Morning Star: I wonder if his company will become a customer of POET's, or a victim.

Soft Machines would be a customer or partner, not a victim. Both companies would amend each other perfectly.

1. Imagine you choose a processor design from, say, Intel and rebuild it using the POET technology. You'll get a much faster and power-saving processor.
2. Now you replace the Intel processor architecture with the Soft Machines processor architecture. You'll get an even faster processor. (Whether it will also save more power, I don't know.)
3. Now you resp. the experts of POET Technologies and the experts of Soft Machines optimise the Soft Machines architectur by making use of POET's novel devices, i.e. those electrical or optical components that are not transistors. The POET expert will have to explain what these new devices are, how they work and which properties they have. The Soft Machines experts will have to ponder if and how those devices could and should replace certain transistor circuits to improve the overall processor design. The result will be an even better processor.
4. The next step could be instead of replacing one or the other transistor circuit by a novel device circuit to build a brand-new processor architecture based on old and new devices from ground up, making full use of them.

The POET experts contribute their low-level device know-how, the Soft Machine experts contribute their processor architecture know-how. Both domains are very different, but complentary. The first company (POET Technologies) builds traditional tools like hammers and saws (transistors) – only more efficient ones – as well as novel tools you don't have a name for and – unlike hammers and saws – don't know how to handle or what to do with it. The second company (Soft Machine) uses the tools to construct buildings, and after receiving explanations of the novel tools, better buildings.

Disclaimer: There's no cooperation between POET Technologies and Soft Machines I know of. It serves just as an example. However, it would fit nicely. So would ARM.