"Short sellers can benefit in the short term but in the long term I see the hand of a company that wants to depress the price in order to "steal" this company in a buy-out."

I believe you are dead on here. No one is going to pay anything they don't have to and if they have the ability to make it less....they will do so. I don't think we'll ever again see great rewards for investors like yesteryear. The game is too rigged with HST and all of the systems designed to keep the financial power in the hands that invented the system. Time will tell but I think that's how the story is. The real question is....who holds the balance of voting power and whose side are they on when someone finally makes an offer? This find is so significant that much of the abyss of resources at the disposal of those who get their way has likely been mobilized. Think about it.....nuclear plants..... high tech power supply. What is it worth?