I didn't really speculate much or add conjecture about the sale.

What would I do?

Well if I was the decision maker and largest stockholder or amongst them:

Given the most painful thing I do is pay tax, I suppose I would do what I could to avoid tax.

If I sell for cash, I have the money tied up in the company and tax will be paid on the gain from sale before it is dividended out ... I get a dividend tax credit ... whoopee.

If I get a lot of shares in a viable company ... say rogers, bell or telus who now has the infrastructure to be the dominant force in wireless communication and pay no tax ... I could liquidate what I want when I want and pay tax at that time.

I would also accumulate wealth in thie company with this fantastic asset as they make above average profits in an infrastructure technology.

So I open the envelopes .... My best offer from the big 3 or another industry giant is I get 1 billion worth of shares. I can sell them or keep them ... when I sell I pay tax. Of course they can be in a numbered company held off shore and I can pay very little tax there as I sell off my shares ... in fact I can change citizenship ... you name it.

Or maybe I get 1.5 million cash offer by someone ... the company pays 50% tax or whatever and I actually have less value.

From the buyers perspective .... stock swap although being dilutive is not a cash flow issue... and I don't think a hard sell to existing shareholders when you tell them your competition paid xxx more for it at auction then our swap diluted share value ... heck if the analysts like the move it might not be anti-dilutive at all.

Oh well you can speculate for hours ... the company could take a cash deal and give a massive bonus to management .. in fact it could be 50% of the deal ... I wonder if anyone with deep pockets might just take that to court for breach of fiduciary responsibility ... the best argument I could think of there was the lousy 600,000 I made annually to bring the company such a return. It might fly but bonusing out 100% ... that won't fly .... neither will a sales price for LOOK assets of less than 1 bil.

All in my slanted ... oops I mean slouching opinion.

Orgy