Connectz... Wow, this sure struck a nerve with you, huh? Why did this partnership touch such a nerve with you? I am curious who you are but I guess it does not really matter. Your points are not stupid, by any means, but do seem quite targeted and inflammatory. Let me see if I can help you to understand......
First, the reason that this deal is in place is two fold. One, NatNet is making a major push into the mainstream world where our Sales Reps are required to carry a "tool box". This means that most customers want a one-stop shop for their hosting, credit card processing, shopping cart software, affiliate management, etc. They want it all to integrate with no issues. I have always felt that if I were going to put the NatNet name onto anything I wanted to have at least some control over the day to day operations. With our new company, Executive Stats, Inc, we will be based here in Atlanta and our programmers are here in Atlanta. We have had the staffing in place for this venture for months. We may out-source some mundane tasks like adding sites to the program or small tasks like that, but the programming is being done by a team that was hired to do just that from my office in Atlanta, Georgia.
Second, as for Brad and SIC, he said above that he always felt that ES could be much bigger than it has been if there were more tools available and that is what he liked about hooking it up with NatNet.
I am going to assume that you are really a good guy and just expressing your opinion without having all of the facts. Maybe now you will see that this is not anything like what you thought. If not, however, and you are interested in talking to me further feel free to call me anytime. My phone number is on every single page on
http://www.nationalnet.com and I will make myself available to you anytime to answer your questions. I think you will find that this was a good decision for both parties.
Hope this helps.
--T