If you look at Robert Smyth's LinkedIn it seems that Blue Reef...

If you look at Robert Smyth's LinkedIn it seems that Blue Reef began as "BRT" in 2002. It says BRT was then merged with Network Box in 2009.

Looking at Keith Glennan's LinkedIn it seems that Network Box itself began in Australia in 2002, and appears to have been founded by Glennan.

Subsequently it seems that Glennan sold out his share of Network Box. It's unclear after that with the formation of Tesserent in July 2012 which of the existing Network Box shareholders became shareholders in Tesserent.

In the prospectus it says Glennan obtained control of Tesserent in December 2012 and became MD.

It's hard to tell exactly what went on but I would guess that there may have been differences in opinion on the strategic direction of Network Box/Blue Reef e.g. what markets to target, and how they should pursue further growth.

You could argue the related-party nature of this acquisition both ways. Maybe he's looking after his mates. But Glennan is also a major shareholder in TNT and giving away $1m in cash plus a bunch of scrip/options isn't exactly great for himself unless Blue Reef does genuinely contribute value to TNT. Then being familiar with Blue Reef should be seen as a positive thing.

A bit of Googling turns up generally positive reviews of Blue Reef. In fact, the reviews I've read seem so positive that I'm almost wondering if they are paid shills! But I don't think they're that dodgy.

https://community.spiceworks.com/reviews/49779-bluereef-sonar-blue-reef

It's also encouraging that when you Google for "blue reef" the search suggestions are fishing charters, followed by "blue reef bypass" at #3. That suggests to me that Sonar is widely deployed and effective enough that many of the school kids are trying to bypass it.

Also, I attended the Wholesale Investor conference in Sydney on Friday where Keith gave a short presentation on Tesserent. Unfortunately Keith left the conference shortly after so I didn't get a chance to speak to him but his rapid departure was understandable as they had announced the Blue Reef acquisition just 90 minutes before the conference began.

He seemed genuinely upbeat on the channel partner strategy and seems like a natural salesman so that's a positive... but maybe I'm being totally duped.

As an example, in explaining the concept and benefits of Managed Security to the largely non-technical audience (mix of HNWs and "professional investors") he gave the example of banks and physical security. That is, although physical security is a critical aspect to their business banks make their money by doing banking, not by focusing on physical security. Hence they outsource that part of their business to companies like Brambles, and similarly for SMEs IT security is important but they should spend their efforts on their core business and outsource IT security to MSPs like Tesserent.

He also mentioned that although they have some big brand clients the biggest market is actually the "mid-market". The big brands lend Tesserent credibility making it easier to sell into SMEs.

I do agree that the market is massive and if they can get some traction with resellers we could see some serious growth. Hence I'll just leave my holding as is and wait a few years (I went in at IPO so I am currently in the red some 20%).