CAM Data Gets Coverage; Several OC Tech Stocks Surge
Silicon Film Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Irvine Sensors Corp. that is developing a digital imaging technology that works with old-fashioned 35mm cameras, has garnered $5.86 million in private funding brokered through OffRoad Capital Corp.
More than 175 investors from 36 states participated in the deal, which will help Silicon Film launch its product this year. The technology promises to bring digital photography to the masses by allowing ordinary cameras to take pictures on the digital “film” with no special modifications.
If it works, the technology could provide an alternative to expensive digital cameras on the market now, without making useless the thousands of dollars many photographers have invested in their equipment.
For more: www.siliconfilm.com.
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CAM Data Systems Inc. appears to be benefiting from its strategy of transforming itself from a maker of brick-and-mortar retail point-of-sale systems into an e-commerce software and services firm.
Less than two weeks after company founder Geoffrey Knapp lamented to yours truly that no stock research firms seemed interested in his Fountain Valley company, New York brokerage Coleman and Co. has initiated coverage with a “buy” rating.
Analyst Christopher Moore recommended the stock for risk-oriented investors, predicting that the stock would reach $35 per share in the next 12 months. However, the recommendation wasn’t enough to stop the stock from falling from $18.25 the day the report came out to $17 per share over the next three days.
If anyone’s looking for examples of the growing disparity between high-tech stocks and their industrial-age counterparts the last couple of weeks, they didn’t have to look much further than Orange County.
Despite a sell-off that left the Dow Jones Industrial Average below the emotionally charged 10,000 mark, several OC tech issues reached 52-week highs or maintained price levels as much as quadruple that of just a few months ago.
Standouts include (don’t hold me to the latest prices, they’re moving targets): Santa Ana semiconductor maker Microsemi Corp., at more than $29 per share, up from less than $7 three months ago; Anaheim video-equipment maker Odetics Inc., at $24, from just more than $11 per share three months ago; Irvine wireless-phone equipment maker Powerwave Technologies Inc., at $162.50, from $61.25 three months ago; Irvine storage-device maker Procom Technology Inc., at $39 per share, up from its Jan. 7 price of $20 per share; Costa Mesa integrated-circuit maker QLogic Corp., at $145.25 from just more than $62 per share three months ago; Tustin medical hardware and software seller Quality Systems Inc., at more than $11 per share, up from just more than $6 per share three months ago; Irvine data-security specialist Rainbow Technologies Inc above $30 per share, up from less than $18 three months ago; Yorba Linda engineering software maker Research Engineers Inc., at more than $35 per share, up from less than $8 three months ago; and Troy Group Inc., a Santa Ana company that makes equipment used to print financial documents, above $37 per share, up from about $12 a few months ago.
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The newly public online “superstore” Buy.com Inc. is getting praise from Gomez Advisors, the Consumer Reports of e-commerce outlets.
In results that are sure to rankle the Aliso Viejo firm’s larger and better-known rival, Amazon.com, Gomez Advisors ranked Buy.com the No.1 online store for the second consecutive quarter.
Gomez ranked online retailers for their ease of use, customer confidence, on-site resources, relationship services and cost. Buy.com ranked first in the “first-time buyer” and “bargain hunter” categories.
The Gomez rating didn’t impress investors, though. The stock, which jumped to more than $35 per share on its opening day but has since slid back, rose only slightly to close at $14.75 the day after the rating was announced.
Bits:
Foreshock Inc., Irvine, added Fred Nobar as its accounting manager and Randy Stille as director of strategic services for the company’s mountain region Online marketer emaildirect, Aliso Viejo, is adopting the 30,000-merchant customer base of Val-Pak, a direct marketing arm of Cox Enterprises Inc., for electronic coupons The Sistonia Corp., an Orange-based company that provides web development services, has hired Peter Bowen as chief operating officer and Matthew Cunningham as director of public relations Vision Solutions Inc., Irvine, celebrated its 10th anniversary in a March 2 ceremony Magic Software Inc., an Israel-based company whose U.S. operations are headquartered in Irvine, priced shares for its upcoming public offering at $25. The company will sell 3.5 million new shares, with more being offered by current shareholders Storage Technology Corp. has begun shipping fibre-channel tape drives that use controllers made by QLogic Corp. of Aliso Viejo Seagate Technology Inc.’s Costa Mesa-based tape-drive operation has begun shipping products based on the super-fast LTO format.
Ken Spencer Brown can be reached at kbrown@ocbj.com or (949) 833-8373.
