<<When I saw the "announcement date" it was so obvious to me they would use the day BEFORE (not after) as the cut date>>
Well, they did in the 2006 offering. In that warrant, the language reads::
"an expected volatility equal to the 100 day historical price volatility obtained from the HVT function on Bloomberg as of the trading day immediately prior to the public announcement of the applicable Fundamental Transaction, capped at (A) until and including the seventh anniversary of the Initial Exercise Date, 100% and (B) thereafter, 60%."
When I think how these negotiations must have gone, it reminds me of a tv interview I heard of with a member of the Hell's Angels. He described a bar fight he had been in (I believe with Claude van Damme, the"muscles from Brussels".) "It wasn't anything special, just an old fashioned ass whuppin'"