I know very little about the nature of these notes despite...

I know very little about the nature of these notes despite reading their prospectus. But i believe that there is diminishing returns in holding them over time, as there is a cap in # of shares which can be issued, and the strike price reduction diminishes as subsequent divs are paid. So one way to look at is is that the noteholders now see more value in holding the shares here on out than the notes, maybe because of the div policy of this company. Either way they have done very well for themselves as i believe 1 note is 200K and now they have over 500K in value received (in the form of shares)