What's possible? Forget about blackouts and even OPEL for a second and entertain a hypothetical scenario for me. Maybe someone who has been involved with a public stock or company selling a portion or all of it's business/assets can shed some light.
Could it hurt negotiations if a company is seen actively supporting/promoting the stock price? Obviously SP has a bearing on the valuation of a company to potential buyers. Lets just say OPEL is in the middle of talks with an interested party (BAE most likely, if anyone) and they announce something that jacks up the price significantly. Is this something that could break a deal in progress, or send them to square one?
I'm asking because the idea that the price is being held down or left to decline through natural market forces in order to issue options to yet another person joining the team has already been tabled. The need for us to cope with delays in the completion of some of the work has already been hinted at by Chris Chu. But maybe there are other possibilities we haven't considered.
My thoughts are that OPEL would still be legally required to release material news with or without a deal in progress, and they would have to release that info in a timely manner. But really, besides a done deal of some kind we only have technical milestones to watch for right now and the completion of these is well within OPEL's ability to delay if need be. Taylor's team could bring a milestone to the brink of completion and then prep the next one if the timing wasn't right to release an NR.
Again, I'm just trying to get all the possibilities out on the table before weighing the probability of each possible explanation.