OK, Steve, I'm ready to venture a guess. This will be a surprise entry into the stakes, not the ISP/portal or the infrastructure players. In a stunning reversal Microsoft will be an iTrust partner. (They can be considered somewhat of a portal but if they get in it will be more because of their new web initiative, I forget the name.)
To put $2-$4 million into a venture like this is a no-brainer. You can see the venture money going into the other biometric companies without Identix' track record. The question is - does Identix want Microsoft to own a chunk of shares? It could be a double-edged sword, although there is a measure of safety in the other companies having chunks also.
I will make a second guess, for half bragging rights, and say Ebay. That is more in line with your guess, and it would actually be nice to see Ebay and Checkfree link up to enable money transfers between individuals at a click. Ebay is using someone else's solution now.
The ISP/portal will probably be one of the biggies - AOL, Earthlink, Excite@home, PSInet, Exodus (who two other biometric companies have claimed already, ESAF and eTrue). Infrastructure could be Cisco, Redback, Juniper, Ciena (routers and optical networkers) or maybe wireless infrastructure like Verizon or Sprint PCS. A lot of these companies are trying to build out and may not have the bucks to spare.
Just food for thought.
Regards,
Stockman17 |
