Even past PORs stated that the plan was to exit Bankruptcy and Merge.
I think that's not so secret of a plan.
It's really the only way to take a $160m company into something that can begin to (pick your number) exploit a $5b, $17b, or whatever NOL.
But, there are IRS regs that prevent just being bought out by, say, pick something -- Exxon. That's considered "shopping a NOL".
There must be a plausible increase in business, and in a related field. So we should expect to merge with another similarly sized company - IN THE RELATED FIELD, stabilizing the merger, then merge again (double sized now), etc.
You just can't merge with a huge company day 1 just to use up the NOLs... forbidden by regulations.
The math is simple, but it takes a bit to merge, rinse, repeat -- all to keep the NOLs intact.... as I understand it.