but couldn't get it together in time for the direct sale.

Recently, I was involved in a purchase from a public company. There was a company that had an exclusive right to purchase some assets for a period of time. A brokerage firm then told the company selling that they should let that right expire and put it out for bids. There is apparently a lot of scrutiny of these sales by stockholder groups to ensure maximum value for the assets. The directors are being held personally accountable by the stockholder groups and can be sued if they don't get bids. When I saw the sale fall through, I wondered if that might have been behind it.