Waterloo Tech Digest - October 6, 2009
Compiled and written by
Gary Will
gary@garywill.com
In this issue:
S P O N S O R S
AERO CORPORATE BENEFITS - Your Employee Benefits Solutions Provider
Located in Waterloo, we've served the KW technology community for over 20 years, providing employee benefits solutions to companies large and small. Our mission is simple. Help our clients succeed by doing what we do best: -- Design and monitor programs that attract & retain the most qualified employees -- Contain costs of employee benefits, retirement plans, and HR support -- Provide employee-level support & advice to help you manage risk & compliance. Please contact Herb Goedecke at 519.489.2376 x11 or herbg@aero-corp.com for details.
RISK FREE LEAD GENERATION
From sales opportunity development to increasing attendance for events, Virtual Causeway accelerates your sales process! With a focus on selling and marketing complex services and technology, we guarantee a consistent and reliable flow of quality leads - assuring that your pipeline is constantly full. Contact us today to learn how we can help connect you with your next customer. Call 519-886-1600 ext. 405 or email marketing@v-causeway.com for details.
EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE HEARD - and we want to listen
Hagon Design is #1 at creating marketing communications that get heard. Our technology industry experience includes Annual Reports, Brand Identities, Brochures and Collateral, Email Marketing, Websites and more. Let's get together for a coffee and chat. You tell us where you want to go, we listen, and we'll help pave the way to successful marketing. Give creative director, Ben Hagon a call at 519.500.7985 or email ben@hagondesign.com
EXCITING TIMES
"People crowded around our booth at the WES BlackBerry Conference to watch our new iLane video. Check it out at www.ilane.com. Bell Canada has recently signed on to promote and distribute our product. Exciting times for IMS!" Tony and Ken, IMS
MFX Partners has a 25 year history of elevating B2B brands (including iLane and IMS), from concept to living breathing product. To see more visit our website.
GO BEYOND STAFFING
For over 30 years, Procom has been matching people with companies, for jobs that are a perfect fit - contract, full-time, or part-time. We partner with large and small companies across North America, including some of the world's best-known enterprises, to provide a range of services, training tools, and the ideal candidates to help them flourish. We've been named one of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies and go beyond staffing to look strategically at the processes and people that will truly help a company succeed. Phone: 519.885.4331.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
[1]---------------------------------------------------------------
Descartes share offering to gross $46M
September 29, 2009
Descartes will raise $46 million through a bought deal share offering that is expected to close later this month. It will sell 7.9 million shares at $5.85 each. That includes the underwriters' overallotment option, which Descartes has said was exercised in full.
Descartes will receive gross proceeds of $41.9 million from the sale of 7.1 million new shares, while unspecified company officers and directors will receive $4.1 million from the sale of 693,296 of their own shares.
Underwriters are led by GMP Securities and CIBC World Markets and include Thomas Weisel Partners, Versant Partners, and Paradigm Capital.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
S P O N S O R
GOWLINGS TECHNOLOGY WHITEBOARDS
Our legal professionals discuss a range of issues affecting technology companies, including tips for start-ups, protecting your IP, outsourcing, technology agreements and more.
Gowlings' Waterloo Region Technology Law Group provides sophisticated, practical and timely advice in all areas of technology law to clients ranging from start-ups to public companies. 40 professionals serving Waterloo Region/Guelph (over 700 professionals nationwide). The Right People. Right Here. Contact David.Petras@gowlings.com or Sean.Gomes@gowlings.com at 519-576-6910.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
[2]---------------------------------------------------------------
RIM earnings lowered by patent suit settlement
September 24, 2009
RIM earned US$475.6 million on sales of US$3.53 billion in the quarter ended August 29, 2009 (Q2 10). Sales were up 3% from the previous quarter and 37% from a year ago, and were within the company's forecasted range of US$3.45-3.70 billion.
It was during this quarter that RIM settled the patent infringement suit that Visto had filed against the company in 2006 (see August 10 digest). The settlement included a payment by RIM of US$267.5 million, of which US$163.8 million was expensed as a litigation cost in Q2. Without that charge, RIM's operating income for the quarter would have been US$815.8 million, compared to US$690.1 million in Q1.
There were a net 3.8 million new BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter -- same as the previous quarter and at the bottom end of the company's forecast. That brought the total number of BlackBerry users to 32 million.
Operations generated US$1.2 billion in cash, and RIM ended the quarter with US$2.5 billion in cash, up US$78.5 million from the end of Q1.
RIM is expecting sales of US$3.60-3.85 billion in the current quarter, which would be a sequential increase of 2-9% and about 30-38% above last year. It is expecting to add another 4.0-4.3 million new BlackBerry subscribers.
[3]---------------------------------------------------------------
Arise financing details, 7N silicon milestone
September 15 & 24, 2009
Arise provided details about the $10 million in funding that it can access over the next three years by selling new shares at a discount to market prices (see previous digest). Providing the funds is Haverstock Master Fund, based in Roslyn, New York. At any time it chooses, Arise can take up to $500,000 per drawdown and Haverstock will pay the average price per share over the previous five days minus a 6.5% discount. Arise is also paying Haverstock $275,000 in fees, which it may pay with common shares priced at $0.55 each.
According to documents filed with the SEC in November, Haverstock Master Fund is 75% owned by Corey Ribotsky's Haverstock Partners LLC and 25% by Calgary's Eagle Ridge Capital. Ribotsky has had some interesting media coverage over the years.
Arise also announced that, for the first time, it produced PV cells using its own 7N+ silicon (99.99999% purity). Arise launched a "mini pilot plant" for its silicon process nearly two years ago and plans to build a 60,000 square-foot plant in Kitchener when economic and financing conditions improve. Arise's silicon feedstock development project is being partially funded by Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC).
The company is expecting a jump in demand for its systems business with the introduction of Ontario's feed-in-tariff (FIT) program. It has signed an agreement with a contracting firm to handle residential solar systems installations in the province.
[4]---------------------------------------------------------------
Canadian Solar opens Kitchener headquarters
September 25, 2009
Canadian Solar Inc., a Nasdaq-listed company founded in 2001 with a market value of US$570 million, has opened what it is calling its global headquarters in Kitchener. Company founder and CEO Shawn Qu previously worked at ATS for its Photowatt and Matrix Solar subsidiaries.
Canadian Solar reported earnings of US$17.7 million on sales of US$114.2 million in the quarter ended June 30 (Q2 09). It performs all its manufacturing in China and lists Shouzou, China as the location of its mailing address. According to the Record, the Kitchener office will have about 15 employees, one of whom is Milfred Hammerbacher, the former president of ATS' Spheral Solar business.
Canadian Solar's R&D investment levels are not significant. In its most recent quarter, it spent an amount equal to 2% of gross profits (less than one-half of 1% of sales) on R&D. Its R&D spending over the first half of the current fiscal year is about one-quarter of what Arise spent in the same period.
Like Arise, Canadian Solar, will be pursing solar system installation opportunities expected to be stimulated by Ontario's new feed-in-tariff program.
[5]---------------------------------------------------------------
STOCK REPORT: No news was good news for ATS shareholders
September 2009
ATS didn't have any announcements during the month, and the last time it did (in August), it announced lackluster quarterly results, but that didn't stop its shares from soaring in September to their highest levels in the last year.
Insider trading reports show heavy buying from New York's Mason Capital -- one of the investment firms that spearheaded the ouster of ATS' board and CEO two years ago. SEDI reports that Mason Capital has bought 2.2 million ATS shares on the public market since late August. It had already been the company's largest shareholder before those purchases, and now owns 14% of ATS.
For the month of September:
ATS [TSX: ATA] +30%
Descartes [TSX: DSG] +20%
Sandvine [TSX: SVC] +16%
Biorem [TSXV: BRM] +15%
Arise [TSX: APV] +10%
--S&P TSX VENTURE INDEX +9%
Dalsa [TSX: DSA] +6%
Com Dev [TSX: CDV] +6%
--S&P TSX COMPOSITE INDEX +5%
Open Text [TSX: OTC] +4%
===============================
MKS [TSX: MKX] -0%
TurboSonic [OTCBB: TSTA] -4%
RDM [TSX: RC] -6%
RIM [TSX: RIM] -10%
Descartes shares went as high as $6.25 during September, which is their highest point since April 2002. It will be hard to push that back much further, since the stock traded above $40 for a short period in 2001 (and well above that level in 2000).
RIM shares dropped 17% the day the company announced its quarterly results. Apparently, some investors are only adjusting now to the realization that the days of 70-100% year-over-year revenue growth are over. It's amazing they lasted as long as they did (as noted in the tidbits section, RIM has been ranked as one of Canada's fastest growing technology companies, as measured by four-year revenue growth, for the last 12 years in a row).
Companies with core operations outside the area:
Blue Coat [Nasdaq: BCSI] +15%
Acorn Energy [Nasdaq: ACFN] +15%
Sybase [NYSE: SY] +12%
McAfee [NYSE: MFE] +10%
Google [Nasdaq: GOOG] +7%
Ansys [Nasdaq: ANSS] +6%
Electronic Arts [Nasdaq: ERTS] +5%
Agfa-Gevaert [Brussels: AGFA] +4%
NCR [NYSE: NCR] +4%
ON Semiconductor [Nasdaq: ONNN] +2%
===================================
Intel [Nasdaq: INTC] -4%
Oracle [Nasdaq: ORCL] -5%
Three quarters of the way through the year, here's the ranking of local tech companies by market capitalization:
Market capitalization at September 30
in millions, using outstanding shares
(Change since June 30 in parentheses):
1. RIM ----- $41,132 (-$5,778)
2. Open Text ----- 2,252 (+16)
3. ATS ----- 502 (+121)
4. Descartes ----- 313 (+77)
5. Com Dev ----- 212 (-6)
6. Sandvine ----- 176 (-4)
7. Dalsa ----- 137 (+22)
8. MKS ----- 91 (+12)
9. Arise ----- 43 (-5)
10. RDM ----- 21 (+1)
11. TurboSonic ----- 20 (-2)
12. Biorem ----- 6 (+2)
The only change in ranking over the last three months is RDM edging ahead of TurboSonic. According to globeinvestor.com, RIM is the fifth most valuable company on the TSX, behind three banks and an oil and gas company.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
S P O N S O R
JUMPSTART YOUR STARTUP
For your startup to succeed, you need more than a good business plan--you need a way to implement it quickly and cost-effectively. That's how Sun Startup Essentials can help, with unbelievably discounted hardware and services, free support and training, and access to a network of investors and startups around the globe. Apply online in minutes, and get your company off the ground fast at the lowest possible cost.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
[6]---------------------------------------------------------------
Startup Notes
Miscellaneous Tidbits
Gary Will
gary@garywill.com
In this issue:
- Descartes share offering to gross $46M
- RIM earnings lowered by patent suit settlement
- Arise financing details, 7N silicon milestone
- Canadian Solar opens Kitchener headquarters
- STOCK REPORT: No news was good news for ATS shareholders
- Startup notes from Aeryon Labs, Bayalink, Energent, Strike Face, Mespere, ParkVu, Tribe, Ladybug, Tungle, Enflick, LoyaltyMatch
- Miscellaneous tidbits from Arise, Sandvine, RIM, Navtech, Desire2Learn, Com Dev, Innosphere, Vestec, IMS, MedShare
S P O N S O R S
AERO CORPORATE BENEFITS - Your Employee Benefits Solutions Provider
Located in Waterloo, we've served the KW technology community for over 20 years, providing employee benefits solutions to companies large and small. Our mission is simple. Help our clients succeed by doing what we do best: -- Design and monitor programs that attract & retain the most qualified employees -- Contain costs of employee benefits, retirement plans, and HR support -- Provide employee-level support & advice to help you manage risk & compliance. Please contact Herb Goedecke at 519.489.2376 x11 or herbg@aero-corp.com for details.
RISK FREE LEAD GENERATION
From sales opportunity development to increasing attendance for events, Virtual Causeway accelerates your sales process! With a focus on selling and marketing complex services and technology, we guarantee a consistent and reliable flow of quality leads - assuring that your pipeline is constantly full. Contact us today to learn how we can help connect you with your next customer. Call 519-886-1600 ext. 405 or email marketing@v-causeway.com for details.
EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE HEARD - and we want to listen
Hagon Design is #1 at creating marketing communications that get heard. Our technology industry experience includes Annual Reports, Brand Identities, Brochures and Collateral, Email Marketing, Websites and more. Let's get together for a coffee and chat. You tell us where you want to go, we listen, and we'll help pave the way to successful marketing. Give creative director, Ben Hagon a call at 519.500.7985 or email ben@hagondesign.com
EXCITING TIMES
"People crowded around our booth at the WES BlackBerry Conference to watch our new iLane video. Check it out at www.ilane.com. Bell Canada has recently signed on to promote and distribute our product. Exciting times for IMS!" Tony and Ken, IMS
MFX Partners has a 25 year history of elevating B2B brands (including iLane and IMS), from concept to living breathing product. To see more visit our website.
GO BEYOND STAFFING
For over 30 years, Procom has been matching people with companies, for jobs that are a perfect fit - contract, full-time, or part-time. We partner with large and small companies across North America, including some of the world's best-known enterprises, to provide a range of services, training tools, and the ideal candidates to help them flourish. We've been named one of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies and go beyond staffing to look strategically at the processes and people that will truly help a company succeed. Phone: 519.885.4331.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
[1]---------------------------------------------------------------
Descartes share offering to gross $46M
September 29, 2009
Descartes will raise $46 million through a bought deal share offering that is expected to close later this month. It will sell 7.9 million shares at $5.85 each. That includes the underwriters' overallotment option, which Descartes has said was exercised in full.
Descartes will receive gross proceeds of $41.9 million from the sale of 7.1 million new shares, while unspecified company officers and directors will receive $4.1 million from the sale of 693,296 of their own shares.
Underwriters are led by GMP Securities and CIBC World Markets and include Thomas Weisel Partners, Versant Partners, and Paradigm Capital.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
S P O N S O R
GOWLINGS TECHNOLOGY WHITEBOARDS
Our legal professionals discuss a range of issues affecting technology companies, including tips for start-ups, protecting your IP, outsourcing, technology agreements and more.
Gowlings' Waterloo Region Technology Law Group provides sophisticated, practical and timely advice in all areas of technology law to clients ranging from start-ups to public companies. 40 professionals serving Waterloo Region/Guelph (over 700 professionals nationwide). The Right People. Right Here. Contact David.Petras@gowlings.com or Sean.Gomes@gowlings.com at 519-576-6910.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
[2]---------------------------------------------------------------
RIM earnings lowered by patent suit settlement
September 24, 2009
RIM earned US$475.6 million on sales of US$3.53 billion in the quarter ended August 29, 2009 (Q2 10). Sales were up 3% from the previous quarter and 37% from a year ago, and were within the company's forecasted range of US$3.45-3.70 billion.
It was during this quarter that RIM settled the patent infringement suit that Visto had filed against the company in 2006 (see August 10 digest). The settlement included a payment by RIM of US$267.5 million, of which US$163.8 million was expensed as a litigation cost in Q2. Without that charge, RIM's operating income for the quarter would have been US$815.8 million, compared to US$690.1 million in Q1.
There were a net 3.8 million new BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter -- same as the previous quarter and at the bottom end of the company's forecast. That brought the total number of BlackBerry users to 32 million.
Operations generated US$1.2 billion in cash, and RIM ended the quarter with US$2.5 billion in cash, up US$78.5 million from the end of Q1.
RIM is expecting sales of US$3.60-3.85 billion in the current quarter, which would be a sequential increase of 2-9% and about 30-38% above last year. It is expecting to add another 4.0-4.3 million new BlackBerry subscribers.
[3]---------------------------------------------------------------
Arise financing details, 7N silicon milestone
September 15 & 24, 2009
Arise provided details about the $10 million in funding that it can access over the next three years by selling new shares at a discount to market prices (see previous digest). Providing the funds is Haverstock Master Fund, based in Roslyn, New York. At any time it chooses, Arise can take up to $500,000 per drawdown and Haverstock will pay the average price per share over the previous five days minus a 6.5% discount. Arise is also paying Haverstock $275,000 in fees, which it may pay with common shares priced at $0.55 each.
According to documents filed with the SEC in November, Haverstock Master Fund is 75% owned by Corey Ribotsky's Haverstock Partners LLC and 25% by Calgary's Eagle Ridge Capital. Ribotsky has had some interesting media coverage over the years.
Arise also announced that, for the first time, it produced PV cells using its own 7N+ silicon (99.99999% purity). Arise launched a "mini pilot plant" for its silicon process nearly two years ago and plans to build a 60,000 square-foot plant in Kitchener when economic and financing conditions improve. Arise's silicon feedstock development project is being partially funded by Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC).
The company is expecting a jump in demand for its systems business with the introduction of Ontario's feed-in-tariff (FIT) program. It has signed an agreement with a contracting firm to handle residential solar systems installations in the province.
[4]---------------------------------------------------------------
Canadian Solar opens Kitchener headquarters
September 25, 2009
Canadian Solar Inc., a Nasdaq-listed company founded in 2001 with a market value of US$570 million, has opened what it is calling its global headquarters in Kitchener. Company founder and CEO Shawn Qu previously worked at ATS for its Photowatt and Matrix Solar subsidiaries.
Canadian Solar reported earnings of US$17.7 million on sales of US$114.2 million in the quarter ended June 30 (Q2 09). It performs all its manufacturing in China and lists Shouzou, China as the location of its mailing address. According to the Record, the Kitchener office will have about 15 employees, one of whom is Milfred Hammerbacher, the former president of ATS' Spheral Solar business.
Canadian Solar's R&D investment levels are not significant. In its most recent quarter, it spent an amount equal to 2% of gross profits (less than one-half of 1% of sales) on R&D. Its R&D spending over the first half of the current fiscal year is about one-quarter of what Arise spent in the same period.
Like Arise, Canadian Solar, will be pursing solar system installation opportunities expected to be stimulated by Ontario's new feed-in-tariff program.
[5]---------------------------------------------------------------
STOCK REPORT: No news was good news for ATS shareholders
September 2009
ATS didn't have any announcements during the month, and the last time it did (in August), it announced lackluster quarterly results, but that didn't stop its shares from soaring in September to their highest levels in the last year.
Insider trading reports show heavy buying from New York's Mason Capital -- one of the investment firms that spearheaded the ouster of ATS' board and CEO two years ago. SEDI reports that Mason Capital has bought 2.2 million ATS shares on the public market since late August. It had already been the company's largest shareholder before those purchases, and now owns 14% of ATS.
For the month of September:
ATS [TSX: ATA] +30%
Descartes [TSX: DSG] +20%
Sandvine [TSX: SVC] +16%
Biorem [TSXV: BRM] +15%
Arise [TSX: APV] +10%
--S&P TSX VENTURE INDEX +9%
Dalsa [TSX: DSA] +6%
Com Dev [TSX: CDV] +6%
--S&P TSX COMPOSITE INDEX +5%
Open Text [TSX: OTC] +4%
===============================
MKS [TSX: MKX] -0%
TurboSonic [OTCBB: TSTA] -4%
RDM [TSX: RC] -6%
RIM [TSX: RIM] -10%
Descartes shares went as high as $6.25 during September, which is their highest point since April 2002. It will be hard to push that back much further, since the stock traded above $40 for a short period in 2001 (and well above that level in 2000).
RIM shares dropped 17% the day the company announced its quarterly results. Apparently, some investors are only adjusting now to the realization that the days of 70-100% year-over-year revenue growth are over. It's amazing they lasted as long as they did (as noted in the tidbits section, RIM has been ranked as one of Canada's fastest growing technology companies, as measured by four-year revenue growth, for the last 12 years in a row).
Companies with core operations outside the area:
Blue Coat [Nasdaq: BCSI] +15%
Acorn Energy [Nasdaq: ACFN] +15%
Sybase [NYSE: SY] +12%
McAfee [NYSE: MFE] +10%
Google [Nasdaq: GOOG] +7%
Ansys [Nasdaq: ANSS] +6%
Electronic Arts [Nasdaq: ERTS] +5%
Agfa-Gevaert [Brussels: AGFA] +4%
NCR [NYSE: NCR] +4%
ON Semiconductor [Nasdaq: ONNN] +2%
===================================
Intel [Nasdaq: INTC] -4%
Oracle [Nasdaq: ORCL] -5%
Three quarters of the way through the year, here's the ranking of local tech companies by market capitalization:
Market capitalization at September 30
in millions, using outstanding shares
(Change since June 30 in parentheses):
1. RIM ----- $41,132 (-$5,778)
2. Open Text ----- 2,252 (+16)
3. ATS ----- 502 (+121)
4. Descartes ----- 313 (+77)
5. Com Dev ----- 212 (-6)
6. Sandvine ----- 176 (-4)
7. Dalsa ----- 137 (+22)
8. MKS ----- 91 (+12)
9. Arise ----- 43 (-5)
10. RDM ----- 21 (+1)
11. TurboSonic ----- 20 (-2)
12. Biorem ----- 6 (+2)
The only change in ranking over the last three months is RDM edging ahead of TurboSonic. According to globeinvestor.com, RIM is the fifth most valuable company on the TSX, behind three banks and an oil and gas company.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
S P O N S O R
JUMPSTART YOUR STARTUP
For your startup to succeed, you need more than a good business plan--you need a way to implement it quickly and cost-effectively. That's how Sun Startup Essentials can help, with unbelievably discounted hardware and services, free support and training, and access to a network of investors and startups around the globe. Apply online in minutes, and get your company off the ground fast at the lowest possible cost.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
[6]---------------------------------------------------------------
Startup Notes
- Aeryon Labs and Bayalink were among the 10 recipients of the 2009 Companies-To-Watch award -- part of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program. Aeryon Labs has developed what it describes as a "flying camera" -- a 2-pound hovering platform that captures high resolution video and photographs. Bayalink is one of the startups at the Accelerator Centre and has developed a USB stick that enables BlackBerry users to access e-mail and use their BlackBerry applications through the larger screen and keyboard of their laptop.
- Aeryon was also one of the companies announced to be receiving money from Ontario's Investment Accelerator Fund. Other Waterloo-area companies that were just announced as recipients of IAF funding are Energent, which graduated from the Accelerator Centre last month (see previous digest) and Strike Face Technology, a company founded by Christian Kaufmann and two UW professors, Mike Worswick and Duane Cronin, that has developed ceramic armour technology for military applications. IAF was launched a couple of years ago and has been managed through Ontario Centres of Excellence, which is undergoing a major restructuring.
- Mespere Lifesciences has received $122,618 through the National Research Council's IRAP program. Mespere has developed non-invasive technology to monitor central venous pressure -- the pressure of blood near the heart. It is located at the Accelerator Centre.
- ParkVu has been selected as one of six presenters at CTIA Fund Fest this Friday, part of the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment conference in San Diego. Organizers say the Fund Fest will "spotlight the brightest, most innovative and promising companies in wireless." An investor panel will pick its favourite among the six, while attendees can vote for the "people's choice."
- Joseph Fung (formerly of Lewis Media) and UW's Jesse Rodgers have launched Tribe. The company is developing HR management software targetted at companies with fewer than 200 employees.
- Ladybug Teknologies has launched its BAQ Tracker Mobile application for the BlackBerry. It enables users to determine their blood alcohol concentration level through a simulation tool. The company says the $11 software is a less precise but far less expensive alternative to a breathalyzer -- one that is affordable for a wide range of users who wouldn't buy their own breathalyzer.
- Tungle announced the availability of its Web-based cross-platform calendar sharing software for the iPhone. It made the announcement at DEMOfall in Boston.
- Enflick formally announced the launch of its Unlimited SMS service that provides unlimited text messaging in the U.S. and Canada for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Unlimited SMS is sold through iTunes for $4.99. It first became available earlier this year. Reviews posted on iTunes have been mixed, averaging two stars out of five. Enflick was founded by UW student Derek Ting and is based at the Accelerator Centre.
- LoyaltyMatch was one of the companies mentioned in a Toronto Star story about reward points.
Miscellaneous Tidbits
- The Canadian 2009 Technology Fast 50 list is out -- ranking tech companies by revenue growth from their 2004 and 2008 fiscal years (they call it "revenue growth over five years" but the first year is used as the base, so they're comparing revenue numbers that are four years apart). Local companies on the list are: Arise (#15), Sandvine (#17), RIM (#19), Navtech (#34), and Desire2Learn (#41). RIM has made the list in each of the 12 years the award has been presented. This was Arise's first appearance, while Desire2Learn (4th year), Sandvine (3rd year), and Navtech (2nd year) are all repeat winners. RIM also received the 2009 Technology Fast 50 Leadership award for telecom.
- Navtech's been a private company for nearly two years, but based on its Tech Fast 50 ranking, it would have had US$44.3 million in revenue in its fiscal 2008 year. That would have been up about 6% from its run rate over the first nine months of FY07. At that time, the company was below the R&D spending requirements for the Tech Fast 50, so it must have beefed up its R&D spending over the next 15 months.
- Com Dev has been named one of two recipients of the Desjardins Business Excellence Award for Large Business, part of the Ontario Business Achievement Awards from the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. The award will be presented at a gala at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre next month.
- Guelph's Innosphere announced that sales in the fiscal year ended June 30 were up 23% from last year. The 15 year-old company performs outsourced software development and QA.
- Vestec has partnered with Digium, developers of the Asterisk telephony software. Vestec will provide its speech recognition engine for use on the open source Asterisk platform. Vestec says it makes speech recognition capabilities affordable at a cost of $99 a port.
- IMS' iLane is one of three nominees for best Bluetooth accessory at the CTIA Hot for the Holidays Awards. Winners will be announced later this week at the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment conference in San Diego.
- MedShare has partnered with Montreal's Qualicode Software to create a bilingual version of its BlackBerry software for home healthcare workers.
- A guest columnist at the Wall Street Journal's website listed Open Text as one of "five companies Google might buy next." Desire2Learn competitor Blackboard was also on the list.
posted by Gary Will at 12:35 AM
