Bob,here's a little deja vu from the last offering...

Unknown Shareholder

Dr. Mann, I've been an aficionado of yours for a lot of years, and I do remember when you first were very successful. This is strictly on the offering side. And I was very, very aware of the dilution and I do own the stock higher and I've been dialed [ph] across, averaging down. But I wonder why you didn't do a rights offering so that, in fact, existing shareholders weren't able to participate in this offering? And what was the thought behind that at this time? Because the dilution is so great. And I believe, anytime you're offering more than 10% of the outstanding stock, I mean, I think you're almost required to do a rights offering, but I could be wrong. And I tried to get a hold of you directly at your office, but seemed to have not been successful for at least the past year.

Alfred E. Mann - Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

I'm not sure why you couldn't reach me because, certainly, I am reachable so I don't know. We need to somehow touch base and discover that. But I think I would rather turn your question over to Matt because I'm not sure what...

Matthew J. Pfeffer - Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer and Corporate Vice President

Yes. Without going into all the details, we did consider that, I'll be honest. We found that, that process is an extraordinarily complex one and very time-consuming. And uncertain and given the circumstances we were in, we thought that the course to be pursued was the best one for the company and, by definition, its stockholders as well.

Unknown Shareholder

Okay, and which leads also to one last question. Is the fact that we have so many shares shorter than it comes up on a percentage basis as for a company the size yours is, being short 37% of the outstanding float, how -- what sort of ideas did you guys come up with to stop the shorts from acquiring your shares to cover? Because I know that Warren Buffett always said the guys who go ahead and short his stocks are also buyers of his stock. But if in fact you're creating new shares, these guys are going to go in here and just be able to get the shares back again, cover, and they have done nothing to help the company except hurt it and hurt existing shareholders.

Alfred E. Mann - Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Well, you're certainly right. The shorters are not helping the company, but...

Matthew J. Pfeffer - Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer and Corporate Vice President

Yes, we'll see -- I think it'll be very informative when we see the short count in the next tally, which will be the first one that will follow the offering and see where we came out. I mean, we were very careful about where we placed those shares, but you can never be 100% certain.

Alfred E. Mann - Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

We thought we were careful, but obviously, a lot of the shares were sold.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/385161-mannkind-s-ceo-discusses-q4-2011-results-earnings-call-transcript?find=warrants&all=false