PearTree,"Therefore, placing Metal Storm into administration so...

PearTree,

"Therefore, placing Metal Storm into administration so rapidly after the Luxinvest/Asof deal collapses makes no sense unless it can be used to punish Luxinvest for failure to honor the deal."

Might be chasing shaddows with that statement PearTree. Fact is that MST was about to run out of cash and its last ditch attempt to raise more fell over. When a company faces greater financial obligations than it has cash / and or income, its management have a legal obligation to make the appropriate declarations about solvancy. Its illegal to trade while insolvant.

While the promise of cash from the placement was there they had a case to claim that the obligations could be met. When the cash failed to materialise and nobody else was willing to put their hand in their pocket and donate to keep the doors open, they had little if any choices left. The description of voluntarily administration infers they had a choice but in reality they didn't. Its just that management appointed an administrator rather than a creditor doing it for them.

The timing of the company going into administration is no mystery. The timing of the Colt announcement only days before hand however is. In fact at this point in time we don't actually know what MST management agreed to in that contract with Colt. The vague description of "Metal Storm will be providing engineering services related to Electronic Ballistics Technology (EBT) for non-lethal capabilities" could mean anything.

Did MST sign a contract in the days before it went into administration which effectively handed over critical IP to Colt while management still had the ability to do so? Did Colt effectively secure the contractual rights to use MST IP in the days before MST collapsed?

What specifically was the basis of the agreement? What information was handed over? Why enter such an agreement when you are about to go into administration? Did the contract contain any penalty arrangements thus making Colt a secured creditor to MST should MST fail to deliver certain services?

Did Luxinfect fail to complete because the IP had been handed over to Colt? Did MST management already know that the transaction was unikely to complete or did they figure out who owned the trojan horse and simply run around securing the valuables from the attack?

Who the hell knows what they were up to but something smells off? All of the above is speculation and opinion only but sometimes coincidences are just too big to ignore and when you look deeper into them you find that there are no coincidences.