Versant’s Lindsell raises target on ATS Automation to $9

The opening of the Photowatt Ontario Green Wing production facility in November, 2010. The company's ill-timed foray into the solar market was mitigated somewhat by improved results from its core automation business. With the bankruptcy of its French solar division, and the impending sale of its Ontario solar interest, ATS may look to expand its Automation Systems Group through acquisition, says Versant analyst Neil Lindsell.

BufferLast Wednesday, ATS Automation (TSX:ATA) reported its Q3, 2012 results. Revenues were $149.1-million, 23% higher than in the same period a year ago. Earnings came in at $20.4-million, comparing favourably to the $6.1-million the company put to the bottom line in Q3, 2011. The quarter was a little better than Versant analyst Neil Lindsell expected. [...]

Byron Capital says these Canadian Techs Could be Takeover Candidates

Could Mark Barrenechea, who became CEO of Waterloo's Open Text on January 2nd, be fielding offers for the company in 2012?

BufferIn 2011, the story of the year in Canadian tech was buyouts. Many of our most interesting Canadian concerns were sold off last year, from Zarlink (TSX:ZL) to Bridgewater (TSX:BWC) to March Networks (TSX:MN) to 2011 Canadian Tech Stock of the Year MOSAID (TSX:MSD) which, on December 19th, accepted a $590-million buyout from Chicago-based private [...]

M Partners analyst Ron Shuttleworth: Sandvine Appears to be Plateauing

The management team of Waterloo's Sandvine. Fiscal 2011 was a step backward for the company, which had been steadily improving for a number of years.

BufferOn Thursday, Sandvine (TSX:SVC) announced its fiscal 2011 results. Revenue came in at (US) $89.3 million compared to $92.08 in fiscal 2010, and the Waterloo-based company lost $5.8-million, a number nearly equal to the amount it made in 2010. M Partners analyst Ron Shuttleworth says the numbers reveal exactly what is happening at Sandvine; the [...]

Open Text: Billion Dollar Company Number Two for Canada’s Silicon Valley

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BufferThis past summer, the country’s largest tech company, Research in Motion, laid off 2,000 people, more than ten per cent of its total workforce. For most towns, this would have had a major impact. But in the Kitchener-Waterloo “Tech Triangle”, Canada’s answer to Silicon Valley, it was mere blip. The tech sector infrastructure is maturing [...]

Terry Matthews: Nortel is Gone, Here’s How we Get Over It

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BufferQuick, think of a Canadian technology company with annual revenues of more than a billion dollars. OK, you said Research in Motion, right? But what about a second, a third? The truth is the number of Canadian tech companies with more than a billion in revenue is woefully slim. This worries Canadian tech legend Terry [...]

Cantech Letter’s Nick Waddell on CBC’s Lang & O’Leary Exchange

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BufferThere’s bad timing and then there’s what happened to Research in Motion (TSX:RIM) last week. Already on the defensive for a declining market share, a less than stellar launch of its Playbook tablet, and a share price that is near five year lows, Research in Motion faithful were further tested by the worst service outage [...]

Is it time for RIM to ditch its secretive Blackberry Network?

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BufferEarly in August, after the police shooting of a 29 year old London man, Mark Duggan, sparked riots that lasted the better part of four days, an unexpected connection to Canadian technology was revealed.   The combination of social networks, wireless devices and the cameras they contain mean the gradual blurring of public and private [...]

RIM’s BlackBerry Blog Hacked. Who is TeaMp0isoN?

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Buffer This past weekend it was revealed that, due to its inherent privacy, Research in Motion’s (TSX:RIM) BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM, was the preferred platform for London rioters to communicate with one another. This prompted a response from RIM, through its Twitter account @UK_Blackberry that the Waterloo based company would comply with authorities, who are [...]

Tech Sparks: Can Canada’s Tech-Triangle Become the next Silicon Valley?

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BufferThis article is part one of of a three-part series called Tech Sparks, which examines sub-sectors of Canadian technology that could speak an overall resurgence in the public Canadian tech sector. For parts two and three follow the links at the bottom of the story. When Stanford grads William Hewlett and David Packard moved out [...]

How many Playbooks has RIM sold?

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BufferWaterloo’s Research in Motion (TSX:RIM) tomorrow announces results from its Q1 2011. The street expects RIM will announce $5.5 billion in revenue and $1.40 in EPS for the quarter, which ended in May. NEW DEVELOPMENTS: FOR CANTECH LETTER’S UPDATED TAKE ON THE BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK’S NEW BLACK FRIDAY SALES PRICE CLICK HERE…. But the real question [...]