Ann: S&P DJI Announces March 2021 Quarterly Rebalance, page-105

All recent posts on the sale process have some plausibility.

The one thing I don't think 4DS want is someone coming in and taking a chunk of shares before they are in a position put their product out to the broader market.

WDC know what is going on, but they can't make a move early for insider trading and anti-trust regulations.
It is also in their interests to keep relatively quite to the market on the 4DS tech so as not to get the share price bubbling along too quickly.

I think 4DS key management will want this taken to the broader market to stimulate competition.
The good doctor and Jim will already be knocking on doors of key players to get in a position where they can open up expressions of interest once they achieve a successful megabit chip

They will need to control this process by releasing metrics to potential suitors under strict NDA's
A quasi auction process could be instituted where suitors need to come back with bids (binding or non binding??) by a certain date following provision of metrics(maybe 1-3months??)

The interesting part here is how 4DS controls the bidding process and ensures that there is no unwanted share activity that could disrupt the process.
To do this they may need to put 4DS shares in a trading halt and then suspension to allow the sales process to run it's course without any other manipulation possibilities

We could then be all sitting quietly on our hands for 1-3 months while this is going on, but at least we will know that we are ultimately going to get the best deal.
The sales bonus pool can then simply be integrated into this process, an ultimate win win for all