Ugh. No they didn't buy shares on the open market, but usually the fair price is determined by the market at the close of trading on a certain day. What firms to do get what they pay down is to employ a trader to manipulate the price by placing large blocks at the ask. Yesterday, one kept throwing shares at the ask at .035 at the close. As soon as they would go down, more were thrown on the pile. Over and over and over again. Why? Because they stopped the price from going up, which was important to them for some reason.