The startup is, after all, promoting its ties to the larger entity. And lastly, for the trade press, the so-called deals provide content they sorely need. Unseasoned reporters and editors on a tight deadline might be inclined to publish a news brief about a company bearing the Microsoft imprimatur over one disclosing a real deal with an actual, yet unknown, customer in Dubuque, Iowa. Another company recently told fellow Internet executives that it had more alliances than customers. And it had around 100 customers.
Bigger names do that as well.
It's a game that many companies try to play. They're looking for brand names that will help them through the next presentation, through the next approval process. They were a very conservative company. They didn't want to cheapen the brand name, or get involved with unscrupulous characters. So the deal had to have a real business purpose.