A buyout may or may not be out of the question this early. Yes, it's true they are not live yet and probably don't have a lot of people signed up yep. And yes, the patent being granted is not guaranteed. But on the flip side, the purchase price is going to go up dramatically once this is up and fully running with the IP protection in place. Also, if a cautious buyer waits too long, he risks losing out to a more aggressive buyer. The next few months are going to be fun with all the possibilities here.
There's one more thing to consider -- there's the possibility of a buyer choosing to take a partial stake early on just to get a piece of the action. If he likes what he sees, he could grab the rest later on.