Calling all Canadian Tech Companies - Last Call for 2011 Branham300 applications

Branham Group would like to notify all Canadian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) companies that this is their last chance to apply for the 2011 Edition of the Branham300. In order to ensure that all eligible companies have a chance to apply for this year's listing, Branham has extended the online application deadline to December 2, 2010.

Entering its 18th year, the Branham300 highlights the top Canadian and Multinational ICT companies operating in Canada and is widely considered to be the leading source of intelligence on Canada's ICT industry. Companies that participate in the Branham300 not only contribute to the most accurate snapshot of the state of ICT in Canada, but they also benefit from increased market exposure and positive brand awareness, which in many cases leads to new business opportunities.

The 2011 Edition of the Branham300 will be published online at www.branham300.com as well as in the April/May issue of Backbone Magazine, a leading Canadian business, technology and lifestyle magazine that is distributed across Canada with the Globe and Mail.

HP names former SAP chief as new CEO

Leo Apotheker In an effort to close the book on the Mark Hurd saga, HP announced the appointment of Léo Apotheker as the company's eighth President and Chief Executive Officer yesterday. Apotheker will also join HP's Board of Directors.

Apotheker, who is a 20 year SAP veteran that was appointed the German business software makers CEO in mid-2008, abruptly resigned from the company earlier this year. He succeeds Mark Hurd, who resigned from the position on August 6 after an HP probe found that he had violated the company's conduct standards.

Cathie Lesjak, who held the Interim CEO tag since Hurd's abrupt departure, will return to her role as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Robert Ryan is HP's lead independent director for the company's Board of Directors:

"Léo is a strategic thinker with a passion for technology, wide-reaching global experience and proven operational discipline – exactly what we were looking for in a CEO. After more than two decades in the industry, he has a strong track record of driving technological innovation, building customer relationships and developing world-class teams."

Apotheker added his thoughts on taking the highly coveted HP role:

“HP has a powerful mix of businesses, products and services, one of the most innovative cultures in the industry, and an accomplished management team who have played a critical role in its success. I am deeply honored to be joining the more than 300,000 dedicated HP employees.”

For complete details on HP's appointment, have a look at the company's official release.

RIM officially enters the tablet market with the BlackBerry PlayBook

Research in Motion (RIM) has formally/finally entered the tablet market with the launch of the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Mike Lazaridis, RIM's co-chief executive officer, made the announcement today at its annual developer conference in San Francisco, CA.

“RIM set out to engineer the best professional-grade tablet in the industry with cutting-edge hardware features and one of the world's most robust and flexible operating systems. The BlackBerry PlayBook solidly hits the mark with industry leading power, true multitasking, uncompromised web browsing and high performance multimedia.”

Here are the key features and specifications of the BlackBerry PlayBook:

7” LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
1 GHz dual-core processor
1 GB RAM • Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording
Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
HDMI video output
Wi-Fi - 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
Ultra thin and portable: o Measures 5.1”x7.6”x0.4” (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)o Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)

The BlackBerry PlayBook is expected to be available in retail outlets and other channels in the United States in early-2011 with rollouts in other international markets beginning in mid-2011.

For complete details on the BlackBerry PlayBook, have a look at RIM's official release or visit www.blackberry.com/playbook.

Axia NetMedia reports FY2010 financials

Axia Axia NetMedia, a provider of real broadband Internet protocol services and solutions, reported its fiscal 2010 financial results last week. Although fourth quarter sales were up 5.8 per cent to $18.3 million, annual revenues declined 1.9 per cent from $69.8 million in 2009 to $68.5 million in 2010. Bottom line earning figures were also down year-over-year, falling 42.8 per cent from slightly less than $6.0 million in 2009 to a little more than $3.4 million in 2010.

Art Price is the Chairman and CEO of Axia NetMedia:

“During fiscal 2010, Axia’s sales continued to grow according to plan and new trends in the ICT sector evolved to become part of mainstream strategic planning amongst industry leaders. The four key trends are Cloud Computing, Software as a Service, data mobile services and sensor technologies. Over time these will become the key drivers of demand for Axia’s Next Generation Network Services.”

For complete details on Axia NetMedia's operating results, have a look at its audited FY2010 financial release.

Canadian launch of Blackberry Torch delayed...again

If you were eagerly awaiting this Friday's launch of RIM's newest handheld smartphone, the Blackberry Torch 9800, you'll have to wait a little bit longer. Rogers announced this afternoon that it is delaying the Torch's launch until September 30.

Details on when the Torch, which includes both RIM's trademark keyboard and a touchscreen, will launch at each of the other major telecommunication providers is still scarce. Bell had previously said that it would begin selling the device on October 1, but its website currently says that the Torch is coming soon, without a specific release date noted. The other member of the Big Three, Telus, has not announced when it will begin selling the Torch either.

Zip.ca executive: Netflix is going to expand our market

As reported earlier today, Netflix has launched its online streaming service in Canada.

You would think that this market-entry would be cause for concern for Zip.ca, Canada's largest DVD rent-by-mail service. However, it doesn't really seem to bother them. Rob Hall, chief executive of Momentous.ca Corp. - the parent company of Zip.ca - put it this way:

"There's all this buzz about Netflix coming to Canada, but Netflix isn't really coming to Canada. Netflix is bringing a limited streaming offering to Canada, not their mail business, which is what they're built on...They're going to help us educate the market about why brick and mortar is dying in the U.S. and why it will follow suit here in Canada, and we're the only game in Canada right now for mail."

Hall does have a point. Netflix is not bringing its bread-and-butter rent-by-mail service north of the US border, which would compete head-on with Zip.ca's market offering. That's not to say that Netflix won't chip away at Zip.ca's revenues as users become more familiar with on-demand streaming service, which is likely why Zip.ca is planning to launch its own online streaming service later this year along with a specialty video kiosk business, which will allow users to rent movies from an automated vending machine inside grocery stores for $1 per night.

With the well documented struggles of the brick and mortar video rental model, which took another hit this week with reports that Blockbuster is filing for Chapter 11 in the States, it is becoming increasingly clear that Canadians will have to look elsewhere for their video rental needs, and competition within this space is great news for all.

IBM set to acquire Netezza for US$1.7 billion

After IBM's chief executive weighed in with some very candid thoughts on HP's M&A and innovation investment strategies last week, Big Blue has agreed to acquire Netezza, a leader in data warehousing, analytic and monitoring appliances, for US$27 per share in cash, making the deal worth approximately US$1.7 billion.

The purchase price represents a reasonable 10 per cent premium over Netezza's last closing price of US$24.60. Comparatively, HP paid a 24 per cent and 83 per cent premium in the acquisitions it closed earlier this month.

Steve Mills is the senior vice president and group executive of IBM's Software and Systems division:

"IBM is bringing analytics to the masses. We continue to evolve our capabilities for systems integration, bringing together optimized hardware and software, in response to increasing demand for technology that delivers true business value. Netezza is a perfect example of this approach. Netezza strongly complements our business analytics capabilities and client base. Together, we have the opportunity to quickly leverage the technology and accelerate the offering."

In the last four years, IBM has invested more than $12 billion in 23 analytics related acquisitions. In IBM's second-quarter of 2010, IBM's analytics business grew 14%.

Following the close of the acquisition in the fourth quarter of 2010, IBM intends to integrate Netezza within IBM's Information Management software portfolio. Netezza has approximately 500 employees around the world.

RIM shows its resiliency; Q2 results surpass analyst expectations (mostly)

RIM Canada's largest technology company, Research In Motion, reported its second quarter financial results for its 2011 fiscal year yesterday afternoon.

Amongst all the negative hype about RIM and how its product suite stacks up against the competition, the wireless solutions company posted some impressive financial results, beating analyst expectations in all but one area. Here is the breakdown of some of RIM's Q2 FY2011 operating results as compared to analyst expectations (analyst expectations appear first in each area noted):

Revenue - US$4.47 billion vs. US$4.62
Earnings Per Share - US$1.34 vs. US$1.46
Net-New Subscribers - 5 million vs. 4.5 million

The Waterloo, Ont.-based company increased revenues by 31 per cent over the same quarter last year, shipping approximately 12.1 million devices in its second quarter. Net Income was also up for the quarter, increasing 3.6 per cent compared to the previous quarter and an impressive 67.5 per cent compared to the same quarter last year, to US$796.7 million.

Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at RIM had this to say about the company's results:

"RIM set another new record in the quarter by shipping over 12 million BlackBerry smartphones. This accomplishment and RIM's solid financial results during the second quarter were driven by effective business execution and strong demand for RIM's portfolio of BlackBerry smartphones and services in markets around the world. We expect a continuation of this momentum in the third quarter as we extend the rollout of new products including the BlackBerry Torch into additional markets and benefit from heavy promotional activities and increasing customer demand as we head into the holiday buying season."

Along with its second quarter results, RIM also issued its outlook for Q3, forecasting revenues in the range of US$5.30-US$5.55 billion. Gross margins for the same quarter are expected to be around 42 per cent, while the wireless solutions leader expects to add another 5.0-5.4 million net subscribers.

For complete details on RIM's most recent release, take a look here.

Big day for RIM as it releases quarterly results

RIM Research In Motion is set to release its second quarter financial results for its 2011 fiscal year after markets close this afternoon. Most people that track the Canadian ICT industry have had this date circled on their calendar since RIM announced the release date back in early-September.

This isn't your regular Q2 release. Analysts, investors and anyone with a general interest in Canadian ICT knows that this could be a very important date in the Blackberry makers storied history.

If RIM's Q2 results fall short of analyst expectations, the media attention might make it seem as though the sky is falling on the Waterloo-based company. There is no question that the competition is mounting in the wireless solutions space; it has been for years. More and more companies are opening the doors to competing mobile devices, a sharp contrast to the time when Blackberry was the be-all end-all for business use. Just last week it was announced that JPMorgan, the second largest bank in the U.S. with approximately 220,000 employees worldwide, is testing out the iPhone as a Blackberry alternative.

The troubling thing is, if RIM's numbers surpass analyst expectations it doesn't mean that the company is out of the woods. All it will do is set aside criticism and hypothetical discussions of RIM's challenges until the company's next financial release.

I guess all we can do right now is sit back and wait for the results.

For details on how to listen in on management conference call that begins at 5 PM ET, visit here.

IBM CEO takes shots at HP

Sam Palmisano The notoriously quiet and conservative chief executive of IBM, Samuel Palmisano, stepped into the limelight for a few moments Tuesday and provided some interesting thoughts at the Wall Street Journal Viewpoints Executive Breakfast. He offered some very candid opinions on such topics as HP's dismissal of Mark Hurd, the company's acquisition strategy and its lack of focus on R&D investment.

On the reported $34.6 million exit package that Mark Hurd received upon dismissal as the company's CEO:

"They spent a lot of money to keep him for an hour. That to me was not handled in the best interests of shareholders."

Shortly after Mr. Hurd's dismissal from HP, he basically crossed the street and joined the executive team at Oracle as the company's President, reporting to long-time company founder and CEO Larry Ellison. HP is in the works of suing Mr. Hurd, as the company claims that its trade secrets are at risk if the ex-CEO is on the competitors roster.

On HP's acquisition of 3PAR and ArcSight:

“We’d never do a 3Par or the one (ArcSight) yesterday. We don’t have to.”

In the past month, HP has spent frivolously acquiring 3Par in a deal worth US$2.4 billion before purchasing ArcSight for another US$1.5 billion earlier this week. Of particular scrutiny is the 3PAR deal. Prior to Dell's initial offer the company was trading at US$18 per share. After a series of offers by Dell and HP, the purchase price per share increased a staggering 83 per cent to US$33 per share. Comparatively, HP acquired ArcSight at a 24 per cent premium or US$43.50 per share.

On IBM's R&D Investment:

"If you're pushing technology you will get returns"

At the breakfast meeting, Palmisano said that he respects companies that have high investment levels in new technologies, like Oracle. He also mentioned that he is less worried about competing with HP because they do not invest enough in research and development. The numbers support Palmisano's claim too, as IBM invested 6.1 per cent of its revenues in R&D activities in fiscal 2009 compared to the 2.5 per cent that HP dedicated to technology innovation.

It was great to see the IBM CEO stick his neck out there and provide his thoughts on the current happenings within the global IT Industry. For a full breakdown on the topics that the IBM head touched on, take a look here.