Categories: Wireless

Insiders buying Wi-LAN

Wi-LAN CEO Jim Skippen was one of three company insiders to buy its stock in the open market recently.

AUGUST 9TH UPDATE: Since we published this story there has been more insider buying at Wi-LAN. Yesterday, CFO Michael McEwan bought 5000 shares at $4.88 and CEO Jim Skippen added another 20,000 shares at $4.85.

On Thursday Wi-LAN (TSX:WIN) reported its Q2, 2012 results. Revenue came in at $20.8-million, which was slightly better than company guidance. Adjusted earnings were $10.1-million, or $.08 cents per share. On a GAAP basis, however, the Ottawa-based patent player lost $149,000 as it ramped up litigation expenses.

The market was lukewarm on Wi-LAN’s numbers, sending shares of the company down $.19 cents on Thursday to $4.91, and tacking on another five cent downtick on Friday, to close the stock at $4.86 for the week.

Wi-LAN insiders, meanwhile, are using the recent softness to load up on shares in the open market.

On August 3rd, Wi-LAN’s VP, Corporate Legal & Corporate Secretary Prashant Watchmaker bought 4600 shares at $4.86. The same day, the company’s Chief Operating Officer Michael Vladescu bought 5000 at $4.88. And CEO Jim Skippen bought 2000 shares at $4.85 and another 2000 at $4.84.

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This story is brought to you by The M Partners Tech 12 Investor Conference, which will be held on Tuesday September 11th, 2012 in Toronto. For information on attending click here.

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After the thrill ride that was 2009 through part of last year, the time since has been relatively quiet for shareholders of Wi-LAN. Since peaking at more than $9 last summer, shares of the company trickled off, tripping to under $5 this past May. But the company’s trajectory over a longer time frame has been decidedly up. Under the watch of CEO Jim Skippen, Wi-LAN’s revenue has climbed from just over $2 million in fiscal 2006 to the more than $100 million in fiscal 2011. The Ottawa-based company has quietly become one of the world’s top patent acquirers, on par or better than Apple, Google and Samsung in the third quarter of 2011. Wi-LAN was founded in 1992, commercializing a range of communications and consumer electronics products including routers, 3G handsets and WiMAX base stations. The Company now has more than three-thousand patents, and has already licensed their technologies to blue chip techs such as Cisco, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung.

Wi-LAN’s remains one of the few Canadian tech stocks to pay a dividend. On Thursday, the company announced it was hiking the payout by 16%, to $3.5 cents per share.

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Tagged with: win
Nick Waddell

Cantech Letter founder and editor Nick Waddell has lived in five Canadian provinces and is proud of his country's often overlooked contributions to the world of science and technology. Waddell takes a regular shift on the Canadian media circuit, making appearances on CTV, CBC and BNN, and contributing to publications such as Canadian Business and Business Insider.

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