"The Company has no knowledge of being an acquisition target, and has not had any discussions whatsoever of such nature with any parties."
I wonder whose brilliant idea it was to throw that out there. The circumstances don't require it, there's nothing to be gained from it and it pulls the plug on any who might have relied on the existing possibility as a component of support for the share price. All they really had to do was deny the statements in the article, assuming that they were inaccurate.
The PR is clever, though. It greatly expands the universe of people who now know that someone has announced in print their belief that NNVC is not only a legitimate company but is viewed by a potential buyer as being worth $4.5Billion....once in the headline and three times in the 5 paragraph PR.
Denying it is just the excuse for the PR, IMO.