Alterian Share Discussion Threads

[rivaldo] 30/4/2010 11:18

"Panmure Gordon has a buy and 235p target for Alterian"

[rivaldo] 30/4/2010 07:20

Interesting comment here from the Internet World 2010 exhibition re ALN's and competitors' status in the CMS space and their future prospects. I agree with his prognosis FWIW:



"Will they be exhibiting in 2020???? (Some wild speculation!)"

"No – Big by 2020 - With Immediacy's roadmap now officially dead and a renewed focus on the former Morello product with the recent ACM-professional (a Morello-lite), Alterian's positioning in the mid-market is still unclear. As a listed company they'll continue to add value through acquisition then look to be acquired themselves."

Re E-Spirit:

"No – Out by 2020 – Acquired by Alterian looking to strengthen its international offering from the UK roots of Morello and Immediacy if focus remains on the Morello core"

Re Kentico:

"No – Out by 2020 - Low Eastern European cost base might keep it running for a few years but it's late to the .NET party in the UK – could come onto Alterian's acquisition radar to strengthen mid-market"

[rivaldo] 29/4/2010 13:47

ALN providing social media insight into the election (PS - BIGOT stands for Brown is Gone on Thursday):



"Social media monitoring provides insight into election race
Thursday, 29 April 2010
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London, UK – 29 April 2010 – Alterian (LSE: ALN), a leading international integrated marketing platform provider, today revealed statistics analysing over 300,000 conversations across social media platforms, looking into sentiment analysis of the main political leaders before, during and following the live TV debates over the past two months.

Although Gordon Brown has consistently had the highest volume in overall conversations compared to Cameron and Clegg, over the last week, the volume of conversations has come to a head with all three parties getting an almost identical share of voice online.

etc"

[rivaldo] 28/4/2010 14:32

Interesting article on how governments are using social media - and ALN are the means to this end in Australia:



"How govts are making sense of social media
By Robin Hicks | 28 April 2010

Social media presents government with a headache-inducing glut of unstructured data from which it is difficult to make any sense. But as governments in Australia, Hong Kong and Europe reveal in interviews with FutureGov, analytics tools that trawl blogs and social networks are helping to test public sentiment and shape policy with increasing efficiency and effectiveness....

.....The Department of Justice in the Australian state of Victoria is currently monitoring a portfolio of issues high on its policy agenda in social media, including water safety and bushfire preparedness, noted Patrick McCormick, the department's Manager of Digital Engagement, Strategic Communication Branch. His department uses SM2/Alterian SMM software and the Bullseye agency. "Regular monthly reports present demographic audience data, identify the online environments they penetrate and summarise key dialogue, recommendations and insights."

McCormick uses reports from analytics tools to keep stakeholders informed of what's being said about government and key policy issues. The findings are circulated internally, helping communications managers develop community-oriented advertising campaigns, and demonstrate to executive management the impact and ROI of social media.

etc"

[rivaldo] 27/4/2010 22:42

PSQ Analytics have produced an excellent - and very long - Technology & Telecom, April 2010 Sector Review, covering a load of companies including ALN. Below is their SWOT analysis - it's worth noting the news above re expansion into the Arabic and Brazilian markets which further broaden ALN's geographical presence:



"Strengths

Robust growth in revenues and strong cash position
- ALN has reported robust revenue and earnings growth in the past few years. The Group's revenues increased at a CAGR of 42.6% during FY2004-FY2009 to reach £33.4 million in FY2009. Further, the Group has sizeable cash balance of over £11.0 million at the end of 31 March 2010, which opens up avenues for growth through inorganic route in FY 2011. The Group has no debt in its balance sheet.
Continued focus on new product development
- ALN's has an aggressive new product development plan to constantly extend its portfolio of product offerings and maintain competitive edge in the market. The Group has set aside cash for R&D expense in FY 2011, which amounts to approximately 16% of its total revenues in FY 2010.
o In March 2010, the Group launched WebJourney, a web behaviour analytics solution. It also released version 5.9.5 of Content Manager Enterprise technology in order to provide innovative web content management tools.

Weaknesses

High dependence on the UK and the US markets
- Alterian derives majority of its revenues from matured markets, primarily the US and the UK. The relatively lower growth prospects in these areas could push down overall revenue growth, slowing down the impact of high growth
prospects in emerging economies where it currently has relatively lower presence.
o However, the Group started spreading its wings into emerging economies which are high potential growth markets. In 2009, ALN opened its office in Singapore
and also succeeded in getting new business from Asia Pacific and South American markets.

Opportunities

Inorganic growth through acquisitions
- ALN continues to expand inorganically to expand its product offerings and to strengthen its distribution network. In 2008 the Group acquired Mediasurface Plc which helped the Group to expand its operations in the fast growing online marketing software market. ALN sees a lot of opportunities to grow inorganically to complement its current strength - both in distribution and product portfolio.
Social Media Marketing – Fast growing business
- According to Forrester Research, social media marketing is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 34% to $3.1 billion by 2014. To capitalize on this opportunity, Alterian acquired Techrigy Inc, a provider of social media monitoring and analytics software in 2009.

Threats

Competition from larger players
- Alterian is considerably smaller in size compared to its closest competitor, Unica. Unica generated £65.1 million ($100.6 million) in revenues in FY2009 compared to Alterian's ~ £38.0 million in FY2010.
o However, Alterian's partner-driven sales model and its unique product offerings differentiate the Group from its competitors. Further, ALN's proprietary database engine allows easy and less expensive implementation
and at the same time offers high flexibility and scalability."

[rivaldo] 22/4/2010 14:28

The Middle East on Tuesday, Brazil today:



"Alterian Announces Extended Partnership with youDb in Brazil
Thursday, 22 April 2010
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Brazilian companies enabled to shift from mass customer database marketing to individual customer engagement

London – 22 April 2010, Alterian is pleased to announce today an extended strategic partnership with leading Brazilian Service Provider, youDb, which is designed to help Brazilian businesses achieve a competitive edge in a socially networked and customer-driven market. This partnership will bring Alterian's marketing technology to Brazilian businesses, enabling them to move to multichannel individual customer engagement. The comprehensive offering includes Dynamic Messenger (email marketing), Content Manager (web content management) and SM2 (social media monitoring).

A leading company in the CPG sector in Brazil has already taken advantage of this extended offering with plans to take their customer service to the next level and extend their brand even further into new markets and demographics.

Alterian's recent survey of over 1,000 marketers revealed that 51 percent of respondents are placing a 'fair' or 'significant' amount of effort on moving from a campaign-centric direct marketing model towards multichannel customer engagement – in fact only seven percent are making no effort at all. In the same survey, almost 60 percent of respondents revealed that 'engaging individuals on the website' was one of their top areas for investment for 2010, demonstrating that organizations understand the opportunity to engage with visitors at a time when they are proactively seeking information – interacting with them rather than interrupting them.

"We are thrilled to extend our partnership with youDb to offer our comprehensive technologies in the Brazilian market," said Michael Fisher, senior vice president of Marketing and Sales – The Americas. "Alterian offers marketers unique visibility and flexibility to target their marketing efforts to better understand their customers, optimize the impact of personalized communications and achieve bottom line business objectives."

Leonardo Barci, president of youDb comments, "The internet and social networks are playing an increasingly important role for brands, and the partnership of Alterian's technology with youDb's deep expertise in CRM and database makes us the top player in the Brazilian market.
 
"This partnership uniquely equips Brazilian businesses with innovative technology capabilities whose integration is customizable in order to best address the customer engagement challenges faced by all industries."

This offering will support youDB's current client base that spans across consumer product goods, automobile and healthcare industries. In addition, youDb will offer all technology products made available by Alterian to the Brazilian marketplace. For more information, please visit www.alterian.com and www.youdb.com.br."

[rivaldo] 15/4/2010 08:21

The Times says Hold - a takeover at six times sales would give a £264m price, against the current £106m m/cap, which would do me fine :o))



"Alterian

One profit warning does not always lead to another. At least not for now at Alterian, the small-cap software developer. Shares in the Bristol-based company fell by 27 per cent in January after it cautioned that a clutch of larger-sized UK contracts, those worth £500,000 or more, were taking longer than expected to sign.

Those deals have yet to land, but yesterday's trading update confirmed that full-year forecasts - albeit reduced - will be met, with underlying revenues in the 12 months to March 31 up 10 per cent and operating profits ahead 25 per cent. Although big-ticket signings in Europe remain slow, the sort of mid-sized deals on which Alterian depends continue to flow. The company has won new work with Experian, the credit-checking agency that is one of its biggest customers, while the 2008 acquisition of Mediasurface, which boosted the company's website development activities, continues to prove its worth. Alterian is also steadily becoming more international, with America accounting for one third of sales, and a presence now established in Singapore and Brazil.

The bigger draw is that Alterian's software targets a fast-growing niche: the efforts of companies to track how consumers respond to their marketing, particularly through the web, and tailor their responses accordingly. Recent takeovers in this sector, struck at multiples of more than six times reported sales, have only confirmed its allure.

Alterian has £11 million of cash, and, at 180½p - back to its level before the warning in January - trades at 13 times earnings. Hold on."

[yump] 14/4/2010 16:43

I think that 3p adjustment just reflects the fact that we are living in a £999-99 world, whereas the best way of saving is of course not to spend it in the first place ;-)

[turborock] 14/4/2010 15:03

from two weeks ago:

"Panmure Gordon has a buy for Alterian, raising target to 238p from 232p"

;)

[weatherman] 14/4/2010 15:01

"Panmure Gordon....has a buy for Alterian, trimming target to 235p from 238p"

Because the 3p makes all the difference? ;o)

[rivaldo] 14/4/2010 13:40

Panmure's say Buy and value ALN at 235p:



"Panmure Gordon....has a buy for Alterian, trimming target to 235p from 238p"

[rivaldo] 14/4/2010 08:48

Very positive verdict already from the highly respected Richard Holway blog:



"Wednesday 14th April 2010

Alterian: right time, right place, right products

Marketing software company Alterian issued a trading update confirming that expectations would be met following a good second half performance. That means it will deliver revenue up 14% (10% at constant currency), to around £38m, with operating profit up 25% to around £7.5m.

Alterian's success despite 'market conditions' is the result of three things coming together: the right products in the right place at the right time. We have often commented that in tough times, companies need to work smarter. More sophisticated marketing solutions are a key strategy to improve company performance and automation can contain costs too. Everyone wants to exploit online marketing technologies in their battle for customers so the right company with the right products can do very well – as Alterian shows. We believe its momentum will continue this year for a number of reasons: on top of 'business as usual, it has an agreement with Experian to provide analytics and campaign management software linked to their Cheetahmail offering; and we expect increased uptake for Alterian's newer products for web-behaviour analytics and social media monitoring.

The company also announced that Alastair Gordon would become an NED. Gordon was SDL's CFO from 1998 to 2008, and board member until the beginning of this month."

[nellie1973] 14/4/2010 07:34

Blinding results considering they fell back last year!
Worth buying more if they stay at this level.

[rivaldo] 14/4/2010 07:26

Excellent and reassuring trading update:



- in line with expectations
- and £11m net cash now
- strong pipeline and recurring revenue

Nicely back on track it seems.

[kimball808] 14/4/2010 07:22

Should previous years operating profit be (FY09 GBP £3.5m)???

[nellie1973] 13/4/2010 16:12

Yes yump, keep on dissing ma share!!!!

[rivaldo] 13/4/2010 16:05

You've done it again yump :o))

[yump] 12/4/2010 17:55

The chances of it getting back to anywhere near 200p are one in a squillion.
There, that should do it.
Woops I shouldn't have admitted that.
I didn't mean it really.
Errrm...

[nellie1973] 12/4/2010 17:36

Yes a little spruce of an upward trend!!!Results looking good.

[turborock] 12/4/2010 12:12

looking good, lots of interest before the results.

[rivaldo] 12/4/2010 11:31

:o)) Go on yump, we might get another 10p rise....

[yump] 09/4/2010 11:23

Shall I criticise it a bit more and see if the price jumps again ? ;-)