anchor: As for Liggett's motive, industry and financial analysts speculated that Liggett's CEO hoped to make the marginally profitable company a more attractive merger partner by eliminating its exposure to possibly huge jury awards.
positive: If Liggett could reduce its exposure to damages, then Liggett would be more likely to merge.
negative: Liggett took a rain check on the merger because its profits were up and exposure to jury awards was non-existent.