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.

Uniserve Communications reports FY2010 financials

Uniserve Communications quietly released its financial results for fiscal 2010 yesterday. The New Westminster, B.C.-based company's 2010 fiscal year ended all the way back on May 31, 2010.

The voice and data service provider generated $14.9 million in revenue in 2010, down 20.3 per cent from $18.6 million in 2009. A significant chunk of the decline in sales is due to the company's 2008 divestiture of Parasun Technologies, which accounted for nearly $3.5 million in sales in fiscal 2009. Net earnings for fiscal 2010 came in at $1.3 million, up significantly from Uniserve's $91 thousand overall loss in fiscal 2009.

Uniserve did not offer up any formal commentary on the company's performance in fiscal 2010, however complete details on Uniserve's 2010 fiscal year can be found in its audited financial statements.

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.

Sierra Wireless announces new organizational structure... reduces global workforce by 6 per cent

Sierra Wireless announced yesterday that it is establishing three new business units - M2M Embedded Solutions, Mobile Computing, and Solutions & Services - to sharpen the company's focus on key markets and accelerate profit growth. Here is what Jason Cohenour, Sierra Wireless' president and CEO had to say about the company's announcement:

“With the integration of our M2M businesses complete, the time is right to launch a new organization that strengthens customer focus and enhances responsiveness in key markets. This business unit structure allows us to rapidly address different customer and product requirements in mobile computing, embedded M2M and M2M solution, and positions us to drive strong, sustained growth and improved profitability.”

Way down at the bottom of the release, Sierra Wireless mentioned that as part of the new business unit structure, the company has eliminated approximately 60 full-time positions (6 per cent of Sierra Wireless' global workforce) in the hopes of reducing operating expenses by roughly $1 million per quarter. The bulk of the layoffs are expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2010, but there was no indication of which corporate offices will be affected by the reduction.

Sierra Wireless also announced several executive changes as a result of the new organizational structure. For complete details, have a look at Sierra Wireless' release.

PEER 1 Hosting reports financials for FY2010

Vancouver-based PEER 1 Hosting, a leading provider of online IT infrastructure, announced its fiscal 2010 financial results this afternoon. Here are some high-level details:

Revenue increased 6.1% to $97.9 million from $92.3 million
Gross profit decreased 1.6% to $39.1 million from $39.7 million
Operating income decreased 39.6% to $7.4 million from $12.3 million
Normalized EBITDA decreased 14.5% to $24.1 million from $27.8 million
Net income decreased 61.4% to $2.2 million from $5.7 million

PEER 1 Hosting's president and chief executive officer, Fabio Banducci, had this to say about his company's performance over the past year:

"Fiscal 2010 marked a year of strategic investment in infrastructure, products and geographic expansion to support accelerated growth and enhanced market positioning as economic conditions improve. On this basis, we launched our new state of the art data centre in the greater Toronto area, which almost immediately began attracting anchor clients, while also continuing to expand our solution set, adding value for both existing and potential clients. We also extended our core hosting services to Europe by establishing a physical presence in the United Kingdom. With these pieces of our strategy in place we are well positioned to both invest in and drive additional growth in fiscal 2011 and beyond."

For complete details on PEER 1 Hosting's FY2010 performance, have a look here.

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.