Management could have closed several months earlier but they didn't have enough money to both close the deal and fill the tanks at Huajie at the same time. They were evaluating month-to-month cash flow and their analysis was not able to be done until monthly accounting reports for the prior month were ready sometime around the third week in September.
Also, there are multiple lines of evidence to suggest the lack of fanfare was intentional. For example, LPH's mid-September earnings conference call in which they said they just extended the contractual window for deal closing to the end of the year, without giving any other clues as to the possible date, effectively dampened the stock's attractiveness to opportunists who only wanted to buy the stock before deal closing and did not wish to remain in the stock over the longer term.
Similarly, on September 24, the news of the Huajie acquisition was given in a pre-announcement which stated merely that the acquisition would close by end of the month, nothing to suggest it would occur in only two days. This information by itself was not proof of the event closing, so that individuals seeking only to trade the news could not buy in just for a quick pop.
Then, when the final signing of the acquisition was announced September 27, short term traders would have thought the news of closing the deal had already partially been baked into price and sentiment, which would make it less certain or advantageous to try to buy only for the news so as to sell a quick pop.
The next event, announcement of operations startup and first sales, was announced in a sort of low-key way via a live conference October 11 in San Francisco, and there was no written PR newsrelease the next morning. Because the official startup news was released several days later around October 15, again the news had already been pre-released and so the timing of information did not create too big of a bang to entice new traders to buy and sell the news.
From the above multiple lines of evidence, LPH management is adopting a new strategy - they are proving to investors their credibility and shareholder friendliness, meanwhile dampening the opportunities for short term traders to jump in and play the news pops.
Why would LPH wish to do this? Two reasons: (1) In the long run this is good for the stock because investors will be less fearful of selloffs originating from short term people selling the news. As a result, a greater percentage of long term investors versus a smaller proportion of short term traders will be holding the outstanding shares in the public float.
(2) The change in the composition of shareholders could lessen the number of negative articles and comments that historically tend to pop up after a big run in the stock, which also helps stock sentiment for the long run.
Conclusion: If management continues to protect shareholder value and orchestrate effectively timed PRs, LPH may turn into a textbook example of a turnaround stock.