"Why would he go through all this just to take back what was...

"Why would he go through all this just to take back what was his"

And he effectively still does own it in full since what are the 2 scenarios that can play out, they either don't take reasonable steps to comercialise or become insolvent and thus the only asset having any value reverts back to talico for essentialy no consideration.

Alternately they commercialize and NF will get issued 1 billion in performance shares. He effectively has just created a binding agreement which allows him to realise a huge amount of value for his IP if its successful with little to no downside if it doesn't. 

Maybe I've misunderstood the announcement but thats how i interpret/read it. 

Cheers,
J