"In our case, it is my belief that the management felt the need to request an halt as they deemed the importance of the announcement.
The lenght of the halt was discussed with IIROC and I sure hope that it is POET that requested a lengthy halt."
Lookingintoit, I don't agree with what you wrote. The halt was almost certainly due to the discovery by POET of a leak of news/potential news. If you have news and it's ready to go, you release it, doesn't matter how important it is. Could there have been a draft of the NR being circulated among appropriate parties by the time of the halt - sure. But my guess remains that the news wasn't quite ready to be released yet, and probably cuz the subject of the news had not quite been finalized.
It would be beyond wonderful if the deal is done and it's FB and FB is going to say something in their quarterly call about the new and exciting tech they just associated with, but I don't believe the authorities would have viewed that as a reason for a prolonged halt (unless, of course, they got an opportunity to buy just before the halt ;)). They would have said "you have material news, it's apparently leaked out, we'll grant you the halt, but get your NR out after close of market and resume trading on Tuesday morning."
Regulators do not like to halt trading in securities, it defeats a huge part of the reason we have public markets. And to halt for this long, wow, no way, IMO. I believe both Poet and the regulators are convinced that a whole lotta buying would happen as soon as the halt is lifted without a news release of something market moving. So, my conclusion remains, they will issue the NR as soon as the subject of same is set in stone.
Hey, if it's "coincidentally" at the time of FB's earnings call, well, all the better.
