sport
>>>I'm not sure that you can define value by looking at market prices for the units.
For instance, what if they would have announced this when MWE was trading at $10 6 months ago?<<<

The price you pay for an asset, is the value placed on that asset by the seller. That seller might be underpricing or over pricing the asset because the buyer is buying what he believes is the future value of that same asset and obviously believes it is worth more going forward than the current market price that he just paid.
>>>I wish they didn't have to give up more of the future potential because of tight capital to lower their share to 51%.<<<
Mr Semple knows what is in the MWE piggy bank. And he also knows what the Marcellus Infrastructure is going to cost in the near term. IMHO it is better to take in "Money Partners" to stay in the game and keep growing than to choke on a big piece of meat, instead of cutting it up into smaller bite size pieces that can be more easily digested one at a time. Remember their customers are watching MWE and will not jeopordize their own positions if MWE gets into trouble.
We have to think MORE LONG TERM THEN WE ARE DOING NOW.
The State of Pennsylvania believes that it will take about 50 years to build the Infrastructure for the Marcellus. They have decided to NOT TAX the Nat Gas Industry at this time. They want the Nat Gas Industry to grow and thrive. Gov Rendell wants those $60K-$70K-$80K jobs plus the blue collar jobs. The schools are overcrowded. People are readying themselves for the future. Gov Rendrll wants Nat Gas for the Fed and State Govt cars and the jobs to build the stations to oprovide the gas.

MWE will need a lot more partners with a lot more money in the future to get there from here.

>>>In other words what is this extra 9% worth over a long time period?<<<

Maybe if we looked at it as a necessary event to get us to the "long time period" in the future.

There are basically two types of people.

1)The ones that envision the future
2)The ones with the money

They need each other and in fact can't get along without one another. So I don't believe it is "giving up 9%" of the pie. I believe it is keeping 51% of a much larger pie going forward, without choking today.
Nine months ago, everyone thought MWE was choking to death and the unit price was driven down into the $6 range. I don't think Mr Semple or anyone here wants to go through that again.
Patience
run