Dodging the revolting draft

The bit about the active player choosing which side of the merger pays the Special Dividend could be a doozey. It allows minor shareholders with similar holdings to collude across turn order in order to cause mergers which mutually benefit them but not necessarily the plurality shareholder. Consider:

PlayerX owns a significant plurality of CompanyQ. PlayerY and PlayerZ both own but a single share in CompanyQ. CompanyQ is two single builds away from merging with CompanyR. Both PlayerY and PlayerZ have significant holdings in CompanyR. CompanyR is too far from CompanyQ’s home station to consider the merge that way. So, PlayerY builds one of the links toward CompanyR and PlayerZ builds the second and as predicted by PlayerY, selects CompanyR for the Special Dividend. PlayerX with no investment in CompanyR is of course overjoyed to be shut out of the Special Dividend. PlayerX would have far preferred to build the connection himself and declare CompanyQ for the special dividend but was outflanked by the emergent collusion among PlayerY and PLayerZ.

Other forms of possible insurrection and insurgency by minor share-holders abound. I’m not clear if this is delightful or merely fatal yet. In terms of layering the incentive mesh formed by share-ownership however, this is quite delightful.