Portfolio
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September 8, 2009
Former Natural Convergence customer moves to delay sale
By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published on the front page of the Ottawa Business Journal and on its website.
Sept. 8, 2009
Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.
Sources say NCI’s last days included layoff announcement during forced vacation
A local former customer of insolvent telecom firm Natural Convergence Inc. has filed a notice of appeal to block the sale of NCI’s assets to Broadview Networks, according to receivership documents obtained by OBJ.
While there were no details as to the reasons for the notice of appeal, the first report of the receiver, PricewaterhouseCoopers, showed Ottawa-based BluArc Communications Inc. has asked that the receiving and vesting orders related to NCI’s sale of its flagship Silhouette voice-over-Internet protocol technology be stayed (more…)
June 29, 2009
TAKING STOCK: Bridge to a mobile ‘revolution’?
By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
June 29, 2009 (July 2 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)
Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.
Bridgewater could beneft from the one area where carriers are still spending
Photo by ETIENNE RANGER for the Ottawa Business Journal
While many other tech companies have seen their stock value plunge since the onset of the recession as customers trim or delay their spending, Bridgewater Systems is one of the few exceptions.
Although its share price has dipped somewhat in recent weeks, over the past six months its value has more than doubled, hitting a 52-week high of $5.25 in May that brought it close to revisiting its $5.50 initial public offering price. With record revenues in its last fiscal year and recent deals with major partners and customers, as well as a successful compromise with shareholder Crescendo Partners that helped avert a messy proxy battle, the path seems clear for the mobile service management software firm to capitalize on the rising popularity of the smartphone. So is there a downside?
The company’s view: Bridgewater CEO Ed Ogonek has said the company is at the “front stage of a mobile data revolution.” As more people request services and add more applications onto their mobile devices, demand for Bridgewater’s subscriber management and policy control technology is expected to soar, which makes sense considering many users are already drowning in a sea of applications ranging from the mundane and functional to a plethora of online games.
Mr. Ogonek noted the company is debt-free, has reported profits in 19 out of its last 20 quarters and, notably, has enough cash to be conducting an ongoing share buyback program and to be considering strategic acquisitions. (more…)
June 8, 2009
Changing lanes: A tale of two accounting standards
By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
June 8, 2009
Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.
Shift from Canadian GAAP to new standards not just a matter for finance departments
Photo by ETIENNE RANGER for the Ottawa Business Journal
Although it isn’t until Jan. 1, 2011 that reporting issuers must officially switch from using current Canadian accounting standards – known as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles – to the new International Financial Reporting Standards, many firms have already started the complicated, multi-phase process.
And not a moment too soon, experts say. “It’s not just an accounting change,” says Carol Devenny, who’s in charge of PricewaterhouseCooper’s audit practice.
Among other things, the level of disclosure required of a company will increase, meaning most departments, if not all, will have to start gathering new and more detailed types of information to comply. A firm might find it has to overhaul its entire IT system to accommodate the changes, some say.
As well, adds Ms. Devenny, shareholders will have to be appraised (more…)
May 18, 2009
Fashionably late?
By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal and on its website.
May 18, 2009 (May 20 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)
Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.
An OBJ reporter joins the search for a popular retailer and other peddlers of fashionable wares
Ever since those surreal television commercials began airing in March, depicting a curly-haired blond and swarthy suit-clad man in rooms with ladders and Alice-in-Wonderland doors, I’ve been one of many Ottawans wondering if Swedish fashion retailer H&M is close to opening its first store in the nation’s capital.
Local retail industry observers have been buzzing about the possibility for years, and devoted Facebookers – yours truly included – have bombarded H&M’s discussion boards with pleas to bring the store to Ottawa, especially in the wake of new openings in smaller cities such as Peterborough, Ont. and Dartmouth, N.S.
Posted one online commenter: “Ottawa’s … full of young government workers who have loads of disposable income, and not one store … It’s almost insulting … Maybe one day Ottawa will be deemed ‘worthy.’”
It seems the time is nigh considering that (more…)
February 2, 2009
Allen-Vanguard deal could hit headwind
By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published on the front page of the Ottawa Business Journal and on its website.
Feb. 2, 2009
Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.
Defence company’s future rests in hands of Tailwind shareholders
Defence company Allen-Vanguard could see some of its debt woes eased with a proposed $40-million takeover by a U.S. buyout firm, but analysts say the transaction is far from a done deal.
Allen-Vanguard announced last week it had agreed to merge with Delaware-based special purpose acquisition firm Tailwind Financial Inc., a deal which would allow the bomb-jammer and blast suit maker to recapitalize. Tailwind said it will offer 0.046493 of a common share for every Allen-Vanguard share, pricing the latter at almost double their current market value. At the same time, Allen-Vanguard will carry out a shareholder rights offering that could raise as much as $100 million.
The new company is to be known as Allen Vanguard Corp. (more…)
September 1, 2008
Sushi sensation
By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Fall/Winter 2008 edition of Ottawa At Home Magazine.
Click here to view this article on OttawaAtHome.ca.
Baked Scallop Roll.
Photo by JONATHAN KUNG.
For most lovers of food from faraway lands, sushi is no longer just scary scraps of raw fish that you have to fumble to pick up with your chopsticks.
In fact, it isn’t uncommon to find your standard – but unfortunately oh-so-blah – California roll and salmon sushi at the local supermarket or mall food court. But where can serious sushi samplers in search of more exotic fare find those oases of Zen in Ottawa? Sushi fanatic Krystle Chow went on the hunt for places that tantalize and tempt her taste buds and found these five favourites. (more…)
August 4, 2008
TAKING STOCK: Espying a tough road ahead
By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Aug. 4, 2008
Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.
Photo by DARREN BROWN for the Ottawa Business Journal
Internet TV products maker Espial began its public life with a bang, with the company’s stock price soaring by more than 12 per cent on its opening day in June 2007 on the TSX, quickly reaching a high of $9.25 about a month later.
Since then, however, Espial’s shares have dwindled to a mere 95 cents each, an 87-per-cent plunge from the company’s debut price of $7.85. Partnership agreements with significant service providers have been fairly thin, and the company was forced to cut 30 per cent of its staff at the end of 2007.
But now, the company is hoping to turn itself around with the $6.6-million acquisition of California-based competitor Kasenna Inc. But what will the market think of Espial’s prospects with this addition, which the company has said will expand its footprint to (more…)
April 28, 2008
Double play for Rapids: Baseball club to change hands
By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published on the front page of theOttawa Business Journal and on its website.
April 28, 2008
Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.
Dot-com businessmen Rick Anderson and Rob Hall are expected to announce this week that they will buy Ottawa’s new professional baseball club.
The purchase precedes the Ottawa Rapids’ first exhibition game against the New Jersey Jackals on May 22.
Mr. Anderson, of Zip.ca, did not directly confirm the acquisition when the OBJ contacted him on April 24, but said: “The first time we met with Miles (Wolff, the Can-Am League commissioner) and he talked about bringing Can-Am back, we immediately told him (more…)
That’ll be $0, please
By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
April 28, 2008 (May 1 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)
Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.
Chris Anderson.
(Photo supplied)
Wired Magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson previews his new book on how everything online will soon be free
The idea of literally giving something away but still profiting from it isn’t a new concept, but with the advent of the Internet there’s now a new dimension to it – and soon, all products and services we now pay for could become free, says Wired Magazine head honcho Chris Anderson.
It’s the subject of his new book, aptly named Free, which he will be previewing at Celebridee during the Canadian Tulip Festival, held from May 2 to May 19 in Ottawa. The OBJ picked Mr. Anderson’s brain to find out more about the new free economy and what it will mean for businesses.
OBJ: So tell us a bit more about what it means to have an economy where everything is free.
ANDERSON: It’s a broad economic trend that affects every industry everywhere. Any company, product, service that is digital is either going to eventually become free or compete with free; it’s the law of gravity in digital economics. It’s the Google model, where they don’t charge you: Google doesn’t show up on your credit card bill, Google’s free to consumers.
Software’s increasingly moving from a product that you buy to a free service that you go to on the web, the software-as-a-service model. And increasingly, services are moving from professional people you pay for to places you go to for free, be it (more…)
April 14, 2008
Raising the profile of ‘one of Canada’s well-kept secrets’
By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
April 14, 2008 (April 16 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)
Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.
Photo by CHRISTIAN FLEURY
Carleton University’s new business school dean and president will be starting their jobs on the same day this summer, and both say they are excited to strengthen what they see as a school with great potential.
The university recently announced that it has selected its first female president, Dr. Roseann Runte, and picked Dr. Jerry Tomberlin as the second dean for the Sprott School of Business since the business school was awarded full faculty status in 2006. Both start on July 1.
The new president will be taking over from interim head Dr. Samy Mahmoud and the incoming business school dean is succeeding acting dean Roland Thomas.
Mr. Tomberlin is the former dean of the John Molson School of Business at Montreal’s Concordia University, while Ms. Runte is currently serving as president of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.
“It’s a very exciting school that’s very strong and one of Canada’s well-kept secrets. I plan on making it stronger,” said Mr. Tomberlin in an interview with the OBJ. (more…)
