Interesting. The way I see it, there really is nothing that holds them back from being on BNN then. Results for the quarter are out, the minor delay to milestones is out.... If there are other negotiations ongoing that is fine, you just avoid the topic and deflect the inquiries politely. There is no mandate to avoid speaking. I have seen companies hold a quarterly conference call and then a week later agree to being acquired - the nature of the agreement making it extremely obvious that negotiations had been going for a quite a time before the results were released and the conference call held. I have also had discussions with a management team in the time frame between a quarter end and the official earnings report - some things can be discussed and others can not. So long as there is no material non-public information in the conversation.

Of course in a situation such as this, were I the corporate lawyer, I would tell them that it is better to just not appear rather than risk a comment that gets you I trouble - that is the safest course. All will be revealed in the fullness of time - o course we would all prefer that fullness is no more than 5 minutes from now because we are long up the wazoo and want to know now!