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Backblog—Investment
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Mosaid (MSD:TSX): It's Been A Good Month February 4, 2010 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment In the spirit of Chris Bosh being named Eastern Conference Basketball Player of The Week, it seems appropriate to highlight the month enjoyed by Ottawa's technology patent licensing king, Mosaid Technologies. On January 19th, the company was able to announce that its biggest licensee, Samsung... CEO Series: Interview with Geoff Rotstein, CEO of Cyberplex, Performance Advertising Pioneers January 29, 2010 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment This is the third in a series of interviews conducted with CEOs of interesting Canadian technology companies. The intent of this project is to provide investors with a unique understanding of what various companies are doing - directly from the top dog. Hopefully, the interviews conducted over the... CEO Series: Interview with Tom Douramakos, CEO Guestlogix, Onboard Retailing Pioneers December 1, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment This is the second in a series of interviews conducted with CEOs of interesting Canadian technology companies. The intent of this project is to provide investors with a unique understanding of what various companies are doing - directly from the top dog. Hopefully, the interviews conducted over the... CEO Series: Interview with Andrew Osis, CEO Multiplied Media - developers of the Poynt Mobile App November 26, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Software Companies This is the first in a series of interviews conducted with CEOs of interesting Canadian technology companies. The intent of this project is to provide investors with a unique understanding of what various companies are doing - directly from the top dog. Hopefully, the interviews conducted over the... More on the Commercialization of Intellectual Property in Canada - With a Link to Mark McQueen November 13, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment In August I posted an opinion on why R&D subsidies in the technology sector are currently an ineffective tool to support technology innovations and posed some general solutions to re-energize investment into all industries that commercialize Intellectual Property (I/P), including information... Could Multiplied Media Be The Next Big Thing? November 3, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Last week, the DVC SmallTech Newsletter identified ten breakout smallcap technology stocks for YTD 2009. Many of those intersect with the RES Free Thinking Top 5 picks for 2009. Investors in all of those stocks are smiling so far as we enter the last two months of the year. Alas, but there may be... Why The IT Sector Has Outperformed the General Market YTD 2009: Licensing October 14, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment As of September 18th, the TSX Information Technology Index has increased year-to-date by 69.8% and has been the best performing sector in the market.(Global Equity Weekly - BMO). As a corollary to this, in the case that skeptics believe it to be a RIM-only measurement, the information technology... Guestlogix (GXI.V) and Abanco settle lawsuit. Positive outcome September 22, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Stemming from GXI's first contract with American Airlines a few years back, this is a long-term legal action that cost several hundred thousand dollars per annum in legal expenses for Guestlogix. The dismissal of the suits should have a small but immediate beneficial impact on earnings , and also... Bridgewater Systems (BWC.TO) On A Roll - Announces Major New Contracts September 15, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment As mobile data usage continues to grow exponentially around the world, Bridgewater Systems' suite of policy and data management solutions should continue to become more popular among carriers as they attempt to meet the increasing demand from consumers and businesses. On Friday, Bridgewater Systems... R and D subsidies do not create wealth: How do we modernize policy to incent innovation? September 9, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment I have spoken to hundreds of Canadian entrepreneurs and investors in the tech sector over the past dozen years. A common lament among all stakeholders is that Canadians are good at R&D, but poor at commercialization. Based on current thinking, this is a decidedly bad thing, becoming worse. What... Zoompass is destined to succeed: So what is the potential fallout in the Canadian market? August 27, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment This is a follow-up commentary to a previous post "Enstream: A Mobile Moneris or Dexit Revisited?" published on June 15, 2009. The article was an attempt to contextualize the beta launch of Zoompass within the current Canadian and international mobile billing and payments ecosystem. The fundamental... CX Q2 results: Did it beat consensus? August 10, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Well, kinda mostly. Cyberplex reported $26.0 in revenue for the quarter, a 172% improvement over Q2, 2009, and a 18.8% sequential decline from the $32 million reported for Q1, 2009. Due to historical seasonality in performance, the consensus forecast implied a 29.3% sequential decline, or $22.6... How does MSFT get its groove back? July 28, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Software Companies Last week Microsoft reported its first year over year decline in revenues...ever. Although the performance could be blamed on the worldwide recession, many of its peers and competitors have reported both growth in revenue and earnings despite the recession. A decade of being second or third best (or... Trading Idea: GOOG performance foreshadows CX performance July 23, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment For 5 of the past 6 quarters, whenever GOOG beatforecasts, so did CX. The common thread between Google and Cyberplex is that they both deliver to marketing managers measureability and performance-based ad budgets. It is well published that GOOG beat analyst estimates for both sales and earnings for... Q2 2009 Earnings Season: Crossroads July 15, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment As Q2 earnings season begins, the market appears to be at a crossroads. A lot of portfolio managers are humming along to the old Clash refrain "Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?" Interestingly, the song has a different meaning depending on how much cash is in the mix. Based on a sampling of portfolio... Canada Day 2009 Week In Review - Guestlogix (GXI.V) July 7, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment While I was relaxing on the dock, not many meaningful announcements were made during Canada Day week (surprise!). On July 2, 2009 Guestlogix reported results for Q2, 2009 with sales of $4.6 million up 150% from Q2 2008 sales of $1.8 million. More significantly, it reported positive net income of $.0... Game-Changer Startup Alert: Phybridge and the rebirth of the twisted pair. June 9, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment VoIP Most who follow this blog anticipate updates about publicly listed technology Companies. Going forward investors are likely to see a select few earlier stage private tech startups profiled. The criteria for such a profile is simple: potential game-changers. Phybridge is an early-stage startup (and... Guestlogix (GXI.V) Introduces OnTouch - What does it mean? June 4, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Software Companies Earlier today, Guestlogix announced that it has deployed an new onboard suite of services branded OnTouch, which packages 5 product bundles into value-added destination services for passengers. GXI has essentially organized its platform to allow airlines to bundle services with maximum appeal to... Descartes (DSG.TO) continues to march on with another strong quarter. June 2, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment The Company continues to show exceptional margin growth. Gross margins increased for the the fifth consecutive quarter to 70%, up 5% from Q1, 2009. Increasing gross margin should be considered a good indicator of the health of the business. Adjusted net income margin for the quarter, a proxy to... Job losses feeding Tucows? Others feasting, too? May 27, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Tucows (TC:TSX) is a pretty familiar brand to many and an influential Internet pioneer. The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software (TUCOWS) was established in 1993 by Scott Swedorski, a library worker in Flint, Michigan as a way for people to easily download software at little or no cost.... Bridgewater Systems' (BWC-TSX) Most Excellent Quarter May 1, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Today, BWC reported Q1 2009 earnings of $2.9 million or $0.12 EPS. Earnings reported for Q1 were nearly 5% higher than full-year 2008. Sales for Q1 2009 were reported at 14.0 million, a 64% increase over Q1 2008. Earnings appear to have soundly beat analyst expectations, and investors should be... 'Downchurning' in action April 22, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Wireless In a November post, this Blog predicted a trend called 'downchurning' among U.S. mobile subscribers. Here is the post for reference. Today there are some numbers reported by various US carriers that support the notion of downchurning as the recession deepens. Here is the article. Electronic prepaid... Why I Stopped Stumbling April 14, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Yesterday eBay (EBAY) announced that it was selling its StumbleUpon subsidiary to the original Founders for an undisclosed price. When I first found StumbleUpon I became an immediate fan and downloaded the Stumble toolbar in 2006. I spent the next couple of years or so Stumbling throughout the... Kaboose (KAB.TO) clatters into the sunset. April 2, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Today, Kaboose announced that it was in the process of selling all of its assets to two parties. Barclays Private Equity Group has offered to buy the assets of Bounty Group Limited for 54 million british pound sterling and Disney Online has offered to buy the Kaboose online assets for C$23.3... Cyberplex Crushes It Out Of the Park - Tech bubble survivor reports Q4 and full-year results March 23, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment After markets closed today Cyberplex (CX.TO) reported Q4 and full-year results. In a good economy, the results would be considered outstanding. During this recession, the results could be considered astounding, especially considering that all of the reported growth was essentially organic. Sales for... Descartes (DSG.TO) Execution Remains Strong Despite Economic Conditions March 13, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment This morning the market is reacting positively to Descartes Systems Group results for Fiscal 2009 Fourth Quarter and Year End Financials. Despite challenging worldwide markets and currency fluctuations, which were reflected in top-line sales performance, the Company had a record quarter for EBITDA,... Small Indulgences in Uncertain Times March 6, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment A good friend of mine revealed to me on the weekend that December was his Company's best month EVER in its 10-year history on all measurements; sales, cashflow and profitability. This wasn't an anomoly as Q4 was his best quarter EVER, and January was the best January since inception. He is not a... Bridgewater Systems (BWC-TSX) May Be The Real Deal February 23, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Bridgewater Systems has been an active issuer of press releases this month, demonstrating progress in customer wins and service development. It also seems to have retained some good IR support. Based on current screening models, BWC would be considered a Top 30 tech stock on the TSX. BWC was... The Recurring Technology Services Model Comes Home to Roost (Kinda) January 13, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: Investment Software Companies For a little over a decade now, software companies have been attempting to transition away from the feast or famine quarterly grind of perpetual licensing sales designed in the 1980s and perfected during the client/server decade of the 1990s. The first Application Service Provider (ASP) models at... For VCs It's Deja Vu All Over Again December 22, 2008 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment It seems like the Venture Capital (VC) sector has just emerged healthy again from the tech bubble, when now it faces a potentially greater challenge as it deals with larger systemic financial problems. A Survey done by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), and reported on by the... The King is Back December 4, 2008 By consider the source Categories: General Investment Outsourcing “Forget about spending LESS, how do we avoid spending ANYTHING?” There’s no question about it: cash is king today. The current global economic situation is motivating CFOs in companies across all industries to focus foremost on preservation of liquidity. And that’ll drive more BPO. My recent... Post 9/11 Head Fake November 21, 2008 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Yesterday, the Dow closed at 7552, below the lowest monthly close of 7591 in September of 2002. The 2002 bear market was caused by uncertainty related to post-9/11, post-tech bubble and various high profile accounting scandals. Mostly, consumers were feeling insecure about their future (due to the... New Realities November 13, 2008 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment With some notable exceptions, the Canadian technology sector has largely been ignored by investors for the past five to six years. After the tech wreck, and during the commodities boom, investment banking talent has been focused on mining, materials, and O&G. As institutional and retail brokers... |
