Good afternoon gents.
Thanks for your feedback. Let me just say that I only call them as I see them. Let me explain further:
Put yourself in MSFT's shoes right now. They need help with NGSCB and they know somebody that has all the answers now. Surely, the NGSCB program managers are familiar with Wave and are aware of the relationship currently ongoing between MSFT and Wave. So it boils down to whether they want the answers now or do they want to spend an incredible amount of time and energy trying to figure it out on their own. I'm sure they are aware of how long it took Wave. Bring into the picture the article posted earlier about how MSFT invests in start-ups and consider that Wave really still is a start-up and the amount of cash we need is not of the typical joint venture magnitude. We have been around for awhile, but we still are considered a development company; therefore, we fit their investment model as well. Internally at MSFT, I would say we have the engineers on our side first and the financial officers second if they were to be approached with the idea. The last component is upper management, namely Billy.
With the announcement about the security short-fall within NGSCB and the current demand for security in the marketplace, I believe it has placed MSFT between a rock and a hard place. Billy knows this. You have a large, visible organization like TCG with huge companies involved touting the security flag and the IT community screaming that they need better security now, not 2 or 3 years from now. And it gets even better. These IT folks have been exposed to something they never heard of before, namely hardware and software based security. Before, they thought that software could handle all security issues until hackers and virus creators shattered their world. The members of TCG (Intel taking the lead) and even MSFT themselves said that the best way that you are going to get security is to have a seperate piece of hardware encrypting everything and controlling access. Now, these IT people are convinced that this type of security system is what they need and they are looking for more information about an available system today, but MSFT tells them that they'll have to wait. I don't see them as being too happy about that after all the hoopla and asking questions like: "Is there a company out there that can do this now." I believe MSFT realizes this and they just cannot sit on their hands and wait for their engineers to come up with the solution when those guys are saying: "Everything is all up in the air now." It would be foolish for them to get pushed out of the entire hardware & software security system market by a little up-start like Wave. They are not that dumb. They want a piece of this pie and Billy will negotiate with Wave and begin a joint venture.
I'm calling them as I see them.
Paul
