If I understand correctly, any company with a non-disclosure agreement would be prohibited from buying on the open market.

If a company was one of the 10-12 who have expressed interest, but wasn't chosen to enter a non-disclosure agreement they would be saving their bank roll to finance other projects.

A comparative example might be the back up quarterback asking the head cheerleader to go to the prom and being turned down. He knows she's not going to miss the prom, but the quarterback will probably be her date. He needs to buy chocolates for the assistant head cheerleader.

Sorry if this scenario brought up bad memories for anyone. With the money to be made from SLI a great psychiatrist will be available to work through it.