RE: A great lesson for us all !!The fact that over-allotment not picked up may tell us something, but what? Does fact that jerry115 has never seen such a thing mean we should all dump? Or should we agree w 2Gorgeous that underwriters must have got wind of Acuity dumping? Well... let's look at what we actually know first, and distinguish it from speculation.
Known facts: the Jan 18 PR announcing the bd indicated that underwriters would have the option of acquiring up to 1.14 mil additional shares during a 30 day period following closing of bd, scheduled for Feb. 3. Then the Feb 4 PR announcing closing said: "The Underwriters and the Company have determined that the overallotment option will not be exercised."
Speculation: underwriters decided not to take up over-allotment, presumably because they saw dark clouds hanging over the WIN sp. But if they had known, with reasonable certaintly, that the sp would stay below $6.60 due to Acuity dumping or any other reason, then they could have made $ by taking up the over-allotment and shorting, no?
Other possibilities: (1) Underwriters genuinely uncertain where sp would go over next 30 days, and therefore didn't want to gamble. If this is true, then failure to take up over-allotment doesn't necessarily signal dark days for the sp, only unpredictability. (2) WIN didn't want underwriters to take up over-allotment, and talked them out of it. I have no idea how plausible this is, but is it possible that WIN heard retail investors foaming about the bd, and wanted to terminate share sales, or that changes in Nortel auction or other discussions removed the need for the bd money (making even more bd money a potential further embarassment)? Could underwriters looking to do future business with WIN be persuaded this way? I don't know, maybe somebody does. Bottom line, on this scenario no take-up of over-allotment doesn't indicate bad times ahead for the sp either. (3) Lots of good brains on this board (OK, at least some). Maybe there are other possible scenarios.
My conclusion: Failure to take up over-allotment may tell us something. But not clear what. On its own, it's a footnote in this story, not a reason for anybody the change their thinking about WIN.
Gormless