Long-Time MSP Client Cancels Scans to Book via Matterport Capture Services11608

Originally Posted by @immersivespaces
Here's something to consider after my short talk with my attorney today... Matterport says they are working with "enterprise clients," however, when we are talking about brokerages like Engel & Völkers, we are talking about independent franchise owners operating under the Engel & Völkers name. The franchise stipulates that they follow guidelines set forth by Engel & Völkers corporate, including authorized service providers. (This is the same for every major brokerage house.) Matterport has approached the franchisor and offered prices that are almost half of the local going rates in our area, effectively undercutting every MSP who doesn't want to be part of their program within 50 miles by 40-60%. Nearly every one of our brokerage clients are independent franchise owners of national brokerage chains that fall under the Matterport "enterprise client" classification. If Matterport makes agreements with any of them, they have no choice but to book with Matterport directly, even if the local brokerage owner or agents don't want to. The franchise contract supersedes any arrangements I may have with the local broker.

What we are looking at now are two things... First, the Business Opportunity Act angle at the State level, which I haven't fleshed out yet but will when I talk to the State Attorney next week. And next, a broader Federal price-fixing case with the Federal Trade Commission, which could ultimately lead to a larger class-action suit. There could be a case for saying the Matterport sought to collude with MSPs in their new program to price independent providers out of the market intentionally by agreeing with those MSPs to fix prices at a rate substantially below the average retail cost of a product or service provided in an area while charging independent MSPs higher fees (i.e., processing and hosting) making it impossible to compete. That suit would likely be brought against Matterport as well as any MSPs who agreed to participate in the program since they knew the rates were below market value. The hope is that we put pressure on Matterport to either at least offer fair market rates, reduce participation costs, or risk their new enterprise clients being listed as material witnesses in an embarrassing lawsuit with plenty of negative press coverage. Most brokerages would not want to have any part of this. Either way, this opens Matterport up to a Federal Lawsuit as well as a State lawsuit that would serve as a template for other State Attorneys should it get that far.

So all that to say, there are some considerations we looking at from a legal standpoint. We'll see what happens. If it does end up in a class-action lawsuit and we win anything, I'd be willing to invest my part in getting the GeoCV guys back in the game.

Originally Posted by @briangreul
I hate to be the spreader of bad news.... but nothing described here is "enterprise" by the MSP's.

Do you have a good, viable business? Yes.
Is it large to you? Yes.
Are you capable of servicing a global business? Most likely not.


Global Enterprise is on the scale of Exxon Retail. There are 12,304 Exxon Mobil stores. If Exxon came to you (or any other MSP) and asked for a scan of every location Worldwide in the next 30 days you wouldn't be able to do it. Frankly, all of us working together might have trouble.

Take someone like Dollar Tree, they have 15,115 stores. 8 to 12K s/f stores. Assuming they are on a 7 year remodel/refresh (doubtful, but play along). that's 2160 stores a year that they might want to scan. This approaches doable for a large MSP, but then you get into data ownership/hosting/travel.

Matterport is simply going after the big accounts and telling service providers pretty clearly to buzz off. It makes sense from a business standpoint. It sucks, it's a bad deal, but there is still opportunity out there. On the bright side, larger clients tend to treat Net/30 as Net/90 or Net/120. They will pay you when they pay you because they can.

Matterport will expand the market. As the "big guys" do this, the little guys will take interest, creating opportunity that is more profitable to replace the big guys.

I promise that it will be good for us in the end. It will solve issues around MP's lock on data storage, processing, etc. Right now they are hooked on the InkJet model where the printer is reasonably cheap (possibly subsidized) and the ink is stupid expensive (hosting/processing). That has to change for their long term viability. Enterprise clients aren't going to pay the rates, and they aren't going to allow their data to sit in someone else's data center. When WalMart or some other large retailer dangles $15M of scan business at Matterport contingent on self-hosting / processing it will happen.... Keep In mind MP did $43.4M in revenue. Nice, but hardly a large company. Microsoft did $33.7Billion..... Oracle $11.1 Billion....


WalMart's average store is 180K s/f. Even at 5¢/sf that's $9K/scan. They have 4756 of them. That's $42M to scan all of them at 5¢/sf So $15M in scan business isn't out the of the question, it's just bigger than anything any of us are looking at.

If anything, the MP scan program makes them an acquisition target for someone like AWS or Microsoft or Google.

Originally Posted by @Gerhard
@DanSmigrod can you arrange a Town-hall with Matterport CEO and maybe get Inman and some of the other tech websites attention to tune in. Will be a very interesting discussion or a way to expose them for what they are doing ? And seeing everyone has to stay home they have zero excuses why they cannot get onto the call. As they have promised a lot of things and is not delivering on that. I want also to get their investors also on this talk.

Originally Posted by @briangreul
I think I read somewhere they have $143M in funding.... against $43M in sales/yr.

Originally Posted by @briangreul
Matterport does $43M/yr in revenue. They have 5,000 customers give or take.