By pulling the plug now they would lose the following:
1) $16.425 million in credit assets (9.125 short term, 7.3 long term)
2) ~$3,000,000 in equity (from today, more from book value)
3) ~$4,000,000 in convertible security (from today, more from book value)
4) All other interest and royalty streams
5) Eventually, the remaining debts outstanding to them (~$15,000,000) will be noncollectable.
What would they get in return?
1) Net assets equal to $2.84 million
2) All other technology that at this point has book value of $0, which no competitor would ever pay for, if it can't land even one contract (which pulling the plug now signals)
There's only one option here - Vertex need the SDI more than anyone at this point.