Mr Gustafson said "I'm thinking about it', might mean he's thinking about the time to air Punch, while you thought he meant he'll think about if he'll air Punch or not. You even said that "it sounds like the Punch deal will be the reason to make the move", if so, then the Punch deal is a done deal, the only undeciding factor is the time, which the PR didn't say a specific date, just states a plan. I think the whole thing might just be misunderstanding.

I think Steve got mad because you said that he got ahead of himself which he didn't. I think it's ok to call the affiliate to verify the PRs, but also, keep in mind that, you are speaking to the employee of the affiliate companies, they might not know the details of the deal between ICPA and their company, which means the information you get from these employees can't be guaranteed 100% correct. Steve, as the ceo of the public trading company, is responsable for what he said publically, but the employee who you talked to is not responsable for what he told you. So the information you got could turn out to be not accurate.