9/30/09

Healthscreen (MDU.V) Adds to Its Network

MDU increases the size of its physician network by nearly 6% with an agreement announced this morning with East GTA Family Health Group. It should be noted that this is the first buying group that is selecting the entire suite of Healthscreen services and solutions, which could represent significant increases in revenue and earnings for the Company for FY 2010. See the press release.
Healthscreen Selected by East GTA Family Health Group
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Sept. 30, 2009) - Healthscreen Solutions Inc. (TSX VENTURE:MDU), Canada's premier provider of physician practice enhancement services and electronic medical record (EMR) software, today announced that it has been selected by the East GTA Family Health Group to deploy its HS Practice software suite to its more than 300 family physician members. The software suite will include a full complement of billing, scheduling and electronic medical record software. Once complete, this agreement will represent by far the largest Family Health Group to purchase and implement EMR software in Canada.



"We are very excited to have been selected, and we are looking forward to working with the East GTA Family Health Group and its IT Committee to assist its doctors in delivering the highest quality health services, while improving the efficiency of their practices," said Justin Belobaba, President and CEO of Healthscreen.

About Healthscreen Solutions

Healthscreen Solutions (www.healthscreen.com) provides a comprehensive suite of practice enhancing products and services to increase physician productivity and revenue while reducing costs and improving patient care. The Company's portfolio includes billing and scheduling software, electronic medical records software, CallerMD which assists physicians in managing a range of uninsured medical services, PrevCareMD which helps physicians earn supplemental income by achieving government-set preventive care targets, and HealthAlert which allows physicians to help their patients in managing complex healthcare issues. Healthscreen's and its partners' services and software are used by over 8,000 full-time physicians who are responsible for the health care of more than seven million Canadians.

(C) 2009 Healthscreen Solutions Inc. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners.

Disclaimer: Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains information that is forward looking information with respect to Healthscreen within the meaning of Section 138.4(9) of the Ontario Securities Act and other applicable securities laws. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of terms such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "estimate", "predict", "potential", "continue" or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In particular, statements about future revenues or profitability, including the estimated timing of profitability, and any other statements regarding Healthscreen's future expectations, beliefs, goals or prospects are or involve forward-looking information.

Forward-looking information is based on certain factors and assumptions. While the company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. Forward-looking information, by its nature necessarily involves risks and uncertainties, including risks and uncertainties relating to government regulation and funding in the healthcare industry, financial and capital market risks, technology development and adoption, Healthscreen's ability to maintain its competitive position and effectively implement it's acquisition strategy, liability for software malfunction, management of growth, and length of sales cycles. Additional risks and uncertainties affecting Healthscreen can be found in Healthscreen's 2008 Annual Report and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the Fiscal Year ended September 30, 2008 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. If any of these risks or uncertainties were to materialize or if the factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking information were to prove incorrect, actual results could vary materially from those that are expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof. Trading in the securities of Healthscreen should be considered highly speculative.


Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CONTACT INFORMATION: Healthscreen Solutions Inc.
Justin Belobaba
President and CEO
1-866-534-DOCS ext. 7015
ir@healthscreen.com
www.healthscreen.com


INDUSTRY: Computers and Software - Software, Medical and Healthcare - Alternative, Medical and Healthcare - Healthcare

9/24/09

INTC places a bet with Transgaming (TNG.V) for on-demand consumer gaming

Transgaming has been grinding it out for some time now creating a converged platform for consumer games. The team's hard work appears to be paying off in the form of GameTree.tv, a funded collaboration with Intel. Long suffering Transgaming investors should note that Intel believes that the this deal is material enough to include it in its press release flow.

This puts Transgaming right in the middle of media convergence to the home. Congratulations to Vikas and team.

Here is the press release.........

9/22/09

Another inflight merchandising milestone for Guestlogix

Earlier today, Guestlogix announced an agreement to merchandise Las Vegas events onboard participating airlines flying to Las Vegas. Guestlogix now sells Disney, CityPass, Broadway, and Las Vegas event tickets inflight with participating airlines. This announcement shows continued progress, and should be seen as a positive for the stock, which started moving upwards again yesterday.

Here is the press release


9/21/09

Guestlogix (GXI.V) and Abanco settle lawsuit. Positive outcome.

Stemming from GXI's first contract with American Airlines a few years back, this is a long-term legal action that cost several hundred thousand dollars per annum in legal expenses for Guestlogix. The dismissal of the suits should have a small but immediate beneficial impact on earnings , and also reduce investor uncertainty regarding intellectual property and the potential for some future royalty payments related to a settlement. The outcome also reduces the chances that GXI would be required to purchase Abanco assets in order to solidify IP rights. The outcome should be viewed as positive for the stock.

Attached is the press release.


9/18/09

Check out Poynt: An award winning mobile search app for BBerry...iPhone next?

This application won the grand prize for RIM's Blackberry Developer Challenge at the end of 2008. It is well designed. Not only can you find stuff nearby, but you can actually do something after you find what you are looking for - like buy movie tickets. Spend a couple of minutes checking it out.



Multiplied Media (MMC.V) has taken longer than expected to perfect the app, and the company is still at the early stages of commercialization, but the app seems like it should be a grand prize winner. Look for an iPhone version of Poynt to follow soon.

Earlier this week, the Company announced that it has reached the 1 million user milestone, which suggests that it has the potential to go viral. Investors are taking note. In August, the Company was able to raise $2.9 million in growth financing. Over the past couple of weeks, the penny stock has doubled in value.

Disclosure: I do not own shares of MMC.V

9/14/09

Bridgewater Systems (BWC.TO) On A Roll - Announces Major New Contracts

As mobile data usage continues to grow exponentially around the world, Bridgewater Systems' suite of policy and data management solutions should continue to become more popular among carriers as they attempt to meet the increasing demand from consumers and businesses.

On Friday, Bridgewater Systems announced a contract with Verizon (VZ.NYSE) for its Widespan product estimated to be work over $18 million. Most of the revenue should be recognized by H2 2010, but with no impact on 2009 revenue. This should have meaningful impact on FY 2010 revenue and earnings forecasts. Forecasted revenue could increase between 12% and 18% above consensus depending upon the recognition of revenue, while EPS could be ahead of 2010 forecasts by between 80% and 100%. Expect analysts to increase targets substantially, which should continue to impact positively the share price momentum.

9/13/09

New Design...Why?

RES Free Thinking is building a small but loyal following throughout Canada, and to a lesser extent on Wall Street and in The Valley. As it turns out, although originally targeted to only a few hundred Bay Street insiders, RES Free Thinking now appears to be viewed regularly by several thousand readers across the country. Surprisingly, there also appears to be a loyal user base from some countries in the EU, South America and Southeast Asia.

Usage is increasing by about 15% per month, over 46% of all users return at least once a month to get information, and over 170 external sites link to RES Free Thinking content of some type. Since its launch in November of 2008, there have been 105 posts to the blog, profiling dozens of North American technology companies; micro-cap to monolith-cap, both public and private. In addition, there have been several theme or sectoral posts - and the odd political rant.

What does this mean?

Well, there is a lot of content, a lot of people are looking for the content, and a lot of people link to the content. I wanted to find a way to make it easier for people to find what they are looking for faster. I also wanted to find an easy way for people to discover the theme of a story over time, and to be able to connect together industry trends (example: progress (or not) of a Company over multiple quarters). My goal is also to highlight more effectively the flow of information and good ideas emanating from sources such as Twitter. 

The old design was limited by a single dimension (no horizontal navigation menu), and by only two columns - one of which was reserved for posts. As a result, all of the ways to find and use blog information was stuffed into a single long column. As the archive of posts became longer, interesting and timely investor information had been falling off the screen - such as TwitterFlow and Tech Voices.

9/11/09

Descartes Systems (DSG:TO) Strong Quarter; Bullish Outlook

For convenient sequential quarterly reference, here is a link to the post for the previous quarter.

The themes remain the same: Strong quarter despite worldwide recession, improving operational efficiency, and more accretive acquisitions planned for the future. Here are the Q2 2010 performance highlights:
  • $18.6m in revenue, up 9% fiscally over Q2 2009, and 7% sequentially over Q1 2010
  • GM at 68%, up from 64% fiscally, and down from 70% sequentially.
  • Adjusted Net Income (EBITDA) at $5.2m, up 27% fiscally, and 11% sequentially. The EBITDA margin for the quarter was 28%, which exceeded consensus expectation.
  • Pre-tax NI at $2.7m, up 35% over Q2 2009, and up 50% sequentially.
  • NI of $0.8m or $0.02 EPS versus $1.4m or $0.03 EPS for Q2 2009, and $2.2m or $0.04 EPS for Q1 2010. Both of the comparative quarters benefited from income tax recovery.
  • DSO was reported at 48 days, a 2 day decline fiscally, and a 1 day decline sequentially.
  • $4.4m in cashflow for the quarter, exiting with $51.2m in cash and short-term investments.
The baseline revenue stream entering Q3 was disclosed on the conference call by management to be $17.7m with $13.7m in operating expenses, inferring a $4.0m or 23% margin.

Management indicated that H2 2010 should benefit from the current upswing in worldwide shipments as economic recovery takes hold. The company should benefit from the integration of both the Oceanwide and the Scancode acquisitions, and should see continued adoption of the 10+2 regulatory solution positively impact financial performance. The outlook is bullish.

Management re-iterated more forcefully its plan to become a global "federated" end-to-end platform for logisitics. By comparison, think of Salesforce.com's AppExchange for CRM. As the Company implements this strategy, investors should anticipate that Descartes will use some of its war chest of cash to make tuck-under acquisitions that will expand its capability as an end-to-end platform.

As a result, the company may look to expand capabilities in asset tracking, transaction management, accounting, workforce mobility, platform computing, and even cloud services via partnerships and acquisitions.

With a strong Q2 2010, a bullish H2 outlook from Management, and a plan to dominate through federation, investors are likely to continue to find the stock attractive. The share price has doubled in value since its lows in March.

Disclosure: I own shares of DSG

9/10/09

Current Anecdotal Trends in VC Funding - From the Trenches

It is amazing that, despite how everything changes, some things never seem to change. Below is an email missive from the trenches in New York from Sheldon Lutch of Fusion IR.

The fundamental sentiment of the note is that after 8 quarters of being brutalized by the market, tech start-ups have become increasingly "pennywise and pound foolish". Not surprisingly, entrepreneurs continue to maintain unrealistic notions of the value of their creations. This has been such a consistent finding for the past couple of decades, that it may simply be in the DNA of entrepreneurs to think that way.


Anyway, we see many of the same trends as Sheldon, and I thought that it would be best to simply re-publish his email.

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"Throughout the summer at Fusion IR have seen many companies stop by/call-in ranging from companies needing "A" round capital to pre-IPO-generating revenues and meeting financial milestones.

1.Use of unregistered/unlicensed financial professionals in search of capital.
2.Requesting solely pay per performance services. Risk not shared-reward impractical or impossible to quantify and justify by expenditures of time or effort and market conditions.
3. Unprepared companies from presentation to presentation skills to business plan and throughout all marketing literature. Yet they believe they are and wonder why others don't see it their way.
4.Unrealistic view of financial markets this is not pre- 2008 or pre- 2003.
5. Use of other service professionals to fill gaps -but no real follow up and or guidance( nice meetings -no results).
6. Mapping out of IP not complete or at the highest level of international standards.
7. IP not as robust -learned during deep drill downs.Unaware of conflicting, competing, complimentary IP.
8. Companies unaware of how many vc's ,private equity etc.. have seen/heard of company/deal/raise out on the street-they have been "shopped".
9.An oxymoron- overexposed companies not using or understanding the value of press releases- tweaked for the financial community.
10.Not identifying a business development opportunity from a venture capital opportunity with a strategic player(s) in their industry. Over emphasizing one over the other or at the exclusion of the other.
11.Companies unaware or sensitive to the Wall Street "calendar' are you in the queue or not?
12. Unrealistic sense of timing of potential investment /grant by government or quasi government economic development arms.

It is a three legged stool- The Company- The Financial Community and Key Service Provider. Matching and meeting the needs of all - to accomplish the mutual goals of a success and mutually profitable business relationship.

We pride ourselves at Fusion IR at working hand n' hand with clients and all Wall Street professionals. No negative surprises. A fully coordinated approach to accessing the capital markets. Utilizing a top down approach to the investment community on behalf of clients. Meeting with heads of investment banking firms and the related specialty investment bankers at the most senior level of the Wall Street firms. For the companies a bottoms up approach making sure assumptions are replaced with facts. Working with companies to assist them in preparation so that their materials are as good as their technology/science. Driving the value proposition to engagement letters, term sheets, and maybe ad nausea if necessary.

To do it right takes time, money and dedication- this is a labor intensive effort. No short cuts,no tricks-roll up your sleeves and work as team to get the mandate accomplished.Time is money for all of us- investing properly in the right resource,working in an organized fashion to get the answers quickly and efficiently as possible. Build on the information acquired ,become as flexible and open to feedback that will allow the company to adjust to market conditions. Investor relations is not a sprint and need not be a marathon- it is about being Persistent and Consistent. It is about execution of a strategy,it is about tweaking and revising. It is presenting the company with strategic alternatives and access to growth capital and growth ideas, perhaps not considered.
If you aren't raising capital properly your competition is-those with the best technology aren't winners necessarily-those with the capital to complete the task ,execute according to plan and ramp up revenues are.

All the best,
Sheldon

Sheldon Lutch, Principal
Fusion IR & Communications, Inc.
62 West 45th-4th floor
New York,NY.10036
(T) 212.268.1816, (C) 917.570.1179
www.fusionir.com"

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