So, over the last few weeks (and while I've been away and not blogging), the vile company Phorm - formerly spyware merchants 121media - have been in the news. In rough chronological order:

• They raised £15 million in some share deal or other
• They began talking of (and, I think began) trials of their vile DPI system in South Korea
• They pre-empted their financial results with the announcement of a desktop implementation of their behavioral advert targeting (strangely undescriptive)
• Financial results were released, revealing no income over the year, but expenditure of $50 million

The question in my mind is, how long can a company with a poor reputation (due to their previous activities), with an intrusive and possibly illegal technology, which has no ISP partners signed up (even after three trials - one open, the other two secret) keep going?

See also:

Wikileaks: UK firm Astaire Securities pushes Phorm-Webwise, 15 Jun 2009:

The controversal company Phorm, which runs the behavioral profiling, interception and advertising injection system "Webwise" is currently trying to sell shares. Astaire Securities, a UK brokerage, has been touting the stock to investors with this private BUY coverage.

Some suspect that Phorm is duping investors with misleading statements to the market, such as "We believe that Phorm's technology sets a new standard for consumer protection, a view endorsed by the UK's Home Office, the Prime Minister's Office and the Office of the Information Commissioner."

Astaire's recommendation of Phorm seems to me to consist of a considerable amount of wishful thinking, coupled with an energetically upbeat spin of some pretty poor news regarding the legality of Webwise.  Hohum - business as usual, I guess.