I guess it could be but I don't see any logical reason for it. I suppose you could say Scott is trying to screw the shorts and intentionally put out a PR to fail so the people would short and he could come out and complete the deal of the century and screw the shorts. I personally feel like Scott is running a mining company and not a short screwing company so the PPS would be important to be as high as possible so he could get the best JV deal for the share holders. After all I doubt the HKHE deal would have been 35% for $10M if the PPS was at .25. But since it was low the deal was made the way it was.
Not to mention that if the date was put out to manipulate the PPS in any way he would be guilty of market manipulation. I dont think Scott is willing to lose his ability to be a CEO of a publicly traded company to screw a group of people who dont exist.
Scott put out the PR with the date because he expected it by then. It didnt happen and the market responded accordingly. That is all. When/if the deal goes through the market will act accordingly again.
It's certainly thrown around this message board as part of a strategy. And it has worked brilliantly.
Scott overestimated the intelligence of many here. I'm sure he mentioned Sept 30th assuming most would be smart enough to realize the deal would be announced shortly thereafter -- not that precise day or during the holidays right after. He neglected to remember most people nowadays have zero patience, an enormous sense of entitlement, and staggering greed.
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