I feel for the Dragon founders, but with $580 million of L&H stock at one point, they also could have and should have done some prompt and serious hedging/collaring. Perhaps they did, but not nearly enough?
Statements in the article like "Dragon was wondering why L.& H.’s share price had been gyrating wildly" made me think L&H must have been public. (Before the recent emergence of pre-IPO secondary markets, a private company wouldn't even be commonly described as having a generally-known 'share price' unless/until it went public.)
Wikipedia confirms L&H had gone public on NASDAQ in 1995:
If I am reading the story correctly it was.
"And Mr. Elliott assured Ms. Baker that investors were worried about the market in general, rather than L.& H. in particular"
