My Op-Ed
To push the narrative of a buyout from IBM is short lived that isn't good in the long term. As Cooperman said, high risk, big return. We are not in MONIF for small bucks, but big bucks. Pushing rumors is small bucks aka day trading that walks back as it gets older. If Monitise sold out to IBM it would because they see the writing on the wall, that competition is preventing them from big numbers. Sure IBM would buy a small fry and milk it.
I also think Kass will dump as soon as he breaks even, and he will proclaim victory. He's a jerk and has been short the market as it reaches record highs. In other words, he is on the losing end of the trade and is just small bucks from flipping.
IBM outsources companies IT every day. Even taking on competitors hardware and software. It hires the employees (re-badge) then cuts, cuts, cuts. They will look at each job and see if they can do it cheaper in some third world. The talented employees flee quickly.
Monitise signed a contract with set term over time. I have no idea what the deal is, each deal is different. I'm sure it would indeed benefit Monitise on short term cash costs and save them money long term as they would have had to increase IT costs as they got bigger.
The biggest benefit of this deal is that it tells the big banks that Monitise is currently courting; that they can handle the traffic.
Big Banks know IBM, love them or hate them, they will get it right. As a start-up small business, Monitise has become a big player now.
