[quote][postedby]Originally Posted by cal[/postedby]
If Ji Gami was commercially viable, then why in the hell would the parent company WANT to buy the HCFM?
We’re waiting on a cure for paralysis. The parent company working on it has just started liquidating the research lab’s assets and bought a large chain of wheelchair sellers. There’s only one way to read this.[/quote]
Actually, i think there’s another way to read it.
Say ARI’s trials succeeded, and showed the process is viable and marketable.
Say they’re under a sort of gag order from the FDA, though. (They might even have a US IPO or international securities offering in the works so that complicates their ability to disclose information even further.)
Now, say they need a big network to do Phase III trials on thousands of baldies, plus to roll out the procedure once trials are all done.
A purchase of HCM would make sense.
Now, what would that “sensitive nonpublic business information” consist of, the disclosure of which caused the FTC to place sanctions on Bosley (actually the penalties are kind of mild)…?
It might mean that Bosley people (certain doctors we know) approached HCM and maybe other candidates and disclosed details of the trials that they shouldn’t have, and also discussed potential pricing for Ji Gami, etc.
The reasoning would be that this would be a major negotiating chip to strike a deal with someone like HCM, because in every sale, both sides are getting something and have to be pleased. It has to be a win-win. Maybe the $163.5 million wasn’t just outright cash, maybe it was cash + Aderans stock.
Now, in order to induce HCM to go for such a deal, Aderans would want to disclose as much as they could about the Ji Gami results.
But because the information is still classified as “sensitive, nonpublic” info, if they disclosed this in order to cut a deal, they’d be violating their responsibility not to disclose this information until they’re allowed to.
The fact that the whole thing is so closely interwoven with pricing information complicated it a lot for Bosley. (My guess is that some competitor of Bosley got wind of the talks, and reported them to the FTC. Since the whole thing was mixed up with pricing information, even if they could lawfully talk about the details of Ji Gami, just the fact that they discussed pricing may have forced the FTC to slap them with sanctions.)
Interesting that the HCM sale cleared the day after the FTC settlement.
The FTC release keeps on referring to “sensitive, nonpublic business information”.
Some are going to say this info dealt only with standard HT pricing, and had nothing to do with Ji Gami stuff. But there’s actually no more reason to believe that right now than to think that it did. Since it’s sensitive and nonpublic, by definition the FTC wouldn’t and couldn’t describe it in its announcement.
I think there’s a good chance it actually might.