Any normal ceo, under normal circumstances, thinking normally, knowing what IFLM is, would tell Jake "please take this shell, give me $500 k, and you can do whatever the hell you want to with it"!!!!!!!
Why on earth would Jake pay that much? So far, he's only shelled out $61K. And the IFLM shell isn't worth that much, let alone half a million.
But asking why Jake didn't just try to cut a private deal with Ritchie--as Ritchie says Theo Hanson did do--makes sense. Why did Jake want IFLM? Why not just buy any shell? Or did he just not know any better?