The debate is whether the market cap of this company increases quicker as a $1 stock on the venture or as a $10 NASDAQ stock. Many have voiced their opinion that a reverse split is a bad thing and will cause the share price to go down. At this point in time that has proven to be false as POET has moved up into multi year highs since the Special Meeting was announced on Jan 12 (the SP closed at .83 the day before that announcement). So the stock continues to go up (even after the current financing was announced) because POET has declared that the time is right for a NASDAQ listing. The stock continues to go up because new investors and a growing number of existing shareholders recognize the merits of going to the NASDAQ at a price that will allow large fund managers to buy and hold. The kind of investors/funds that buy the mega trends and have a certain price threshold that has to be met. They do massive amounts of due diligence to determine the value of an investment. The kind of due diligence that is sourced from reports like the Global  Photonics Integrated Circuit Market Research Report 2020 -2024 where POET shows up as one of 5 major players.

http://www.gosreports.com/global-photonic-integrated-circuit-market-research-report-2020-2024/

And then there are the major customers who want to get the show on the road and accelerate the deployment of POET’s platform.   

Suresh has commented recently on the need to get a NASDAQ listing at a share price that significant investors that have never been able to buy POET to invest for the first time. These are the type of investors that do not day trade venture stocks like we have been used to. Time to move up to a new level where this stock can really cause a stir on the high tech market investment community.  

I also see POET making acquisitions in the future that will both grow the head count and enable new applications like AI. Applications that require the kind of massively parallel optical connectivity that the POET optical interposer can provide.

The company has done a good job in providing the rational for the uplisting  and I  think we will continue to  see positive developments related to this effort both in short term and long term. Fingers crossed that the financing can close ahead of the Empire Club event.