I'm going to correct you here, vein.
Here are Lebby's actual words from the shareholder letter: "We are working hard to close additional commercial agreements by year end, but since, these are long deliberate processes, we can't guarantee that we will do so."
The words above imply that he thinks there's a good chance the agreements will close by year end, but he can't guarantee it.
There is no planet in the universe where that sentence can be interpreted as "he never said they would close at year end , he stated the opposite actually." That's just incorrect, vein.
Lebby clearly was trying to imply to shareholders that the deals might close as soon as Dec 31st, otherwise he would have used different words. You know, words like "We are working hard to close deals in Q1 2024" or "We are working hard to close deals in 1H 2024." But he deliberately wanted to paint a rosy picture, so he used the words "by year end" while simultaneously giving himself an out by saying he couldn't guarantee it.