Krystle Chow’s Online Portfolio

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Jan. 28, 2008

Allen-Vanguard, Enablence, Orezone to build strength in share prices

2007 was a rollercoaster year for the three stocks we’ve chosen as the ones to watch in 2008, with both good and bad news aplenty.

Allen-Vanguard Corp., Enablence Technologies Inc. and Orezone Resources Inc. all saw huge price movements last year on announcements of key acquisitions, but insider trading investigations and contract awards to competitors, among other news items, spooked investors and led to a bumpy ride or two.

So what’s ahead for 2008? The OBJ spoke to the experts to get the inside scoop. (more…)

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Jan. 28, 2008 (Jan. 30 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

EMS SATCOM general manager Gary Hebb says there is no substitute for frequent travel to, and communication with, a company’s overseas operations, especially when that operation has been recently acquired.
Photo by DARREN BROWN for the Ottawa Business Journal

When wireless, satellite and defence solutions maker EMS Technologies Inc. said it was going to buy satellite communications company DSpace and merge it with its Ottawa-based SATCOM operations, it seemed like the perfect fit.

Both make satellite technology to provide mobile broadband Internet to people on the move in remote areas, both used U.K.-based Inmarsat’s satellites, and the acquisition wouldn’t require SATCOM to shed any product lines or lay off staff.

But DSpace is based in Adelaide, Australia, which is more than a day away by plane and 12-and-a-half hours ahead of Ottawa. So, how did SATCOM deal with the distance and the differences, both temporal and cultural?

The OBJ spoke with SATCOM general manager Gary Hebb about some of the ways the companies managed to bridge this divide.

OBJ: Why did you pick DSpace to acquire?

HEBB: Our satellite communications technology, which are particular terminals that give you high-speed data communications while you’re moving in a vehicle anyplace around the world, is pretty complicated tech, with only about five companies in the world that provide that kind of technology. DSpace was one of them and EMS was one of them.

With DSpace in Australia, they have customers like the Australian defence forces and they have access to markets in that side of the world that we normally wouldn’t even think of. It gives us access to those customers, those markets and more of an understanding of what’s going on in different areas of the world.

It also gives us access to Australian government funding. Satellite communications is a very high-tech kind of business and it’s the sort of thing that qualifies for research and development initiatives that different governments have, and (more…)

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Jan. 7, 2008

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

Robert Ford says low VC levels and international consolidation will continue to drive M&As in 2008; however, the U.S. economic slowdown may push this activity down.
Photo by DARREN BROWN for the Ottawa Business Journal

It doesn’t look like 2008 will be a breakthrough year for Ottawa’s high-tech companies, but the good news is that a downturn isn’t expected either, despite the U.S. economic slowdown, low funding levels and last year’s historic merger and acquisition activity.

With some of the biggest deals in Ottawa history seen in 2007, the forecast is that the momentum from those mergers and acquisitions is going to help activity levels in this area stay healthy, with only a slight dip expected this year.

Robert Ford, a technology lawyer with Gowlings Kanata, says there were several factors driving M&A activity in 2007: low-cost debt funding and private equity; strong equity prices, meaning that it was a good time to buy because company shares were worth a lot; international pressure and consolidation, and lack of venture capital.

“Three of those factors will drop this year – the low-cost funding, equity prices will fall a little bit with the U.S. slowdown, and private equity will fall off somewhat in response to exposure to asset-backed commercial paper,” Mr. Ford says. “However, there is still a lot of international sales pressure, which will drive some M&A and strategic buys, and the lack of venture capital means some companies will have to sell before their time in Ottawa, but it won’t be as furious.”

Mr. Ford says the pressure to consolidate in order to compete internationally is going to mean a lot (more…)