I’m unsure I understand your logic. Why would a tier one be any...

I’m unsure I understand your logic. Why would a tier one be any better by buying a controlling or influencing stake at this stage? Nothing is proven yet so that money if spent on share purchases would be at risk. And more critically, that investment does not negate the significantly more amount of money that needs to be spent to either derisk the case for development or to kill that case. So why spend that extra money to purchase shares at this time? From my understanding, tier ones don’t spend money investing in buying out minnows with unproven acreage. They would rather that every cent they spend (in the exploration part of their business) goes on proving and derisking.

Quite aside from all this deconstruction of tier one logic, 88E insiders and a likely friendly Top 20 are unlikely to cede control at a suboptimal price. Why endure the pain of the exploration journey to allow the big fish to eat the bait before its on the hook?