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Waterloo Tech Digest - March 3, 2009 (水城百事)

by oncee, Tuesday, March 03, 2009, 09:46

RIM set to acquire Certicom for $132M
RIM settles with OSC & SEC
MKS remains profitable despite weak economy
Com Dev raises $23M
RDM reports loss on higher payment processing revenue
STOCK REPORT: Big drops for Arise, RIM, Dalsa, and ATS shares
Miscellaneous tidbits from Primal Fusion, Tangam, RapidMind, Desire2Learn, LoyaltyMatch, RIM, Arise, Descartes, Arius, MedManager
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[1]---------------------------------------------------------------
RIM set to acquire Certicom for $132M
February 11, 2009

RIM has won the battle for Mississauga-based UW spinoff Certicom, topping a rival bid by California's VeriSign. RIM will pay $3 a share -- about $132 million in total -- for the company. That's double RIM's initial hostile offer of $1.50 a share announced in December, and 43% more than VeriSign's $2.10 a share offer in January (see previous two digests).

The deal -- which has the backing of Certicom's board -- still needs to be approved by Certicom shareholders at a meeting later this month.

[2]---------------------------------------------------------------
RIM settles with OSC & SEC
February 5 & 17, 2009

RIM should now be able to put its stock option backdating history behind it, after the company and some of its executives and current and former directors reached settlement agreements with securities regulators in both Ontario and the U.S.

With the Ontario Securities Commission, the biggest numbers were what three RIM executives agreed to pay RIM itself. CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis and former CFO Dennis Kavelman will pay RIM $38.3 million to cover benefits not otherwise repaid or forfeited that had been received by RIM employees through improper stock option pricing. They also agreed to pay the company $44.8 million to go towards RIM's costs in investigating and fixing its stock option granting practices. That amount includes the $15 million that Balsillie and Lazaridis had already paid. The three executives can pay the $68.1 million still owed to RIM by agreeing not to exercise vested RIM stock options of equal value.

Balsillie, Lazaridis, and Kavelman will also pay "administrative penalties" of $5 million, $1.5 million, and $1.5 million, respectively. And the OSC will collect $700,000 from Balsillie, $150,000 a piece from Lazaridis and Kavelman, and $50,000 from former finance VP (now corporate operations VP) Angelo Loberto to go toward the cost of its investigation.

So there was a combined $77.1 million in new payments in the OSC settlement agreement, with 88% of that going to RIM.

In addition, Kavelman will be prohibited from being a director or officer of any reporting issuer (which would include every public company in Ontario) for five years. Lazaridis has agreed to take a course in the next year on the duties of directors and officers of public companies, while Kavelman and Loberto will have to do so before they can serve as directors or officers of a public company. Jim Estill, Doug Wright, Doug Fregin, and Kendall Cork -- who all served on RIM's board in the years the stock option repricings took place -- will also have to take a similar course over the next year or be prohibited from serving as directors or officers of public companies until they do. Everybody but Fregin also received a reprimand.

In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a 35-page complaint against RIM, Kavelman, Loberto, Balsillie and Lazaridis outlining its allegations. The complaint included several quotes from internal RIM e-mail. Under the settlement agreement with the SEC, Kavelman will pay a penalty of US$500,000, Loberto US$425,000, Balsillie US$350,000, and Lazaridis US$150,000. Kavelman and Loberto will be barred for five years from serving as officers or directors of any SEC-reporting company.

[3]---------------------------------------------------------------
MKS remains profitable despite weak economy
February 24, 2009

It will probably go down as MKS' weakest quarter in fiscal 2009, but the company was still able to deliver solid, profitable results in the period ended January 31 (Q3 09). MKS earned US$325,000 on sales of US$13.2 million. Revenue was up 3% from last year and down 19% from Q2.

The one number that might cause some concern was licensing revenue -- which was down 10% from a year ago and 42% sequentially -- but the company is forecasting that licensing revenue, total revenue and earnings will all be higher in Q4.

Operations generated US$6.2 million in cash, driven by a net US$3.9 million increase in deferred revenue and a US$2.8 million reduction in receivables. MKS ended the quarter with US$16.3 million in cash, up US$5.6 million from the end of Q2.

With one quarter left in the fiscal year, MKS sales are running 12% ahead of last year's pace, although it will be hard for the company to match the record-setting results it achieved in Q4 last year.

[4]---------------------------------------------------------------
Com Dev raises $23M
February 26, 2009

Com Dev has raised gross proceeds of $23 million through a share offering at $2.95 a share.

Including the underwriters' over-allotment options, which were taken in full, Com Dev sold 7.8 million shares. Genuity Capital Markets acted as the lead underwriter.

[5]---------------------------------------------------------------
RDM reports loss on higher payment processing revenue
February 5, 2009

  1738 views

more...

by oncee, Tuesday, March 03, 2009, 09:46 @ oncee

RDM lost $1.6 million on sales of $7.1 million in the quarter ended December 31 (Q1 09). Most of the loss came from a foreign exchange hit on the forward contracts the company uses for hedging. But the stronger U.S. dollar helped the top line (nearly all of RDM sales are in U.S. dollars, but it reports in Canadian dollars), where RDM says exchange rate changes added $1.4 million compared to a year ago.

Sales were flat from a year ago, with RDM's ITMS payment processing business showing a big jump in revenue over that period, while scanner sales and custom payments solutions work both showed declines. The payment processing business remained RDM's only money-losing segment, reporting a $651,000 operating loss. Average ITMS weekly transaction volumes increased slightly to 3.3 million from 3.1 million in the previous quarter. RDM added another 1,000 end user locations for the ITMS service in the quarter, bringing the total to 15,900. The ITMS business accounted for nearly a third of all revenue in the quarter, up from an average of 23% in fiscal 2008.

Operations provided $316,000 in cash and the company spent $160,000 to repurchase shares in the quarter. RDM still has plenty of cash -- $17.3 million, which is about what it had at the beginning of the quarter and a year ago.

[6]---------------------------------------------------------------
STOCK REPORT: Big drops for Arise, RIM, Dalsa, and ATS shares
February 2009

The TSX composite was only down 7% in February, but four of the companies followed here lost about a quarter of their value. It was the second consecutive month of big declines for Arise and Dalsa, which -- including the carnage on the markets yesterday -- have lost 47% and 39%, respectively, of their value so far in 2009.

For the month of February:

MKS [TSX: MKX] +14%
Sandvine [TSX: SVC] +7%
TurboSonic [OTCBB: TSTA] 0%
===============================
--S&P TSX VENTURE INDEX -2%
RDM [TSX: RC] -3%
--S&P TSX COMPOSITE INDEX -7%
Open Text [TSX: OTC] -7%
Biorem [TSXV: BRM] -11%
Com Dev [TSX: CDV] -11%
Descartes [TSX: DSG] -11%
ATS [TSX: ATA] -23%
Dalsa [TSX: DSA] -24%
RIM [TSX: RIM] -25%
Arise [TSX: APV] -29%

Companies with core operations outside the area:

Blue Coat [Nasdaq: BCSI] +14%
===================================
Google [Nasdaq: GOOG] -0%
Sybase [NYSE: SY] -0%
Oracle [Nasdaq: ORCL] -8%
McAfee [NYSE: MFE] -8%
ON Semiconductor [Nasdaq: ONNN] -12%
Acorn Energy [Nasdaq: ACFN] -14%
Ansys [Nasdaq: ANSS] -19%
Agfa-Gevaert [Brussels: AGFA] -34%
NCR [NYSE: NCR] -37%

[7]---------------------------------------------------------------
Miscellaneous Tidbits

Primal Fusion announced the launch of its "thought networking" platform technology at the DEMO conference in California. The company will be offering a free online service, which is currently in an private alpha testing stage.


Tech company founders Peter Sweeney (Primal Fusion), Prem Gururajan (Tangam), Stefanus Du Toit (RapidMind) and John Baker (Desire2Learn) were among those recognized in the Waterloo Region Record's "40 Under 40."


Ross Goodwin is the new business development VP at LoyaltyMatch. He is based in Santa Rosa, Calif., where he runs the Bennett Valley Group sales and marketing consultancy. LoyaltyMatch CEO Brad Ball is also affiliated with Goodwin's consulting business and the two used to work together at Hewlett-Packard. Goodwin was with H-P for more than 20 years.


NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile network operator, has temporarily stopped selling the BlackBerry Bold after receiving complaints from about 30 customers that the devices were overheating while recharging. RIM is looking into the problem and has ruled out a flaw in the battery.


But it was a merry Christmas for RIM, as the number of new BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter ended February 28 were at least 20% higher than the 2.9 million it forecast. Even with the extra sales, RIM says its revenue numbers for the quarter will be near the mid-point of its forecasted range. Final results for the quarter will be announced in April.


Things weren't as rosy at Arise, which warned investors that its sales in the quarter ended December 31 will fall about $3 million below forecasts. The company will also be taking a $2.8 million asset writedown in the quarter. It is reviewing all planned expenditures and says that some projects may be put on hold or cancelled. Full results will be announced next week.


Descartes has acquired the logistics business of Montreal's Oceanwide in an all-cash deal for $10.4 million. The business employs 45 people in Montreal and Miami. Oceanwide's COO has become SVP of compliance solutions at Descartes.


Arius Software announced the launch of its DocumentAdvantage document imaging and management software for the financial services industry.


The Sioux Lookout Diabetes Program launched a new website using technology from Kitchener's MedManager.

  1679 views

RIM一个月跌了四分之一

by carmaker, Tuesday, March 03, 2009, 20:48 @ oncee

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  1358 views

刚想卖就跌了这么多,什么时候能起来

by dao, Tuesday, March 03, 2009, 22:07 @ carmaker

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  1353 views

两年之内, 等着吧

by 321, Wednesday, March 04, 2009, 11:29 @ dao

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  1344 views

一直只知道digest 是消化的意思, 今天一查竟然有文摘

by having, Wednesday, March 04, 2009, 11:58 @ oncee

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  1328 views

Reader's Digest 肯定是见过的

by ComingSoon, Wednesday, March 04, 2009, 21:16 @ having

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  1333 views

Reader Digent也撑不住了,要申请破产保护

by beebo, Friday, March 06, 2009, 10:04 @ ComingSoon

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  1594 views
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