• 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