The problem was that they did meet the letter of their obligations. The contract was allegedly worded to payout upon a certain revenue threshold. What it should

The problem was that they did meet the letter of their obligations. The contract was allegedly worded to payout upon a certain revenue threshold. What it should have been crafted around, was a certain level of recurring revenue. So they sold a bunch of services, for quite a lot of money and simply never delivered them, delaying them for years. The owner was very prideful and I think could not accept he had been conned, the only way out for him to keep his pride was to sell the business back to them.