you have no clue if Sather wasn't north of 3 per until today.
He could have come in at 2.7 and Step could have been at 3.7 and while yes, Sather is going to win these things each time out, getting this done at 3.075 probably means that Sather didn't cross 3 per until today.
No matter how you look at this, Stepan was going to lose. The leverage and options made that a well known thing.
It's a case of how much loss did Stepan holding out mitigate?
If Sather was at 2.95 until today, Stepan got himself an extra 250k.
Another thing that we didn't know and I haven't read all the posts just yet so I still do not know.
What does the structure of the deal look like as that is every bit as important to these players as is the AAV.
If Stepan is at 2.5 this year, then his QO after next season is 3.65
That's huge should he stagnate developementally.
What looks like a loss, may just look that way.