xG, What are you doing!??

James Enck posts about xG Technology doing an IPO to raise $30m.

I find this a little absurd. Why would a company that claims it is sitting on the most revolutionary new wireless technology, that it claims will allow any corner shop to set up a network capable of supporting broadband speeds at huge range and consuming low power, go to the market at this early stage in order to get a paltry $30m??

Well, perhaps there are reasons, let's speculate:
- None of the VCs were prepared to put up money for a only tiny piece of the company (James post says the valuation is $650-700m, so $30m is just over 5%)
- None of the VCs were prepared to put up money without doing a lot of due dilingence.
- They just didn't like any of the VCs.
- An IPO is in keeping with a populist approach, in line with their grassroots approach to rolling out a network.
- The VCs thought the price was too high (it's more than Pipex in the UK, which has > 1 million customers. disclosure: I have shares in Pipex)
- Joe Bobier wants a Porsche 911 for Christmas!

xG Technology are taking a big risk with this, but if it works, it will give them capital without losing much of the company. xG Technology could go on to build a network of small 'operators' providing VoIP and broadband access for a fraction of the cost of the big operators. Alternatively, it could be the next step in one of the biggest scams in history.

I'd love to believe the former, but I'm a kind of cynical romantic (I never did get the haircut! - 80's joke)

It's only 12 weeks until Christmas, so start saving your pennies; xG is probably worth a punt, even at these prices & with an uneasy feeling that it might all be hyperbole.
If the technology works, then the rest will follow. Susan Crawford had an interesting post about listening to a 19-year old developer talking about the future of networks. I believe the guy; ad-hoc networks will be born and die, forming galaxies, spawning other networks...and frustrating governments and attempts to regulate them. xMax (as described) provides a better platform to support that vision than anything else around today.

I'm cynically optimistic about the future (it avoids disappointment!)