My guess is that they already have deals for acquisitions negotiated to be paid for with shares. If they don't do a RS, they might have to renegotiate, which they probably don't want to do. Wouldn't be an issue if they weren't giving Stephenson so many shares, but there's probably some specific reason for that too, like he's required by one of the acquisitions to be a common shareholder on equal footing with the other acquisitions or something like that, and of course he still wants to be majority owner... so they divvyd up the shares somehow or other assuming the RS, and now have to figure out other options, with the minimal rework of existing contracts. So I expect it will be a bit of a chore one way or another. But it also sounds like they're willing to give it a try.
All just my guesses. I do NOT have specific info.
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