It does work even without operational synergies, because both...

It does work even without operational synergies, because both companies will grow in the future, a company worth 1bil now and a company worth 700mil now would be worth what in 5 years time? Now if you try and merge or acquire them at a later point and time, how much more would it cost? Basically merging now is a hedge, and most likely a good one since both companies will be profitable and becoming bigger in the foreseeable future. I'm not sure that SLR becoming an acquirer actually means more value for SLR at all, I mean why spend everything you have and go into debt for the foreseeable future to acquire Red?

I'm not sure if this is correct but lets say you have a 1bil company you merge a 700mil company you then have 1.7bil company yes? If you get the 1bil company to acquire the 700mil company at lets say 700 mil, then you are left with a 1bil company in the end since you had to spend 700mil to acquire the 700mil company and are left with 300mil + the purchase of a 700mil company. In the end instead of being worth 1.7bil through the merger you stay as a 1bil company or if you had to go into debt to purchase it you are now a 1bil company with 700mil in debt.

Not sure on your point about LT blocking GMD, honestly I haven't really looked at GMD but from a quick technical analysis it looked like garbage not sure how they will acquire anything literally the charts look like a pump and dump they barely even generate profits. Went from some penny stock speccy at 20 cents to up 700%+ to $1.5 like not sure what's happening there since they literally generate less profits than SLR or Red and have what a 2bil MC compared to 1.3b and 1.5b MC's with what double the profits of GMD? Why is GMD even a contender for acquiring Red? or are they merging with Red? in which case have fun with that lmao that definitely on the surface looks like it'll end up in the red for GMD and Red lmao