Mtnview...you can reduce the argument down to one overriding principal. The POET optical interposer is speed agnostic. So yes there have been a number of references leading many to conclude that CISCO is the NA Tier 1. Some of those discussions in the public domain and some not. But think of it this way why wouldn’t CISCO be POET's tier one partner? Everything we know about POET points to a capability that excels at optical integration and high throughput manufacturing. The question becomes why would CISCO not want to retain market share by using the optical interposer? To me it is a given that they were one of the first that Suresh introduced to the optical interposer.

When pressed on the issue of why the NA Tier 1 would not front the production dollars when asked a year ago we were advised that the NA Tier 1 does not supply money directly except for NRE. They do not take a financial position in the companies they deal with but instead have a habit of buying companies with technology they want.

 So my concern would be not that CISCO LR could be a competing technology but that CISCO might want to buy POET for a fraction of what its ultimate value is. Remember the way it used to work for small companies to defend against takeover offers. The so called poison pill. Issue rights to existing shareholders to flood the market with cheap shares to make the takeover difficult. Well at this point POET now has another defense which can be applied in a similar way. The US$300 million shelf prospectus. Whether planned as a defense or not there is that peripheral benefit.