LinearWaterloo Tech Digest - February 9, 2010 (水城百事)
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WATERLOO TECH DIGEST -- #155
February 9, 2010
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Compiled and written by
Gary Will
http://www.garywill.com
http://twitter.com/garywill
In this issue:
1. Avvasi raises $15M, prepares to launch product next week
2. Sandvine sales up 35% in 2009
3. Open Text quarterly sales jump to nearly US$250M
4. Arise raises an additional $900K, wins Cambridge contract
5. Moxy Media acquisition part of Toronto company's IPO plans
6. Dalsa ends challenging year with small profit
7. RDM reports quarterly loss
8. Com Dev sales up 14% in 2009; Ainsworth steps down from board
9. STOCK REPORT: Dalsa, Biorem shares bounce back to 2008 levels
10. Startup notes from Clearpath Robotics, T-Ray Science, PostRank, Tungle
11. Miscellaneous tidbits from SMARTsoft, Restaurantica, Desire2Learn,
Christie, Athena
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[1]---------------------------------------------------------------
Avvasi raises $15M, prepares to launch product next week
February 1, 2010
Avvasi has closed a $15 million round of funding, with follow-on
investments from Tech Capital Partners and Celtic House, along with a
first-time contribution from the Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund
(OETF), the provincial government's $250 million co-investment fund.
Avvasi was founded two years ago by Mate Prgin, Alex Leyn and Michael
Gallant, who had previously worked together at VideoLocus and PixStream
(companies that had been funded by Tech Capital and Celtic House,
respectively). It raised seed funding a few months later.
The company will be unveiling its first product, Q-Vue, next week at
Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona. It says Q-Vue enables wireless
carriers to measure mobile video quality of experience, giving operators
"complete and comprehensive insight into their ability to deliver on QoE
expectations for video and other mobile applications. The solution
identifies mobile video traffic patterns and subscriber QoE without the
need for drive testing."
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[2]---------------------------------------------------------------
Sandvine sales up 35% in 2009
January 14, 2010
A good end to the fiscal year for Sandvine, with sales of $19.0 million in
the quarter ended November 30 (Q4 09). Sales were up 19% from the previous
quarter and 2% from last year. Net loss in the quarter was $4.7 million,
which included a previously announced $1.7 million charge from the
surrender and cancellation of 780,000 stock options.
Three companies accounted for 46% of sales -- about the same as in Q3,
with two of those companies repeating among Sandvine's three largest
customers. DSL was Sandvine's largest customer segment in the quarter,
while the wireless segment dropped from a strong Q3 but was still the
second largest market for Sandvine in the quarter, ahead of cable. Of the
eight new customers won in the quarter, six were wireless service
providers and the other two were DSL.
For the year, Sandvine sales of $68.8 million were up 35% from 2008. Net
loss for the year was $19.5 million -- about the same as a year ago. Sales
to DSL and wireless customers accounted for nearly two-thirds of all
revenue, up from just under half last year.
Sandvine ended the year with $85.8 million in cash and securities.
[3]---------------------------------------------------------------
Open Text quarterly sales jump to nearly US$250M
February 3, 2010
Open Text also reported a solid quarter, earning US$21.2 million on sales
of US$247.8 million in the period ended December 31 (Q2 10). Sales were up
19% from last year and 17% from the previous quarter. The company had six
million-dollar licensing deals in the quarter.
Operations generated US$32.5 million in cash and Open Text ended the
quarter with a cash balance of US$247.6 million.
[4]---------------------------------------------------------------
Arise raises an additional $900K, wins Cambridge contract
January 14 & 26, February 2, 2010
Arise has taken three more draws from its equity funding facility with
Haverstock Master Fund, receiving an additional $900,000 from the issuance
of 3.92 million shares. That's on top of the $250,000 raised early in
January that was mentioned in the last digest.
The price of Arise shares has fallen with each draw, dropping a total of
10% in the month between the first and fourth draw.
Arise plans to take another $250,000 draw next week, bringing the total to
$1.4 million.
Haverstock buys shares from Arise at a discount to the market price and
can then sell them on the open market (see October 6 digest).
Arise also announced that it won the contract with the Region of Waterloo
to install a 150kW rooftop solar system at the Regional Operations Centre
on Maple Grove Road in Cambridge. The Region received 19 bids on the
project, six from firms within Waterloo Region (including Canadian Solar).
The system is expected to be operational by the middle of the year.
[5]---------------------------------------------------------------
Moxy Media acquisition part of Toronto company's IPO plans
January 25, 2010
Guelph's Moxy Media was at the centre of a planned IPO for Toronto's Avid
Life Media. The Globe and Mail reported that Avid Life was trying to woo
investors for a $60 million IPO that would see the company acquire Moxy
Media shortly after the offering closed.
Avid Life calls itself "a network of targeted niche brands with highly
engaged users," but, despite its best efforts, just about everyone else
was calling it "the company behind Ashley Madison" -- the website that
helps married people have affairs. The headline on the Globe story was
"Adultery website owner aims for listing." Avid Life acquired Ashley
Madison in 2007 and also bought the popular HotOrNot in 2008.
Reuters subsequently reported that IPO plans were put on hold after Avid
Life received a lukewarm response from investors.
As part of the investor sales pitch, it was disclosed that Moxy Media had
sales of $192 million and EDITDA of $27 million in 2009 (both far higher
than Avid Life's numbers). Moxy Media evolved out of Geosign and says it
runs "more than 300" websites, with the actual number thought to be more
than an order of magnitude higher than 300.
2
[6]---------------------------------------------------------------
Dalsa ends challenging year with small profit
January 28, 2020
An optimistic end to a rough fiscal year for Dalsa, with the company
reporting earnings of $156,000 on sales of $43.4 million in the quarter
ended December 31 (Q4 09). Sales were up 6% from the previous quarter and
down 6% from a year ago and were the highest of all four quarters in the
year.
Operations lost $1.3 million in Q4, with all of that loss coming from a
restructuring charge in Dalsa's Semiconductor business. A $1.2 million
recovery of earlier charges related to Dalsa's discontinued digital cinema
business put it back into the black. The company said it was able to
negotiate settlements on some obligations of the digital cinema business
for less than the contracted amounts.
Operations generated $633,000 in cash and Dalsa spent $3.2 million on
property and equipment, mostly relating to its 200mm MEMS production in
Quebec. It ended the quarter with $8.5 million in cash.
For the year, Dalsa earned $1.7 million on sales of $162.5 million, down
21% from 2008. Operational loss for the year was $633,000, and in addition
to the digital cinema gains in Q4, the company's bottom line was aided by
gains from the sale of land to RIM earlier in the year.
Backlog at year-end was $79.5 million, with more of the total booked for
delivery in the short-term than was the case a year ago.
[7]---------------------------------------------------------------
RDM reports quarterly loss
February 5, 2010
RDM lost $489,000 on sales of $5.7 million in the quarter ended December
31 (Q1 10). Sales were flat from the previous quarter and down 20% from a
year ago.
The company shipped 5,800 scanner units in the quarter, a big drop from a
year ago but enough to make digital imaging products RDM's largest
business segment, contributing 53% of revenue. After growing steadily over
the last few years, transaction volumes on RDM's ITMS system showed a
small sequential decline for the second straight quarter. Sales from RDM's
long-standing quality assurance segment fell to just $251,000 or 4% of
sales.
Operations generated $558,000 in cash, boosting RDM's cash levels to $16.2
million.
Doug Fisher, who has been with RDM since 2001, was made acting sales VP,
following the departure of John Mamalakis, who had held that position for
nearly nine years.
[8]---------------------------------------------------------------
Com Dev sales up 14% in 2009; Ainsworth steps down from board
January 11, 2010
The full results for Com Dev in the quarter ended October 31 (Q4 09) were
in line with the preliminary results announced at the end of November (see
December 7 digest). The company earned $858,000 on sales of $58.3 million.
Sales were down 5% from the previous quarter and 2% from a year ago.
For the year, Com Dev earned $15.3 million on sales of $240.4 million, up
14% from 2008. Of the 29 satellite programs announced in 2009, Com Dev won
work on 20 and could end up with contracts for up to seven more. In 2008,
of the 35 satellite programs, Com Dev worked on 26 and is still in the
running for two others.
It ended the year with $21.4 million in cash.
Com Dev also announced that Keith Ainsworth has stepped down from its
board. Ainsworth joined Com Dev in 1975, became president in 1990, and was
CEO from 1999 to 2002. He also served as chairman from 2005 to 2009.
Claude Séguin, SVP at Montreal's CGI Group (which has an office in
Waterloo) and a former Quebec Deputy Finance Minister, has joined Com
Dev's board.
[9]---------------------------------------------------------------
STOCK REPORT: Dalsa, Biorem shares bounce back to 2008 levels
January 2010
Not much movement in stock prices in the month, but there was something
notable about the few that did move. Investors seem to be optimistic that
the worst for Dalsa is behind the company, as they pushed the company's
shares to their highest level in the last year. Dalsa stock finished
January with its highest month-end price since August 2008.
A similar story with Biorem shares, which have already passed their high
point of 2009 and ended the month with their best month-end price since
September 2008.
For the month of January:
Biorem [TSXV: BRM] +19%
Dalsa [TSX: DSA] +5%
RDM [TSX: RC] +1%
Com Dev [TSX: CDV] +1%
Sandvine [TSX: SVC] +1%
Descartes [TSX: DSG] 0%
===============================
Open Text [TSX: OTC] -1%
--S&P TSX VENTURE INDEX -2%
ATS [TSX: ATA] -3%
MKS [TSX: MKX] -4%
RIM [TSX: RIM] -5%
--S&P TSX COMPOSITE INDEX -6%
Arise [TSX: APV] -15%
TurboSonic [OTCBB: TSTA] -17%
At the bottom of the list, TurboSonic shares gave back all the gains made
in December that had allowed them to snatch the title of best performer of
2009. And Arise shares ended the month at 23 cents -- their lowest
month-end price in four-and-a-half years.
Companies with headquarters outside the area:
Agfa-Gevaert [Brussels: AGFA] +16%
NCR [NYSE: NCR] +8%
===================================
Ansys [Nasdaq: ANSS] -4%
Intel [Nasdaq: INTC] -5%
Oracle [Nasdaq: ORCL] -6%
Sybase [NYSE: SY] -6%
McAfee [NYSE: MFE] -7%
Electronic Arts [Nasdaq: ERTS] -8%
T-Ray Science [TSXV: THZ] -10%
Blue Coat [Nasdaq: BCSI] -14%
Google [Nasdaq: GOOG] -15%
Acorn Energy [Nasdaq: ACFN] -15%
ON Semiconductor [Nasdaq: ONNN] -18%
[10]---------------------------------------------------------------
Startup Notes
* The Husky A100 unmanned vehicle from Clearpath Robotics will be used by
the Institute for Aerospace Studies at the University of Toronto to test
3D mapping algorithms to be used on the lunar surface.
* T-Ray Science is keeping its Waterloo connection and has hired Tom
Walker as SVP of business development. Walker was formerly CEO of
RapidLabs and was previously with Agfa/Mitra. At the same time, T-Ray
announced the departure of CTO Daryoosh Saeedkia, who is part of UW's
Microwave and Terahertz Photonics Integrated System Lab. Technical
development at the company will be led by Abdorreza Heidari and Mohammad
Esmaeili-Rad, who both received their doctoral degrees at UW.
* PostRank announced its Top Blogs of 2009 award winners, listing
thousands of blogs in hundreds of categories, ranked by "social
engagement" -- the level of discussion and commentary across the Web
generated by blog posts.
* Tungle added Lotus Notes integration to its scheduling/calendar sharing
application. It made the announcement at IBM's Lotusphere 2010 in Orlando,
Fla.
[11]---------------------------------------------------------------
Miscellaneous Tidbits
* Kitchener agribusiness software developer dbc SMARTsoftware has been
acquired by Open Link Financial of Long Island, New York. dbc president
Maurice Boughton will continue to manage the business, now called
SMARTsoft, with Andy Joakim remaining CTO. No financial details were
disclosed. Open Link, a software company founded in 1992, had filed in
2008 to raise US$200 million through an IPO but cancelled those plans last
summer. It reported revenue of US$139 million in 2007 and US$90 million in
the first half of 2008.
* Restaurantica, one of the sites that Geosign founder Tim Nye took with
him when he founded eMedia Interactive, has been acquired by Yellow Pages
Group. Restaurantica staff have joined YPG, including Lance Mohring, who
had been with Geosign and eMedia since 2006. He becomes director of
digital products at YPG. According to the release, Restaurantica gets
540,000 visits and over 1.7 million page views each month.
* Desire2Learn announced that it will be moving to The Tannery later this
year. It will be a short move for the company, which is already based in
downtown Kitchener.
* Christie won the NRC-IRAP Canadian Innovation Award for New Technology
at the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters awards in Ottawa. It received
the award for its Matrix StIM simulation projection system.
* Athena Software has been selected by Relationships Australia to provide
web based, integrated case management software for its family counseling
centers.
没听过Intel 在这也有公司啊
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