The future partner has the financial means to expand the DL operation. POET did not. POETs focus is to license the active InP device chips that have been developed by POET to the new buyer and have supply and co-operation agreements in place. POET does not want to be in the fab business they want to design and develop OI based optical engines. And just to be clear they will need much greater capacity than DL could ever provide as they build optical engines which combine multiple lasers for high data transfer rates connected to the ASIC. Recall Suresh last year talking about 4, 8 and even 16 lasers being combined onto the OI platform for a large customer. That will require supply agreements with global laser suppliers.
The only part that they expect to own is the assembly, test and distribution. I believe they are planning/preparing for a major production ramp that involves multiple entities.