The ad, placed by International Drillquip (IDQ) and addressed to persons dealing with International Drillquip and SDS Corporation, refuted the contents of an ASX release issued by SDS Corporation on 18th October.

IDQ also said it has served a demand notice on SDS for non-payment of ordinary trade debts. SDS said today it would be commencing defamation proceedings against IDQ over the contents of the ad.

In the ad IDQ said SDS was successful in only four of the 12 points it raised in the Supreme Court action. However one of the points in which SDS was successful was in preventing DrillQuip chief Ted Rear and his private company Pasdonnay making any corporate plays with the business or putting any encumbrances over the business.

Rear previously said that the proposed sale was dead in the water after IDQ terminated the agreement, and hence would be contesting the prohibitory injunction regarding the future of the IDQ business.

SDS disputes the deal is dead, according to SDS company secretary Kevin Benson.

"One of the successful items of our injunction was concerning the entitlement to terminate. He has attempted to serve notice on us but we dispute this.

"We will be sending a salvo across his bows and will be seeking damages.

"It was an amicable deal at one stage but they got excited after we did the due diligence. Some of the business wasn't there and the deal was done on the NTA's and I think they could see their sale price eroding," said Benson.

Rear was unavailable for comment.