Note to DP: Hire said "consultant" (or experienced attorney) BEFORE you sign a fricking contract manufacturing agreement. #business101
I know many agree that it's safe to say the ARA contract probably has more holes than the PGA. Based on what we know, it's very likely DP never secured the rights to their molds/tooling. It's also very likely they didn't stipulate a fixed price with a set BOM prior to production. We may not know the ins & outs, but a well-structured contract wouldn't have allowed a price increase after production began.
DP knows that if they had a pot to pee in, they would have already filed a lawsuit by now. The fact that they are entertaining a lopsided deal (takeover) shows they have no leg to stand on. If DP had a strong contract, they wouldn't be negotiating or considering this unbalanced offer, nor communicating it to us.
Rookie business move or not, it's in their best interest to make this deal happen.
And don't get me started with ARA. They are jackasses for doing Dutch press interviews promoting their facilities, capabilities, and involvement with TBL (like this one: http://m.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/article/26394612/hollandse-flipperglorie).
I am tempted to reach out to the Directors at NiVoGe and ask them for a status update on my game -- not just via email but on LinkedIn too. Heck, I may do a blog about this entire experience in Dutch and SEO it so that it's first page result every time you Google "ARA" or "NiVoGe" or search for them on LinkedIn.
The younger, less patient me would reach out to the Dutch press outlets that covered ARA's involvement with TBL last year and ask them to follow-up with ARA for an update on progress, # of games produced/shipped, and customer reception/feedback.
They (ARA) should have stayed behind the scenes like any other contract manufacturer. You don't see Foxconn giving factory tours and publicly promoting how they make iPhones. I am not a lawyer, but ARA could easily be included in any legal complaint there in The Netherlands.