Wave's HP Senior Sales Staff means what?
OK. We all know that Wave has hired more senior sales staff to cover
the Hewlett Packard account than staff handling the DELL account.
Some here have opined that this means nothing yet and could even
support the notion that there won't be a bundling agreement because
such an agreement would not necessitate a big staff. I say Hogwash!
Indeed, I believe that an 'unbundled agreement' with HP would mean
that no HP centric sales staff could be rationalized. Under a 'no bundle'
agreement Wave would simply use sales personnel on a 'need to staff ' basis
for those projects that pop up between the two enterprises. There would
be no incentive to hire specific HP oriented sales personnel under any agreement
that would not revolve around some type of bundling arrangement.
Besides the fact that SKS has said publicly that he thinks a HP agreement similar
to DELL would be forthcoming soon, the best evidence that this is indeed the
case is the fact that Wave has hired a number of SENIOR sales staff to handle
the business activities. The locations of these sales staff is also interesting. People
here ought to check out where these people are geographically located and ask
themselves why.
Finally, there is alot of incentive for HP to hire Wave Systems. Every quarter DELL makes
bigger and bigger strides in the enterprise market vis-a-vis the security issue. We
are at the cusp of the Feds endorsing the TPM centric model on may levels. Wave
has been very consistent in terms of remaining agnostic and telling vendors that it will
help everyone without preconditions in terms of what its technology can provide
within the TCG market. It needs and wants to remain a universal player and continues
to emphasize its interoperability and its ease of use.
if and when (and I emphasize WHEN over if) the agreement comes to light, then Wave
will have achieved a significant milestone in crossing the chasm. The clarity in terms of
revenue and earnings sustainability will have increased exponentially. And, although the
share price will move up considerably, the risk/reward balance would have tilted
considerably to the reward side and thereby rationalizing continued stock buy pressure.
The staff clue is key. I firmly believe that Wave would NOT have hired such a staffing unless
the arrangement is a fait d'accompli. of course, this is just my opinion.
p&f
AI
