At least in the defense business, selling means "I'm Done". Whoever is buying is hoping to get some prefunded R&D - it is damn hard to fund R&D in a traditional

At least in the defense business, selling means "I'm Done". Whoever is buying is hoping to get some prefunded R&D - it is damn hard to fund R&D in a traditional contractor - and whoever's selling is all done developing and is ready to cash out. It's value extraction and destruction, nothing more. There's a dark side, of course. If you're a small contractor, and you deny the offer, you're going to get chased out of the marketplace by not just the guy with the offer, but by all of his friends as well. They've got their corporate office within driving distance of every whorehouse servicing Logan Circle, and you have a research block and maybe an airfield lease. Unless you've been squatting on a personal fortune, in which case maybe you can run some Towncars to the Circles yourself. So if you're ever in the situation, just sell the thing. Yeah, they'll crush any value left in your magic widget, but the whole edifice is effed, and it's not worth trying to fix a house from the bottom of the shitter.