RE:Thoughts on zero vs a super low-ball buyout price?
"Having said that, this thing is - I believe, worth a lot more to me at zero (i.e. capital loss) than a sub-dime 'all-cash' buyout..."
There is a great misunderstanding out there amongst novice investers when it comes to capital gains and losses. It is a very lengthy subject so I will just superficially state the highlights and lowlights
Capital losses are never better than the original money you recieve back from an investment even if the investment was a net loss. The loss (difference between what you paid and what you got back) can only be used to offset an equal amount of future gains you made on other investments. If you have no future gains in the market then the capital loss is worthless. At best, all capital losses will do is not have you pay taxes on the future recovery of previous losses, therefore it's value can never be greater than not having lost it in the first place. From that I hope you can see that it is always the best play to get as much of your original money back on an investment as possible, even if it is not all of it.
Next, the capital loss and gain rules do not apply to investments made from an RRSP or TFSA. If you make or lose money in those accounts you have just simply made or lost money...end of story.
Next, some people have this misguided conception that a capital loss is some form of refundable credit or that it can be used against other types of taxable income in general. That is not true. As I previously stated a capital loss only has value to offset an equal amount of future capital gains if those gains were made from a cash account and not an RRSP or TFSA.
In sumation, it is always best to get as such as your money back as possible. Potential capital losses dollar amounts never have a value greater than the original investment dollar amounts that they represent. You always want as much of your original money back on an investment as you can possibly get...always. If you can not get all of it, then take the capital loss amount on the difference and hope you have an opportunity in the future to recover that original lost investment money.
I know I did not word that very well but like I said it is only a superficial overview because if I started going into details, examples and crunching numbers on such a broad subject, the post would go on forever and confuse many. I hope it helped somewhat.