Stocktrader2000,

it is impossible to say with 100% certainty why K.Barron resigned from the board.

I can say that it would be extremely hard to force a founding and sitting board member into resigning if he did not wish to. Especially since Baron owned more than 10% of the company.

There could be a number of reasons why Baron desided to resign. A possibility is it had something to do with the fact that most of his stock is in common share form. He would have had to tender all of these to the rediculous K deal under the present terms.

Perhaps he did not wish to tender his shares to this offer.

Most of the shares the other board members have, just happen to be in option form now and thus are not tenderable.

No, I do not think Anderson had a gun put to his head.

In international companies, usually the first casualty of doing business, is in my opinion, integrity. This is because multiple entities become involved whose goals in the short term do not always mesh perfectly, even though the long term objectives my coinside perfectly.

Under such circumstances compromises must be made in order to accomodate the interested parties. I am sure in the months that ARU was negotiating with the Equador government, an accomodation was reached in order that long term objectives could be satisfied for all concerned.

As the saying goes, in order to make an omlette, some eggs must be broken.

Regards,

F.F.