Ann: Acquisition of LIFX and Share Placement, page-281

You may well be right...but then again you may be totally wrong.  I join you in the ranks of not claiming to be a retail expert.  i would add, that this means that there is far more about the business that I don't know, compared to what I do know.  And to be crystal clear, this includes not only the things I know that I don't know, but also the likely far larger category of things that I don't know that I don't know. I suspect that you are no different, but far be it from me to proclaim that with any certainty.

However, this perspective of my knowledge (or rather lack thereof) 'informs' me of the futility of scrutinizing and evaluating operational decisions that I have no basis to apply objective criteria too, or to utilise any critical thinking skills.  I may know enough to hypothesise, but certainly not enough to conclude. For instance, I have no insight into whether substantiated research proves that people with 3 or more smart bulbs are likely to purchase far more further smart bulbs, as compared to those who initially purchase only 1 or 2. And/or that someone with 4 bulbs of a particular brand is less inclined to try another brand for subsequent purchases, as compared to someone whose initial trial purchase was 1 or 2 bulbs? And if so, that a limited promotion to encourage more installed bulbs for a first time 'buyer' is perhaps likely to provide a far more valuable customer over their lifetime?  I believe a concept known as Life-time customer value (LCV)?  But I may be totally wrong, and there may be other reasons why such a decision makes sense and is the sign of a business with a firm hand on the tiller.  Such as knowledge of relative price elasticities. Such as knowledge of downstream revenue farming opportunities based on installed base. Or perhaps something else.

Or perhaps you are right and they don't have a clue and we are all being taken for a ride in the most obvious way?  You probably know that i don't have that view.

My simple point being that as a retail investor, our 'job' is not to second guess minutiae of operational decision making in the absence of even the most base knowledge and context...but simply to judge whether we believe that an investment is likely (or not) to meet our personal investment needs within a personally set timeframe.  Anything more is just a pointless indulgence afforded by an anonymous forum that requires limited accountabilities.

We each get 1 (non-compulsory) vote per share on a bunch of resolutions related to the proposed acquisition. Between now and then, it would be useful if there could be even a token attempt to discuss the pro's and con's of each resolution, with some degree of dispassion and substantiation. I suspect that far more people will get far more value out of this forum if the emphasis was a little bit more on that, rather than only on the venting of our frustrations or only on the expressions of our hopes.

IMO.  GLTA.