R & D takes a long time. I think they missed the mark with the 100G stuff, not enough of an improvement to make a big splash.

I picture Suresh missing in his swings at bat, multiple times due to various delays and shifts. Now we have a screaming need for speed, bandwidth improvement, energy and heat efficiency. 

The Luxshare, Foxconn's FIT, and others have made there choice to work with POET. We heard there is a 15-month lead time on selling into data centers. So it still may be a while, but the SP is forward-looking once things are clear. 

A large order from a known player or some other event like this that nails it down will give some numbers to crunch. The messaging needs to shift gears from "we're working with XYZ" to "XYZ ordered $50M " in modules or other optics with POET's chips; this will move the needle.

The past is irrelevant, though painful.