• WATERLOO TECH DIGEST - November 2008(2) (水城百事)

by beebo, Tuesday, December 02, 2008, 09:51 @ beebo

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STOCK REPORT: Com Dev not immune to market woes
November 2008

It was an improvement over October ... although not at Com Dev, where the
stock market collapse finally caught up with the company. Its shares had
made it through October unscathed (see previous digest), but fell in
November to their lowest month-end price since February 2006.

ATS shares were the biggest gainer of the month after the company reported
good quarterly results, but it wasn't enough to make up for their drop in
October and they finished at their second-lowest month-end price ever.

For the month of November:

ATS [TSX: ATA] +37%
Open Text [TSX: OTC] +17%
MKS [TSX: MKX] +8%
Dalsa [TSX: DSA] +7%
Descartes [TSX: DSG] 0%
Sandvine [TSX: SVC] 0%
===============================
--S&P TSX COMPOSITE INDEX -5%
Arise [TSX: APV] -10%
RIM [TSX: RIM] -11%
RDM [TSX: RC] -14%
--S&P TSX VENTURE INDEX -19%
Biorem [TSXV: BRM] -23%
Com Dev [TSX: CDV] -27%
TurboSonic [OTCBB: TSTA] -61%

Virtek is off the list, having been acquired by Gerber Scientific and
delisted (see previous digest).

With one month to go in 2008, the only company with shares showing a gain
over the year is Open Text, up 14% (all of which came in November). At the
other end of the list, Arise and Sandvine shares are in a dead heat for
worst performer, both with 79.1% declines so far in 2008. Arise shares
have now fallen for seven consecutive months, and the company has dropped
below Sandvine in market capitalization, just slightly ahead of MKS.

Companies with core operations outside the area:

Oracle [Nasdaq: ORCL] +5%
Ansys [Nasdaq: ANSS] +1%
===================================
McAfee [NYSE: MFE] -7%
Sybase [NYSE: SY] -7%
Acorn Energy [Nasdaq: ACFN] -11%
Adobe [Nasdaq: ADBE] -13%
NCR [NYSE: NCR] -17%
Google [Nasdaq: GOOG] -18%
Agfa-Gevaert [Brussels: AGFA] -28%
Blue Coat [Nasdaq: BCSI] -34%
ON Semiconductor [Nasdaq: ONNN] -43%

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Miscellaneous Tidbits

* Software from CREZ Basketball Systems will be used to manage all league
statistics for the Premier Basketball League's 2009 season. The league
consists of teams in 16 cities, including Montreal, Quebec City, and
Halifax, as well as Buffalo, Rochester, and 11 other U.S. cities. (There
was supposed to be a Toronto team this season, but it never happened.)

* Well.ca was named one of Canada's top 10 angel-backed companies at the
National Angel Capital Organization's Canadian Co-investment Summit in
Toronto. Well.ca was the first company listed on the news release, but the
NACO didn't say if the order on the release matched the ranking of the
companies. At the event, 25 angel-backed companies made pitches for
another round of funding.

* Tangam Systems announced a partnership with Las Vegas-based Shuffle
Master, a Nasdaq-listed company. Shuffle Master will help Tangam to
promote its products to casinos and the two companies are looking at
working together to develop new products.

* IMS says that Bell Mobility has agreed to help distribute iLane in
Canada. iLane, which IMS unveiled in 2006, is a Bluetooth device that uses
voice commands and text-to-voice technology to give drivers hands-free
access to their e-mail.

* LoyaltyMatch has partnered with Palo Alto-based UpTake, a VC-backed
search site for travel deals and information. UpTake will provide links to
the LoyaltyMatch site to help its users convert frequent flier and other
points into cash.

* Com Dev finished the review of its past stock option grants and found
that 635,779 options awarded in 2006 and 433,400 options awarded in 1999
had been improperly priced. None of the 2006 options had been exercised,
so the company has just adjusted the exercise price from $4.44 a share to
$5.14. Of the 1999 options, only 70,130 were exercised and the rest
expired. The company decided not to take any action on those. It also
provided an explanation for the pricing of 350,000 additional options
granted in 1999. Com Dev says the OSC sent letters to the company and to
chairman Keith Ainsworth admonishing them for their practices, but it
intends no further action. Com Dev also said that Ainsworth will take the
director's education program offered by the Institute of Corporate
Directors.

* RIM announced that there were over 400,000 downloads of its MySpace for
BlackBerry application in the first week after its launch on November 13.

* ATS saw its sales in the quarter ended September 30 jump 49% from a weak
quarter last year and 4% from the previous quarter to $219,536. Earnings
were $9.3 million.

* Biorem earned $144,000 on sales of $4.1 million in the quarter ended
September 30 (Q3 08). Over the first nine months of the year, its sales
are up 49% over last year.

* TurboSonic earned US$30,000 on sales of US$5.0 million in the quarter
ended September 30. Sales were up 55% from a year ago.

* Blackboard -- the U.S. company that successfully sued Desire2Learn for
patent infringement -- has now filed suit against the U.S. Patent &
Trademark Office, complaining that the USPTO should have stopped its
reexamination of Blackboard's patent.