I remember two or three other times in my career where a "company" like MZEI created a new mousetrap; did all the R&D; did all the grunt work; APPLIED for all the patents; came right to the brink of retail rollout, then ALL OF A SUDDEN, a "big dog" showed up on their doorstep - a "big dog" who had silently learned of, been following, and been doing their OWN D and D about "the company" for many months - just waiting for "the company" to "prove the efficacy" of said product/market/mousetrap...as well as perfecting the same, and then at the last moment the "big dog" swooped in and made a deal to aquire "the company" in its entirety, and ALSO at the same time, signing "the company" to a contract of "continual support and advanced R&D" for so many years with "the right to extend" that agreement as well. Thereby, the original innovator ("the company") never even marketed their product (much less retail it). In fact, I only remember NO PR and ONLY one or two articles ever being written about "the company" and their "proposed" new mousetrap before I read an article announcing that they had been acquired. The mousetrap took about 3 years to develop; they had shared their idea with the world only for about the last 20% of the development period - but long after they had already applied for multiple patents; they even had announced that within 6 months their mousetrap would be ready for sale. Then a few weeks went by without ANY news, then one day everyone read that a "big dog" had acquired "the company" in it's entirety AND that they intended to LICENSE THE MOUSETRAP AND TECHNOLOGY TO ALL THEIR COMPETITORS! Needly to say, just the licensing agreements more than paid for the acquisition while at the same time improving "big dogs'" OWN internal interests by as much as 50%.
Can you relate this fact to the MZEI story? I sure can!
