It is not clear to me why the board would be concerned to get a...

It is not clear to me why the board would be concerned to get a deal done before the options expire.

Presumably, the SP will go well over the option exercise price in the event of a reasonable deal. So wouldn't it be better for shareholders for the company to raise funds, if still needed (there may be an up-front payment that takes care of the cash position), following a large rise in the share price, rather than getting the options converted at a lower price? The duty of the board is to act in the best interests of the company, which is pretty well-established to mean the interests of the shareholders as a body. Option holders are not shareholders; they are, as the name implies, people who have the option to become shareholders at a particular price. The actual shareholders would suffer less dilution for any particular sum of capital raised at, say, 15c less a 20 per cent discount (ie 12c), than by getting those funds from the conversion of options. If the timing were finely balanced, I can imagine the board actually seeing it as its duty to shareholders to delay finalisation of a deal until the options had expired.

So what am I missing? Where does this view about the company wanting to get a deal announced in time to get the options into the money and converted come from?