Oz the IBM presentation is quite a reveal.  

SV once said that competition demonstrates that you working in the right area.  I cannot detect any direct POET OI reference in the literature but that does not necessarily rule it out.  

Personally I feel it would be very foolish to imagine that the POET would not have competition when the market it is entering amounts to an industrial revolution in datacentres and optical telecommunications. There is a huge opportunity out there for POET products and POET as confirmed by the deal with SANAN where it has gained itself a large bite at a vast Asian based market that is not going to suddenly convert to IBMenism much as a result of the current socioeconomic and international political climate.

When operating at the speed of light, the differentiation between particular companies optical products it is not speed but will come down to costs and reliability principally.  What would imagine would be the IBM development costs compared to POETs which we already know?  It will be difficult for other companies to pitch its cost as low as POET, which give a very competitive  element to the POET offer.

Rather than stir up unnecessary anxieties about competition, let's recognise that we were never ever going to be able to have the whole cake.  Focus and recognise the fantastic opportunity the POET OI offers globally, particularly at this point with the fantastic endorsement of the JV with Sanan. Awareness is growing and clearly management recognise the need to upgrade their commercial profile.  To me it seems quite amazing how we have been able to compete at all but that is the principle advantage of start ups in not being constrained by the disadvantages of the complications of large enterprises.

fear nought

Sula