In the department of ‘How is that for irony?’, word is that Dexit, the company that promised a cashless society, is continuing to have a tough time managing its own cash.
In a press release on Thursday, Dexit announced it cut its staff from 55 down to 30 and it has scaled back the number of locations that will accept the card. According to John McBride, the company Chairman and interim CEO,
The Company launched the Dexit Service in September 2003 and has now successfully proven the reliability and scalability of the technology.
Huh? I have two Dexit chips that I received as demonstration units and both have all the money still loaded on them. I never found a location that accepted Dexit, so I don’t know how there can be any evidence of scalability. I suspect that Esso, Shell and Mobil have better proof of RFID technology scalability.
Most importantly, almost all of Dexit’s revenues have been derived from an exclusive licensing agreement the company enjoyed with Bell. That agreement expired and it has not yet been renewed. Despite ‘good faith’ efforts to negotiate a new arrangement, Dexit has already indicated that it will get no licensing revenues for the quarter that just ended June 30.
I didn’t see any evidence of success in marketing, success in getting users or vendors to adopt the technology or shift away from reaching into their pockets for change. The company might have been better off with a strategic partnership with a gasoline company to leverage their existing base of RFID users.
I can think of a bunch of relationships that would have been more fruitful.