I am sure Phase had to pay very little in cash for Leaf's assets(they were the only bidder and Phase has always been a bottom fisher), so this move really amounts to a very cheap, "destroy the competition" move.
Howard,
It was much worse than that.
What Reichmann omitted out of that story, was that the Paulsen guy, and Yair, and those Phase guys were all on a plane to yet another one of those paid four week ski holidays, back in March. The GPS on the plane malfunctioned, and the plane got diverted to the Appalachian Trail for forced landing. But there was no place to land, so they started thowing other passengers off the plane, to lighten the load. The plane finally landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for some unknown reason.
Yair, Paulsen, and those Phase guys went out for drinks, once they landed, and they ended up with some woman named Maria, and they all got hammered. By 3am, they had a poker game going, back at the hotel, and Yair tried to salvage what was left of Leaf by bluffing on a poker hand. The Paulsen guy winked at the Phase guys, and they started upping the ante, and no one would call. At some point, they realized that whoever lost the hand was going to end up owning Leaf, so Paulsen and those Phase guys started bluffing each other, hoping not to end up owning Leaf (and Leaf Capture). Paulsen ended up with four aces, and those Phase guys only had a pair of deuces, so as they say in those books, the Rest is History.
Paulsen slipped a fifty in Yair's back pocket as they were leaving the hotel, because Paulsen knew he had just narrowly escaped a very bad deal...
The two Phase guys woke up in a ditch, the next morning, with that Maria woman, and the Phase guys rubbed their eyes, tried to find their toothbrush, looked at each other, and said, "WTF have we done..?