Almost all of the shorting/manipulation of NQ is out of Hong Kong (HK).  Atlantis has a huge rep in HK. Atlantis is targeting to get to 5-6M ADR total position size in NQ.

The deal: Atlantis buys 1.5M ADRs from the company (unregistered ADRs…so they are locked-up) for $12M, Atlantis has already bought 1M more ADRs (so far) in the public market and is targeting buying ANOTHER 2.5M – 3.5M ADRs in the open market, NQ is expanding its buyback by $15M (even assuming they buy at an average of $10/ADR…that’s ANOTHER 1.5M ADRs to buy in the open market)…hence the $15M incremental buyback by NQ is done with almost zero cash impact on the balance sheet, Macquerie was attached on this deal as the banker (key point!!), so it is likely to conclude Macquerie could launch sell side coverage of NQ out of HK soon (Macquerie has an excellent Internet analyst in Asia with a very strong rep).

This is the first anchor investor with another 2.5M – 3.5M ADRs to buy, likely gets NQ good sell side coverage out of HK, Atlantis is a halo investor in HK and should attract other HK longs and break the cycle of HK shorts and NQ expanded its buyback by $15M without impacting its cash balance on the b/s.

More news items coming in days/weeks.