How so?
Looking at the interest, pretty sure they would have got a lot more with an auction ... unless giving up profits for the taking is a "smart move" for some reason I'm not getting.
Maybe, maybe not. You would have to ask Ms. Vranova. Auctions are more complicated, take time and there is a time value to money. There is no auction site that takes payment by bitcoin so Trezor would have to hold an in house auction. They did not choose to do so.
You said it was a "smart move" not to hold an auction ... why do YOU say that?
I say they lost money by not doing so.
You're right, we could probably have squeezed more profit out of this but I consider this a fair deal for everyone + our resources (time, effort) are valuable too.
At this moment, there is only one Metallic left.