The primary gripe, beyond the low PPS, is that the company is not communicating with shareholders as the shareholders would like.

If I were PTSC management, and read this board today, I'd be inclined to say "why bother".  Why that response?  Because many are clearly ignoring what the company HAS TOLD US!

The company has advised that they are looking at candidates for acquisition.  Does a company waste its time and resources in such an endeavor if they are looking to be bought out?  Seems unlikely, IMO.  They'd be courting those wishing to acquire (generating competition, to thus raise the price), not looking for acquisition candidates.

I suppose this doesn't preclude the thought of PTSC (and TPL) selling off PDS and the MMP.  Or, for that matter, just PTSC selling off its interest in the MMP.  Master Agreement?  It's a contract, subject change or disolution with the mutual agreemet of the parties.  But, as I've suggested before, I can't see where TPL would have an interest in doing/permitting this.  Main reason, TPL certainly doesn't want to relinquish any control over the MMP, and a buyer would certainly want a level of control over their investment.  Deal killer, IMO.  And IMO TPL wants to keep the MMP as it is part of their overall business model, fostering other patent holders to enlist TPL's expertise.  For the foreseeable future, the MMP is the feather in TPL's cap towards their patent litigation/reverse engineering aspirations.

Though this post is not written with the desired clarity, it hopefully makes two points: 

1) Don't ignore what the company has already told us. 

2) The evidence and I think sound reasoning suggest that there is no way the MMP is being sold off.

As for suggestions that the PPS is being held down so some entity(ies) can accumulate - I have a rough time buying that.  Such suggests accumulation on a very large scale.  If the 5% ownership threshold is breached, it will have to be reported (and no NDA/CC could prevent that).  To take control, the entity would have to gain 50%+.  How they gonna do dat?  Multiple subsidiaries buying or some equally goofy approach?  In the end, such actions would come to light, and they'd be busted.

IMO, the PPS is where it is for the same 3 old reasons:  Uncertainty, Swartz selling, and uncertainty.

What we need right now (besides massive share buy-backs, IMO) are some new, big name, licensees.  Why haven't they been forthcoming?  IMO, because the price tag went way up with the J settlements.  Were those settlements big?  The longer it takes for these companies to license, the bigger were the settlements, IMO.  Do these companies know the settlement amounts?  Probably not.  But they do know that the price tag went way up, giving a pretty good clue.

All JMHOs, and apologies for a pretty unorgainized post.  And, of course, I KNOW nuttin'!

SGE