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This will allow MS to go after the UK government business directly on their own platform. Not sure where this will leave OUT and others going forward. I know who I would rather trust with my data.

Definitely. She wont have been cheap.

No surprise there :)

Thanks for everything PL it has been a blast.

Absolutely agree with the last sentence. Every time I think they are going to run out of cash they manage to raise some more.

Because they don't have any real differentiator and over time others have overtaken them. They started doing CRM, SharePoint and Exchange and MS just took over that market direct. Very few niche players left. The moved on to Lync but got no real traction as most people wont trust Lync for Enterprise voice, they were too early. Now the market is starting to come round MS have Skype for business in O365 and are close to launching voice breakout capability for SMB. Doubt they ever will for Enterprise but not sure Out have the capability or credibility to attract Enterprise customers to any scale. The G Cloud market place is becoming crowded and opulent of other offering similar services to OUT. I would challenge anyone to explain to me the real differentiation OUT have in any market and if of real benefit to customers why haven't they sold any? They have made enough noise and partnered with some serious Partners in the industry and after spending circa £50m the MRR is flats for the first half of the FY at £700k.

Interesting that they exited last FY at £700k of MRR and for the first half of this FY they are at £700k of MRR. What is more worrying though is the revenue for 6 months is £4.1 (which isn't 6 X £700k) but also isn't half of their exit rate annual MMR quoted at £8.4 in the last FY accounts. What I can't my head round is how they have added any new customers without any non recurring revenue. New customers attract consultancy and in 2013 they had 1.1m of non recurring and last FY £300k. I think there are some massaging of the numbers to make sure the business doesn't show a MRR loss. Also good to see the pipeline for large strategies in Vodafone and Virgin is building for the 3rd year in a row. The dragon has publicly said may step back as CEO and stay as an invester to focus on other things. Maybe on his way out he will turn off the lights. My money still on it going private to save the embarrassment and being absorbed by a competitor (now likely UK Fast) for peanuts.

No surprise on the poor numbers...The MRR growth is shocking. The move from UK Fast CEO is an interesting one and wouldn't be surprised if they end up integrating it. IMHO that will depend if they can actually get any real traction on G Cloud. They will need more investment in the platform soon as well.

Looks like the price is righting itself ahead of the results. This will be the first set of results where they will compare growth against same periods last year or previous 6 month period and not have the benefit of quoting wild growth numbers due to the Rise base coming on board.

You may remember my post about Damon Crawford (when appointed sales and marketing director) being from a services background and how he had done practically all the roles at Outsourcery. I thought this was strange at the time and I struggled to see how it would work. Well he is another senior leaver from the original team (Only the Co-Ceo's left) He has joined the original OUT Sales and Marketing director at another MS reseller.

"I may step back from the operational side of things in future, and just be an investor.” About time. Should pursue a career in spin and marketing.

I was right about June being the cut off point when they ran out of cash. Fair play to PL in pulling this off. This will give them another 8 months of working capital and they may be able to stretch it to 12 with reduced outgoings on restructured loans. They need contracts and need them fast as this is mortgaging the future. IF HY growth shows low growth in MRR t5hen this will be back in the toilet. A company of this sort should be showing high double digit growth year on year. Considering the partnerships you have to ask why not.

Let's see what the results bring..

Even if it does they will hardly set the world on fire. They will be lucky to make £1 a user per month GP on Skype for business. Don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out they wont make a fortune doing that. The new customer adds will give them the ability to cross sell other services but as always that is easier said than done. At the start of Out they were well ahead of the curve (too early IMHO) but now they are just one of many offering this and sadly they aren't that good at it.

Half years figures are going to be interesting. I was expecting them to need more cash by now but they cant be far away from needing it. I cant see how they are going to be cash positive in 2015 as previously predicted.

Wow..... Even if that is right. 2 in 4 months!!!! hardly flying.

I am still waiting on this contract news and fantastic June you mentioned.

And then?? no trading update!!!, no contract announcements!! Just an RNS to say they are a runner up for a Microsoft partner award....

??

Starts off well but this doesn't add up!! "Having recently won our first contract via the G-Cloud framework, we are increasingly confident about our prospects within the Public Sector." So are there any other wins? We have heard the pipeline and prospects story before but they didn't turn in to orders. If the best the have is they are a runner up in MS awards then it is worse than we could imagine. Awards don't pay the bills they need ordered....