Berkeley Technology Share Discussion Threads

[jotoha1] 01/11/2005 16:33

the hammer may be trying to ofload on the cheap!

[fireball xl5] 27/10/2005 21:42

With Agility Sold - perhaps - the GM stuff perhaps not - hope they have a get out clause for those Bonding sessions!

[holdontight] 27/10/2005 17:59

Q3 Results should be announced next week, so slight spike followed by further falls possible. Might dip my toe at 2p

[seabird] 26/10/2005 15:42

Big sell causes collapse - 405 shares - netted £24 before trading costs - at least (s)he got out. Should have left this dog a long time ago.

Cbird

[jotoha1] 26/10/2005 11:31

So what is going on here...are we finally going down and out?????????

[t1lal] 19/10/2005 13:59

Is it worth taking a punt??? Any views?

[fireball xl5] 18/10/2005 12:31

General Motors May Get $15 Billion in Sale of GMAC Unit Stake
Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., after losing $6.3 billion building cars and trucks this year, may fetch as much as $15 billion by selling a stake in its profitable automobile- finance unit.

The automaker may use proceeds from the sale to help cover the cost of eliminating 25,000 GM jobs and retirement expenses inherited from the bankruptcy of Delphi Corp., GM's former unit and its largest supplier, said UBS AG analyst Rob Hinchliffe. GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said yesterday the company must sell a stake in the unit, General Motors Acceptance Corp., to regain an investment-grade rating for loan debt.

``This is not something they would do in normal times, but sooner or later they knew they weren't going to be able to afford to borrow at junk,'' said David Healy, a Sierra Vista, Arizona- based analyst for Burnham Securities Inc. Healy said he expects a sale could gain GM as much as $15 billion. The Detroit-based automaker's market value is $17 billion.

GM, the world's largest automaker, yesterday reported a fourth straight quarterly loss, extending its longest unprofitable streak in 13 years. Wagoner, 52, is being forced to carve off a majority stake in GMAC, likely stripping more than $15 billion in annual revenue, after rising losses and slumping U.S. sales prompted ratings companies to cut GM debt to junk in May.

[doniv] 15/10/2005 10:10

from my records(references lost in bonfire!), in August 2002, LPAL held $7.7m GM bonds (which I think are being held to maturity to early 2006), so it could a narrow escape (see below).

GM still has $25bn cash to burn (

"The most incisive analytical work on GM has come out of bond-research departments, like Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER - news - people ), JPMorgan Chase (nyse: JPM - news - people ) et al. GM debentures and preferred-stock issues dropped to yield 10% long before equity analysts revised down their earnings projections.

None of the equity analysts is projecting GM will lose serious money over the next four quarters. Merrill Lynch's bond team sees GM belching pools of black blood--and perhaps staggering into bankruptcy within three years. Fixed costs, health care benefits and pensions will take their toll as market share declines by perhaps one point per year, into the low 20s. The $25 billion money pot dwindles. "

[fireball xl5] 11/10/2005 06:18

Always something to bite tem back! Looks like their bond selection was as good as their investment strategy!

[cmillar] 04/10/2005 09:33

Thanks to you both.

[adam] 26/9/2005 08:00

The $850k looks about fair value in abscence of knowing the %.

[fireball xl5] 26/9/2005 07:56

Talked to Ian Whitehead. The 9m in PE investments 3.25 the wonderful Alacritech
about 3.7 Agility and the rest Ceon. Depends on the dilution of non-participated funding rounds and the funding series as to our equity share. The 9m now having a market val of 850k on the BS. On the whole IMHO looking up!

[cmillar] 26/9/2005 07:47

Can anyone provide me a link to the last quarterly set of results please.

[adam] 26/9/2005 06:44

Date of article is March, and results for Q1 and Q2 indicate no change in private equity, amounting to just $850k. Hence must be very small and/or increased equity balanced by deterioration is valuation.

[holdontight] 25/9/2005 21:14

Now, have THEY and MYSELF lost money on THEIR advice ?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fireball xl5] 09/9/2005 07:24

Agility Snares Another $15M

MARCH 09, 2005

ANAHEIM, Calif. – OFC/NFOEC 2005 – Tunable Lasers are on a roll, as Agility Communications Inc. has completed a fifth round of funding worth $15 million.

This follows the roughly $6 million raised in December by Swedish tunable laser firm Syntune AB and an unspecified but small round recently raised by Iolon Inc. (see Syntune Raises €4.7M and Iolon's Alright ).

Agility's fifth round hasn't been announced publicly but is highlighted in a presentation at the company's Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) booth here. The financing came through earlier this year, says Kevin Affolter, Agility's vice president of marketing.

Affolter says the $15 million came from some new investors as well as previous Agility investors. The latter pool includes, among others, General Motors Investment Corp., London Pacific Assurance Ltd. (NOTE LPAL), Meritech Capital Partners, Mitsubishi International Corp., Morgenthaler, Nissho Electronics Corp., Siemens Venture Capital, U.S. Venture Partners, and WorldView Technology Partners.

Equipment vendors Ciena Corp. (Nasdaq: CIEN - message board) and Tellabs Inc. (Nasdaq: TLAB - message board; Frankfurt: BTLA) were also prior investors in Agility.

Agility has now raised more than $200 million including a massive round in 2001 (see Agility Gets $83M Third Round). The size of that round shows just how much faith investors had in tunable lasers, even as it was clear that the dotcom bubble was over. Agility and Iolon, the sector's stars, each appeared headed for an IPO or acquisition.

But the market continued its collapse, and demand for tunable lasers got delayed. Agility and Iolon, in particular, have been relatively quiet since, occasionally raising their voices to fend off rumors of near death (see Agility Is Alright, Too).

The new funding rounds might indicate that tunable lasers have finally stabilized as a business. Iolon expects to be profitable "by the end of the year," says John Aengus, the company's vice president of sales. But he adds that every vendor -- including Iolon, Bookham Inc. (Nasdaq: BKHM - message board; London: BHM), and Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC - message board) -- is losing money on tunable lasers.

Even so, tunable lasers are ensconced now that DWDM equipment vendors have embraced the technology.

"You can tell it's starting to be a real business. People are looking at the next step -- an integrated transmitter" that combines the tunable laser with a modulator, says Gurinder Parhar, vice president of business development for tunables vendor Santur Corp. (For those wondering, Santur's latest announced funding came at the end of 2003 -- see Santur Tunes In $10M).

Parhar expects many companies will seek partners to provide the modulator. Agility, though, says it's been working on integrating the laser and modulator onto the same indium phosphide (InP) device.

The idea would be to lower cost, not just by providing an integrated device, but by putting the modulator onto InP in the first place. "One of the most expensive pieces [of an optical module] is the lithium niobate (LiNbO3) modulator," Affolter says. The integrated laser-modulator is "about a year or so from availability," he notes.

- Craig Matsumoto, Senior Editor, Light Reading

[fireball xl5] 08/9/2005 13:45

Not disclosed - but maybe some money back - better than the BS "O" VALUE - so possibly to the bottom line. They have had nearly 200m in VC funding, I think.

[holdontight] 08/9/2005 13:29

SP down 12% !

[holdontight] 08/9/2005 13:27

How much for ?

[fireball xl5] 08/9/2005 13:18

1 down 2 to go!

Leads Rapid Transition to Tunable DWDM Transponders

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- JDS Uniphase
(Nasdaq: JDSU; TSX: JDU) announced today a definitive agreement to acquire
Agility Communications, Inc., a leading provider of widely tunable laser
solutions for the optical network. The acquisition establishes JDS Uniphase's
leadership in the rapidly growing market for tunable lasers and transponders,
and positions the company as the broadest end-to-end agile optical network
portfolio provider in the marketplace today.
Agility Communications is privately held with approximately 90 employees
and headquarters in Santa Barbara, California. The acquisition is subject to
customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, and is expected to
close in the quarter ending December 2005. The terms of the acquisition were
not disclosed.
"Tunability has become a mandatory requirement and Ovum-RHK estimates the
overall tunable transponder market will grow at a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of more than 50 percent through 2009," said Daryl Inniss, Vice
President of Communication Components at Ovum-RHK, an industry research firm.
"The DWDM transponder market is a $400 million market and is expected to grow
by seven percent CAGR through 2009."
"We believe the shift to tunables is inevitable and that the transition
will be rapid," said Mike Ricci, vice president of JDS Uniphase's Component
and Modules Group. "Agility's single chip monolithic platform is capable of
addressing the entire market and is not limited to a single form factor.
Agility's proven architecture, coupled with JDS Uniphase's scalable
manufacturing capability, paves the way for high volume, tunable, pluggable
solutions."
There are several potential benefits inherent in Agility's monolithic
platform. Unlike alternative architectures, Agility offers the only proven
architecture capable of fully integrating a tunable laser with a modulator via
a highly scalable semiconductor wafer process. Agility also provides the only
currently accepted platform that can enable tunable 2.5 Gb/s SFP and 10 Gb/s
XFP form factors. Migration to pluggable solutions is expected to enable
vendors to enjoy significant reductions in power dissipation, footprint and
provisioning costs. The platform also offers switching speeds of less than 10
milliseconds, and is less sensitive to shock and vibration than other
solutions, thus enabling deployment of robust, agile optical networks.
"I believe joining JDS Uniphase will help us maximize market penetration
during the transition from fixed wavelength to tunable solutions," said Ron
Nelson, Agility's president and chief executive officer. "The acquisition
gives us access to high-volume manufacturing capability and expanded sales
channels. Adding Agility's tunable lasers to JDS Uniphase's family of
wavelength management modules creates a one-stop shop for anyone wanting to
assemble an agile optical network."
An agile optical network is an optical network that offers unparalleled
reconfigurability, scalability and robustness at the optical layer. This is
intended to result in lower capital and operating expenditures while enabling
next generation services. JDS Uniphase provides the only end-to-end portfolio
of solutions needed to build and operate an agile optical network, including
such scalable solutions as EDFAs, ROADMs, Multiwavelength Switches (MWS),
wavelength blockers, and Optical Channel Monitors. On the test and measurement
side, JDS Uniphase offers robust DWDM solutions, including optical spectrum
analyzers, optical network testers, stressed eye testers, and DWDM analyzers.
The addition of tunable transponders significantly strengthens the
reconfigurable aspect of JDS Uniphase's agile optical network solution.
Agility is already selling tunable transmitter and transponder products to
top tier customers, including Siemens, Marconi, Mahi Networks, Tropic
Networks, ECI, and many others. Many service providers have already migrated
or announced plans to move to tunable solutions for agile, optical networks,
including AT&T, SBC, Deutsche Telekom, and Verizon.

About Agility Communications, Inc.
Founded by a team of optical networking and semiconductor veterans in
October 1998, Agility introduced the first widely tunable laser in November of
2000. Agility is regarded as the leader in widely tunable components for
metro, switching, and long-haul markets. Agility's tunable transponder and
tunable laser solutions reduce capital and operating expenses for carriers and
system providers by reducing inventory, simplifying planning and enabling
revolutionary architectures. Agility's lasers help communications providers
increase network capacity, maximize existing network resources, streamline the
planning process for network growth, and deliver bandwidth on demand through
simple point-and-click provisioning.

About JDS Uniphase
JDS Uniphase is committed to enabling broadband & optical innovation in
the communications, commercial and consumer markets. JDS Uniphase is the
leading provider of communications test and measurement solutions and optical
products for telecommunications service providers, cable operators, and
network equipment manufacturers. Furthermore, JDS Uniphase is the leading
provider of innovative optical solutions for medical/environmental
instrumentation, semiconductor processing, display, brand authentication,
aerospace and defense, and decorative applications. More information is
available at

For more information about Agility solutions, visit or
call 805-690-1700.

[fireball xl5] 27/7/2005 12:36

And another Ceon raising its head. Is the portfolio of PE Investments beginning to rise from the ashes?



U.S. & World News : Computing : Software News

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ceon Provides Most Versatile Service Fulfillment Software Solution for Bundled Products and Services
Published: Tue, 26 Jul 2005, 08:28 EDT

Edited by Carly Zander
Staff Writer, Send2Press.com


REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - July 26 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Ceon Corporation today announced advancements in the deployment of the Ceon Integration and Provisioning Suite (IPS) service fulfillment platform that reinforce its position as the most versatile provisioning solution for bundled products and services.

Ceon IPS is a high-performance, rapidly configurable, flexible, and customizable software platform with advanced order management and service activation capabilities for broadband and IP-based services. The platform contains two separate applications, Intelligent Order Manager (IOM) and Intelligent Activation Server (IAS). Ceon IPS has been deployed by a diverse set of communications service providers to quickly, efficiently and accurately fulfill and provision innovative bundled services. Ceon has proven that Ceon IPS can provision any service on any network for any underlying technology.

Major cable companies (MSOs) in the United States and Europe have deployed Ceon IPS to provision HSD and VoIP services that are delivered over advanced HFC networks. Leading US telcos are utilizing Ceon IPS to provision VoIP services, independent of the access portion. Ceon IPS is also currently being used in production to provision a triple-play service bundle (HSD, VoIP, IP-TV) on a hybrid fiber, DSL and HFC network. For some operators, service activation work orders are being issued to network elements within the operator's own network. In other instances, work orders are also being communicated to trading or service delivery partners in a closed-loop, automated manner. Ceon also handles all or a portion of the inter-carrier provisioning components (E911, LIDB, PIC/CARE) for service providers.

Ceon IPS has well documented and standards based interfaces and APIs to enable rapid integration with other software applications within the OSS environment. This enables a service provider to easily utilize and leverage all or only a portion of Ceon IPS functionality within an overall solution. Ceon is a participant in the Order Management Expert Group within the OSS for Java (OSS/J) Initiative. Ceon's products and technologies are also aligned with the TeleManagement Forum (TMF) standards and frameworks such as eTOM and SID.

Ceon IPS has over 70 pre-built adapters for a variety of network resources, including:


* VoIP network elements and EMS
* Feature servers, media servers, RKS
* Class 5 switches and voicemail servers
* Host/remote digital terminals and devices
* Video and IP-TV subscriber systems and related middleware
* Cable modem and provisioning servers
* ISP systems
* Inter-carrier provisioning gateways and clearinghouses
* Billing, CRM and mediation systems
* Middleware / EAI connectors


"The ability for an OSS solution to support bundled services provisioning and operate in heterogeneous environments is a critical requirement today given the pace of change in the industry," says Craig Olsen, Chief Operating Officer, Ceon Corporation. "Ceon's provisioning platform has proven itself in a wide range of situations. Our core software product is powering the solution in all our deployments. Service providers whose delivery networks are changing because of technological advancement, mergers and acquisitions, or service delivery alliances and partnerships, can be assured that Ceon's service fulfillment system will support their dynamic and evolving business."

Press Contacts:

Yogen Patel
Ceon Corporation
[phone]
info @ ceon.com


About Ceon Corporation

Ceon is the leading provider of proven service fulfillment solutions for next-generation broadband and IP-based services. Ceon's solutions help service providers get to market faster with new and evolving services, enable them to scale service offerings profitably and efficiently, and increase customer satisfaction for bundled, complex, and dynamic products. Ceon's Integration and Provisioning Suite is a high-performance, rapidly configurable, flexible, and customizable platform with advanced order management and service activation capabilities. Ceon's customers include world-class telecommunications and cable companies, and Ceon has helped provision millions of subscribers for video, voice, high-speed data, VoIP, IP-Centrex, and IP-TV services.

Ceon is a registered trademark and Ceon Integration and Provisioning Suite is a trademark of Ceon Corporation. All other company and product names may be the subject of intellectual property rights reserved by third parties."


Information from Send2Press Newswire may be redistributed in part or in whole by members of the media. Copr. © Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope®. All rights reserved

[fireball xl5] 27/7/2005 12:31

July 27, 2005 08:01 AM US Eastern Timezone

Alacritech Appoints New Board Member; 33-year Technology and Financial Industry Veteran to Lend Strategic Insight as Company Enters Next Phase of Growth

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 27, 2005--Alacritech(R) Inc., the innovator of Dynamic TCP Offload(TM) technology that enables scalable networked systems, today announced the appointment of Barry X Lynn to its Board of Directors. Lynn is a director at Shoreline Venture Management, serves as the president and CEO of Be eXceL management, Inc. and is also chairman and director of other emerging companies. Lynn brings over 33 years of experience in the information technology, financial services and securities industries, and will lend strategic business, customer and partner insight to Alacritech as it continues to expand its Accelerator product lines and secure additional licensing business.


"We're pleased to have attracted Barry X Lynn, a seasoned technologist and financial services executive with a history of guiding innovative, high-growth companies," said Larry Boucher, president and chairman of the board, Alacritech Inc. "With the industry standardizing on Alacritech's SLIC Technology, Barry's extensive knowledge of business, customer and partner strategies will provide timely, strategic insight to Alacritech as scalable networking technologies move into the broad market."

"Alacritech owns key I/O technology that is critical to efficient information delivery as network speeds increase," said Barry X Lynn, director, Shoreline Venture Management, LLC. "The company's foresight has resulted in significant partnerships and revenue opportunities. Alacritech will play a key role in achieving my passion -- working with companies that marry information and networks, creating information utilities where all information, no matter where it is, and no matter what format it is in, can be easily accessed by anyone, anywhere, anytime."

About Barry X Lynn

In addition to serving as director at Shoreline Venture Management and president and CEO of Be eXceL management, Lynn also serves as chairman of Callixa Corporation; director of Attune Systems; director of Layer 7 Technologies; chairman of 3TERA, Inc.; advisor to Primitive Logic and principal of Where Eagles Soar. He has also served as director of publicly-traded Merant (Nasdaq:MRNT). Prior to founding Be eXceL, Lynn was with Wells Fargo for 16 years, serving last as president of Wells Fargo Technology Services.

About Shoreline Venture Management, LLC

Shoreline Venture Management, LLC is a venture capital firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Shoreline was established in 1998 to manage the Shoreline Venture Partners funds (SVP I and SVP II), as well as future investment funds. To date, Shoreline has invested primarily in early stage businesses, having committed capital to several companies, and continues to evaluate new opportunities. The company's portfolio includes Alacritech Inc.; Attune Systems; Callixa; Zomanex(TM); Itellidot; Xtegra; Layer 7 Technologies; Lifeline Technologies; Aryx Therapeutics; Managed Objects; Sun Cobalt; Speedchain Networks; Hall Kinion; Cambric; Rheodyne and CV Therapeutics, among others.

About Alacritech(R) Inc.

Alacritech Inc. is the world's leading supplier of standards-based scalable networking technology and solutions that enable the highest performance and efficiency in networked systems. As the first to envision a network protocol processing architecture that enables systems to scale to address ever increasing data and network speeds, Alacritech developed and patented the SLIC Technology(R) architecture. Alacritech's complete line of Accelerators, based on this architecture, optimize data delivery in servers, network-attached storage and iSCSI storage devices. SLIC Technology, the basis of industry-accepted TOE solutions, ships in storage and server products worldwide. Alacritech is a privately held company based in San Jose, California. For more information about Alacritech and its products, please visit the company's Web site at www.alacritech.com.

Alacritech, the Alacritech logo, Dynamic TCP Offload, SLIC Technology, SLIC Technology logo and Accelerating Data Delivery are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Alacritech Inc. in the United States. Other marks belong to their respective owners.

[fireball xl5] 15/7/2005 07:30

Spoke at length to Ian Whitehead yesterday. Alacritech - good news for the company in terms of their holding now in the books at $800k. He seemed unsure as to the % holding. This however will not have been diluted or foregone as Alacritech have not required further funding. Am going to check on Ceon and Agility to see how many rounds of funding since the last positions taken by BEK as this affects the level of investment BEK would have.