Alterian Share Discussion Threads

[bloodhound] 10/11/2009 14:08

It's not hard to come up with a list as long as my... well pretty long I can assure you ;-)

Bh.

[bloodhound] 10/11/2009 14:06

How about GQQGLE for starters.........!

[bluebelle] 10/11/2009 14:02

Bloodhound - 10 Nov'09 - 12:29 - 1079 of 1080
It's easy to make a list of possible bidders.

Any chance of sharing that list ? !!!

[applesanpears] 10/11/2009 13:00

Couldn't agree with you more bloodhound, this is such a good company that even if they don't get taken over we should still expect a very nice climb in the share price so it's a win win situation.I'm so glad i decided to put all my eggs in the alterian basket.

[bloodhound] 10/11/2009 12:29

I think ALN is a screaming takeover target and It's easy to make a list of possible bidders.

As the company continues to perform the take-out case only gets stronger.

Bh.

[bigbigdave] 10/11/2009 10:52

Assault on 2 quid coming by the looks of it 8-)

[rivaldo] 10/11/2009 08:45

Continuing to edge upwards.

[friendzarin] 06/11/2009 09:13

Interesting research Blubelle thanks for sharing it
Rgds
FZ

[bluebelle] 06/11/2009 08:47

No, it wasn't, but it has an interesting history !

It was originally attributed to Lord Leverhulme, then Chairman of what became Unilever, and has been widely quoted since. I planned to use it at a conference I was speaking at and checked to find out the exact quote and the circumstances in which he said it. I eventually spoke to the Unilever librarian who was also the Leverhulme family archivist, a delightful lady who clearly enjoyed telling the story.

She had never found the quote, or a reference to it, in any of his, or the family, papers. It was first attributed to him by one of his successors at Unilever, Lord Hayward, in 1958, long after Leverhulme's death, and the quote, and attribution, was picked up by an American writer and included in one of his books (can't remember the name of either I'm afraid) which began its widespread use and attribution. Since then, I've never seen the attribution questioned, although every once in a while you'll see it used by someone who has been through a similar process to the one I went through, and who often precedes it by the phrase 'as Lord Leverhulme may have said' or similar !!!

I'm not aware of Weinstock using it, not least because I suspect he never spent a penny on advertising : the poor deluded fool simply built a large succesful, profitable business and amassed a massive cash pile......!!!

[friendzarin] 06/11/2009 07:25

Blubelle

It was Arnold Weinstock who said that was'nt it but did'nt it go something like

'50% of the money spent on advertising is wasted ..but I don't know which 50% '

Its an old saying but lets hope ALN makes that view redundant.

[bluebelle] 05/11/2009 17:29

It has famously been said that half of the money spent on advertising is wasted

Maybe !!!

[rivaldo] 05/11/2009 10:37

Nice post Ginlad, appreciated.

More good news from another broker today:



"Canaccord Adams upgrades Alterian to buy from hold"

[ginlad] 05/11/2009 10:17

from a customers perspective...

This is a decent bit of kit (IMO). Especially Alterian Content Manager
(aka MediaSurface (MS)) which delivers on the business and technology side of the equations. In my experience previous industry RFI's that have involved the likes of MS tended to fail because they weren't backed up by a stable parent so they fell at the first fence even though they ticked all the boxes.

Since ALN has stepped in then this shouldn't be a problem for future. There is a lot of old lower grade technology solutions (Vignette,etc) out there from companies who got into the digital channel early in 1999-2003 and they are now coming up for review/upgrade (5+yrs old). In addition, the technologies used 5 yrs ago aren't generally the same as those offered by the same suppliers today so where company x have choosen to investigate the possibility of an upgrade with thier current provider they will generally find it involves a complete costly re-write and then decide to investigate the wider market and thats where ALN can often get a chance.

Digital content management blended with a broader persuasive content architecture helps a digital business make better decisions (offers) but it is complex and requires a lot of planning and effort - companies like ALN that can break this down into real deliverables stand a better change of winning new business.

The 90% doesn't surprise me having seen the company operate on site - very professional.

For the record I do not or have not ever worked for them - just an admirer from a distance that has worked on a number of business programmes to try and achieve the holly grail ALN talks about in their strategy.

[rivaldo] 05/11/2009 09:57

The Times says Buy today:



"Alterian

It has famously been said that half of the money spent on advertising is wasted. The intention of a fast-evolving breed of software companies such as London-listed Alterian is to help marketers to find out which half.

Alterian develops applications targeted at so-called "customer engagement": monitoring how consumers respond to marketing messages (whether from call centres, direct mail, e-mail or websites) but also how they discuss brands among themselves, something that the advent of blogs and social networking media has suddenly made possible. The message from yesterday's first-half results is that corporate spending on that niche has not slowed. Sales in the six months to September 30 were up 28 per cent to £14.4 million. That figure was flattered by last year's purchase of Mediasurface but, once stripped out, still implies a double-digit advance.

Alterian's advantage is that about 60 per cent of sales are recurring, and retention rates are high (roughly 90 per cent). The hope must be that the company is able to keep costs flat, while accelerating sales growth through forging distribution deals with marketing agencies.

Alterian is clearly cash generative: its coffers rose to £7.3 million, despite the outlay on bolt-on acquisitions. Further, recent takeover activity (the purchase of Interwoven by Autonomy and Omniture by Adobe) testifies to the allure of its niche and suggests Alterian, too, could become a target. At 189p, or 13 times 2010 earnings, tuck away."

[rivaldo] 05/11/2009 06:57

True WJ, though probably unlikely as you say.

It's interesting that in the last week or so I've had superb results from all three of ALN, MCGN and TCY - all tech companies with high recurring income, industry leadership and products perfectly suited for these times, downturn or no. I fully expect similarly good results soon from CAR and GNG for the same reasons.

[wjccghcc] 04/11/2009 19:29

Although they are flattered by the MSR acquisition which only contributed 3 months last time (4mm). Although it's probably not fair to do it, if you double that to 8mm for the complete 6 months, the original business sales are flat at around 6.3mm.

[bloodhound] 04/11/2009 17:27

It must be a takeover target too...!

Don't forget these results come during a global slump, so very encouraging.

[parttime] 04/11/2009 17:19

I rather liked this bit from Panmure..


'Panmure Gordon analyst George O'Connor noted that the company's customer retention rate of about 90 percent remained higher than the industry average.'

Must be a decent bit of kit then..

[cockneyrebel] 04/11/2009 16:37

Hmmm, that Citywire doesn't make sense

"Panmure Gordon has a buy for Alterian, raising target to 229p from 320p"

Should that be to 229p from 220p?

There's an error there somewhere - 201p is the last Panmure target price I have.

CR

[rivaldo] 04/11/2009 15:53

Thx for those. The m/cap is now over £100m. We can expect more institutions to start taking notice of this company now.

[bloodhound] 04/11/2009 15:11

Another nice write up:

[applesanpears] 04/11/2009 12:54

Remember there's only 55m shares in issue so a pound might sound a lot but it's
only £55m and for such a fast growing company with an exceptional management team
at the helm it's really small beer in the scheme of things.

[nurdin] 04/11/2009 10:57

Thats a huge jump in the price target ! :o)