to your question: "Regular Purchases" are made at the defined Purchase Price: "“Purchase Price” means the lesser of (i) the lowest Sale Price of the Common Stock on the Purchase Date or (ii) the arithmetic average of the three (3) lowest Closing Sale Prices for the Common Stock during the twelve (12) consecutive Business Days ending on the Business Day immediately preceding such Purchase Date (to be appropriately adjusted for any reorganization, recapitalization, non-cash dividend, stock split, reverse stock split or other similar transaction)."
To both oversimplify and generalize that definition it SUGGESTS that Aspire is guaranteed a profit if the price rises constantly (which would mean they bought at a discount to the current share price) and guaranteed a loss if the price constantly drops. I personally don't expect that they try to time their sales to make the most of those things. I believe that they MIGHT hold some shares but are more likely to simply flip them....they have a risk averse approach. If they were to do otherwise we surely would have seen a filing reflecting a 5% holding a long time ago with annual updates (Take a look at their Edgar list....they've been doing this for quite a while with well over a dozen companies yet I think they've only reached that 5% point twice..and in those cases they no longer file, indicating a drop below the 5% mark.).
Here's the question I'm comfortable answering: Isn't the Aspire deal such that they are virtually assured of making a profit on each purchase unless the price keeps going down? Yes.
***"In connection with the Commencement, the Company shall issue to the Buyer as consideration for the Buyer entering into this Agreement 300,000 shares of Common Stock (the “Commitment Shares”). The Commitment Shares shall be issued without any restrictive legend whatsoever or prior sale requirement."
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