# Not posted

[quote author=billyjoeallen link=topic=178336.msg4943691#msg4943691 date=1391567145]
Recapitalization [of MtGOX] will take only a few million.
[/quote]

Would it?  One of the articles posted here yesterday claims that there are over 30 million US$ worth of BTC that people are trying to withdraw but are "stuck" there; not counting the delayed USD withdrawals.

If that report is correct and it means what I think it means, a takeover that preserves the accounts may cost the buyer more than 100 M US$.

When figuring the value of Mt.GOX, the buyer will subtract the client account balances (all of them, not just the stuck ones) from MtGOX's cash and coin holdings, and from the expected profit in N years of bank interests, transaction fees, etc..  The value of using the "MtGOX" name (as opposed to, say, "Bitstamp-Japan") goes into the estimation of future revenue.  If the result is negative, the takeover will not happen. 

In the classical examples of takeovers of failed companies, that arithmetic must have been positive.  But no one came forward to take over Madoff's business - and honor his clients' account balances.  Enron, Worldcom, OGX, and a zillion other companies with negative net value just closed, and their creditors had to take the loss.

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