NeilP/1jk1,
I only have 2 posts after this, so let me address your posts collectively...as always, this is all JMO:
Neil: Yes, I fully realize that there could be a hidden agenda and that the message Iain delivered on the subject of a sale of neom, while direct and to the point, was not detailed, and there could be more to that story.
That silly Annual Report along with a sustained lack of press, has been serving as a healthy driver of my suspicions. The primary focus of the CEO of a public company is typically to drive shareholder value, yet we see so little in the way of PRs. Even NDA agreements could be honored while making generic announcements. Therefore, I often feel there is an agenda to keep the pps suppressed for the time being until a sale can be consummated. Were any news to leak it could send the pps substantially higher artificially and impede the transaction.
The silence has been deafening for several years and as I posted up front it has been my belief that what has been happening over these last years has been preordained. IMO it simply makes sense based upon the sudden and prolonged silence combined with other factors.
...And then my alter ego kicks in and I weigh the opposing arguments.
Bottom line, we have to wait and see. Ultimately, should a sale not occur now, fret not, it will happen. The purpose of any VC is to nurture and then sell. YA has been building it...they will come ;)
1jk1: your turn. Place a dollar in the till (I no longer take nickels). You asked whether Scanbuy would have a chance up against neustar/neo (in terms of the clearinghouse). While anything is possible I am of the opinion that scenario is not likely for the reasons I specified in my earlier post. Neom has developed infrastructure, including necessary "hardware," and IMO is best positioned to tie together the ecosystem in a seamless fashion, not to mention the expertise they demonstrated through building MC2 and working with the standards bodies themselves.
Neom's solution is built from the ground up around a necessary piece of hardware designed to ensure all facets of the solution work as specified and in a quality fashion. Ask yourself what would happen if the standards bodies supported multiple clearinghouses and something failed...
Anyone who has worked in a systems environment will understand and begin to sweat bullets when you refer to the finger pointing that takes place between companies when something goes amiss. If this system fails in any capacity the entire business model is at stake. Would you risk it? It is likely to be easier to manage a fully integrated system built by one company than it is to manage individual components from a number of companies that now require their platforms to talk to each other. I tend to feel the standards bodies will prefer one system.
Hope this helps, however, the future remains to be seen.
Best,
BC
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
