He’s a New York investment banker (recently appointed to Points...

He’s a New York investment banker (recently appointed to Points Bet .. and he is getting 6% interest!-for a year (or whatever) of parking it there. AEM and Eagle Audio both seem very solid …
Better than a term deposit ?

And as far Toby Chandler being “instrumental” in the deal goes.
I honestly do not believe he was ‘instrumental’ in any way other than
1) taking advice from AEM leaders, Brian Wall and Tony Weller on the benefits of acquiring the audio division of a long term AEM associate,
2) agreeing Stephen Forman would get 6% interest on his short term loan of $US800,00
3) and signing off.

None of the local stories I have read on this mention SMN at all.
But it does seem Brian and Tony know their market and are the ones driving AEM
(https://ca.linkedin.com/in/niota) …. And have had long term plans to expand for years and view SMN as the entity that will pay ..

“The merger puts AEM on excellent financial footing, with more capital at its disposal than ever before.​

“Anything we decide we want to embark on now, or products that we wish to entertain, or different avenues we want to take, the capital investment is available,” said Brian Wall, general manager of AEM. In fact, “AEM is actively looking for like companies to acquire that complement our existing product line,” said Wall… “​

23/08/19 https://www.investkelowna.com/blog/leading-design-aem-corp​

Whatever happens next regards the “explicitly referenced” story of CVM, that notice yesterday also talks of more AEM expansion, ie of
…. “potential further acquisitions that will be considered over the coming quarters”.

It will be interesting to see what transpires?

cheers