Orcadian Energy Share Discussion Threads

[chrisdgb] 17/10/2007 09:06

What are your latest thoughts on the price????? 30p..

[ericthecat] 17/10/2007 08:46

The only false market, is the fact that it is still undervalued, takeover discussions still on-going see results from 6 weeks ago, they are haggling over the price, blz want more, but it will happen.

[chrisdgb] 16/10/2007 09:17

Dear Orca management, can we please have some kind of update on the 'takeover'. Otherwise we have a false market in the shares.

[colinhy] 16/10/2007 08:57

Orca says that Blockbuster Israel plans to use its new WebTV technology to launch an Internet service for progressive download of up-to-date digital content over PC's by the end of the year.

Then, in early 2008, Orca says, Blockbuster Israel plans to provide an IPTV-ready set-top box to enable TV connectivity from the PC, and advanced services such as push-VOD and HDTV (this will, in turn, be followed by a "complete digital TV offering" from Blockbuster Israel, Orca says).

"WebTV can help IPTV players today protect their market share and maintain a competitive edge," Orca CEO, Barel, said in a prepared statement. "As the first to market with this unique combined IPTV and WebTV solution, Orca is yet again pioneering the future of IPTV--this time leading the market towards total convergence of managed and unmanaged services for top-notch home entertainment."

[colinhy] 10/10/2007 17:18

Spurned by a Big Fish, Middleware Provider Orca May Itself Get Swallowed
09/27/2007
Paula Bernier

Interesting details

[chrisdgb] 10/10/2007 09:46

the thread lives........

[colinhy] 10/10/2007 09:27

Stockholm, Sweden and Ra'anana, Israel - October 9, 2007

JOINT PRESS RELEASE

Operax and Orca Interactive Integrate Technologies, Bringing QoS to IPTV. The integrated solution enables end-to-end QoS for high quality video services

Operax, the leading vendor of dynamic Resource and Admission Control solutions for IP service quality, and Orca Interactive (LSE: ORCA), the market pioneer in providing IPTV middleware and applications, offer a comprehensive solution allowing operators to manage their service expansion while ensuring Quality of Service (QoS) for advanced video and IPTV services.

Operax provides pre-IMS and IMS-compliant, carrier-grade dynamic Resource and Admission Control solutions to operators worldwide, allowing them to guarantee end-to-end QoS for any IP session. Combining these advanced technologies with Orca Interactive's highly flexible IPTV middleware, the new solution will enable operators to quickly deploy new applications and services without reconfiguring their network infrastructure. In addition, the new solution will help provide leverage in the face of growing competition from incumbent cable and satellite pay-TV operators, as well as broadcasters and service providers offering Internet video streaming over operators' existing infrastructures.

Optimizing network capacity, the Orca RiGHTv will ensure that subscribers are constantly met with first-rate video offerings for high definition television and video-on-demand (VOD). By guaranteeing service quality, IPTV operators can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, whilst boosting operational efficiency through optimal allocation of network resources based on cost and availability.

The new solution, operable in both pre-IMS and IMS environments, will also help operators manage QoS in single-service IPTV deployments as well as across multiple blended services such as IPTV, VoIP, games and broadband.

Operax Solutions Alliances Director, Roberto Kauffmann-Dev, said: "We see that with subscriber numbers going up and an increasing shift to on-demand content, most IPTV operators need a solution for QoS Control. Pioneering the IPTV middleware landscape, Orca Interactive have longstanding and diverse experience in IPTV deployments and make an excellent partner for Operax. Following the technology integration Operax has joined Orca's Interactive partners program (Interactive Alliances)."

Asi Messica Director of Product Marketing at Orca Interactive, said: "As an innovator of IPTV technologies, we believe that guaranteed QoS is becoming increasingly important to operators, particularly when they want to widen their footprint or launch new products like VOD, or High Definition TV. In anticipation of this evolving trend, Orca has joined with the Quality of Experience Ecosystem of Operax, a leader in Dynamic Resource and Admission Control in IP networks, to help operators optimize their network capex spend and guarantee high quality video services to their subscribers."

[colinhy] 25/9/2007 22:17

London research firm iLocus indicated Thomson was the lead supplier of off-the-shelf middleware, primarily due to France Telecom deployment. Next was Cascade, followed by USTarcom, Alcatel-Lucent, Siemens, Microsoft, Orca, Vcom, Hawei, Minerva and ZTE.



Whose software manages your IP TV service?

Those who have been successful selling the middleware solution off-the-shelf are typically confined to one of two large accounts. Thomson leads the pack because France Telecom is the leader among the service providers. France Telecom accounts for a big majority of Thomson middleware deployment. Cascade follows Thomson at number two, and as the readers might be aware most of Cascade's middleware sales are confined to PCCW.

UTStarcom's main deployments are shared by three main providers: China Telecom, China Netcom, and Softbank BB. Alcatel-Lucent's biggest deployment and the main customer is Chunghwa Telecom. Nokia Siemens counts on Belgacom as the main customer. IP TV equipment has all the ingredients of a market in its infancy.

Another important trend that emerges in this report is that Microsoft is now turning its trials into deployments and is all set to give tough competition to the existing IP TV middleware vendors. Microsoft IP TV middleware supports an estimated 370 thousand live IP TV subscribers (4.9% of the total worldwide).

[colinhy] 07/9/2007 08:20

Orca Interactive and muvee Team Up to Introduce First-Ever Automatic Movie Creation over IPTV
Innovative UGC Application LivePhotos Expected to Enhance Service Offerings and will Be Demonstrated at IBC 2007

Orca Interactive plans to offer LivePhotos with its advanced RiGHTv IPTV middleware by the end of 2007. It will be a part of a comprehensive on-demand UGC platform enabling triple-play service providers and network operators to differentiate their offerings and drive new revenues. In addition, Orca and muvee will also consider jointly marketing the new UGC application as a stand-alone solution compatible with all IPTV platform types.

[colinhy] 06/9/2007 15:07

Thu, 6th, Sep 2007

Orca Interactive Unveils The IPTV Experience Of The Future At IBC 2007 IBC 2007, IPTV

[hotfinance14] 05/9/2007 20:13

Will see in the morning.

[chrisdgb] 05/9/2007 12:12

volume going through again today..any excitement expected from the Emblaze results??

[istanbully] 05/9/2007 08:59

Not a bad contract win. Pity its not from a company that is not partly owned by Orca. $4.9 million worth of orders in the pipeline ,$1 million in interest per annum from the cash in hand. Orca is not desperate to be taken over. If anything with a few more contracts things could finally look bright.

[deep powder] 03/9/2007 13:35

price going up/volume???

[chrisdgb] 03/9/2007 12:15

good to see some interest here...

[colinhy] 31/8/2007 17:03

Orca Still in Takeover Talks

AUGUST 31, 2007


Nearly eight months after first announcing it was in M&A negotiations, IPTV middleware vendor Orca Interactive Ltd. (London: ORCA - message board) says the takeover talks are still going on and that multiple parties are still involved.

In January, Orca announced that talks were underway, with industry sources and market reports suggesting that existing partner Comverse Inc. was the leading suitor. (See Orca in IPTV Takeover Talks.)

Orca's CEO Haggai Barel says he can't identify any of the parties involved, but notes that the companies involved are at "different levels" of negotiations. He also says there isn't any one factor prolonging the M&A talks and that Orca does not have any targets to hit before any agreement can be signed.

"The talks are ongoing. We have already been through due diligence, so it's not a matter of diligence -- we have proved we are a good company. It just takes a long time. There are lots of issues to discuss -- price, structure. It's not about any one specific thing," the CEO tells Light Reading.

Comverse isn't commenting on the matter. During a recent phone conversation with Light Reading, Comverse president Yaron Tchwella, who has been running the company since April, wouldn't comment on any M&A issues in the IPTV sector but did say that Comverse is "working with several companies... that have complementary technology."

He did note, though, that Comverse has "plenty of cash" to make any acquisitions it needs.

Not that anyone would need too much to buy Orca. The company is losing money on small revenues and had a cash balance of just $14.6 million at the end of June.

Things are picking up for the IPTV middleware specialist, though. In a market where major carrier accounts are dominated by Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - message board), Nokia Siemens Networks (Myrio), Thomson (NYSE: TMS - message board; Euronext Paris: 18453), and UTStarcom Inc. (Nasdaq: UTSI - message board), Orca is targeting smaller opportunities with Tier 2 and 3 service providers.

But even in that market the competition is tough, with the likes of Conklin Corp. , Espial Group Inc. , Iskratel Telekomunikacijski sistemi d.o.o. , Minerva Networks Inc. , Kasenna Inc. , and NDS Group plc (Nasdaq: NNDS - message board) all battling to win the smaller accounts. (See Espial Joins IPTV Middleware Madness, BitBand, Conklin-Intracom Win, Iskratel Partners for IPTV Package, NDS Joins Nortel's IPTV Party, Minerva Expands Suite, and Kasenna Struts at TelcoTV.)

Despite the crowded market, Orca has been making better headway this year, especially in Southern and Eastern Europe, and even announced a deployment in North America. (See WTS Uses Orca Middleware, Orca Wins Russian Deal, Lattelecom Uses Orca, and Orca Wins Greek Deal.)


In the first six months of this year, Orca reported revenues of $3.2 million, up from a measly $0.9 million a year earlier, and registered a net loss of $2.2 million, better than the $3.4 million loss suffered in the first half of 2006. (See Orca Reports H1.)

The company also just announced a deal valued at $3 million with Blockbuster in Israel, though this was a deal won through the back door, as the company's half-year report to the London Stock Exchange shows that Orca holds a 33.33 percent stake in Blockbuster's Israeli franchise. Orca notes that, under the conditions of the stakeholding agreement, it "will become the sole provider to the Franchise of an end-to-end IPTV solution system."

The deployment of that system, though, will give Orca the chance to show off some new capabilities, as Blockbuster Israel plans to launch "commercial PC download and IPTV services" using Orca's new "hybrid IPTV and WebTV solution." That solution "supports both managed and unmanaged environments to help service providers expand their customer base and market reach."

CEO Barel says his company will show off this capability at next weeks' IBC tradeshow in Amsterdam and believes it will attract attention from many operators: "Operators could lose business to the likes of iTunes and Amazon for the downloading of TV programs. This [combined IPTV/WebTV capability] gives carriers the chance to compete and hold on to those WebTV revenues as well as the business they are building through set-top boxes."

The new hybrid technology isn't Orca's only new development. Following its first success in North America at W.T. Services, a subsidiary of West Texas Rural Telephone Cooperative, Orca plans to open an office on the West Coast of the U.S. before the end of September.

[hotfinance14] 30/8/2007 18:02

In Shares Mag just mentions the USA deal.

[ericthecat] 30/8/2007 16:19

Is this the beginning, more news coming in september and then news of takeover, come on ORCA.

[chrisdgb] 30/8/2007 08:57

mentioned in shares magazine????? anybody seen the article??

[hotfinance14] 30/8/2007 07:01

More deals like Blockbuster are on the way i am sure.

[deep powder] 30/8/2007 06:47

nice article and irrespective of takeover talks this is way undervalued, need to get more people looking at it....

[colinhy] 29/8/2007 20:44

Spurned by Lucent, Middleware Provider Orca May Itself Get Swallowed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Paula Bernier
Posted on: 08/29/2007
Last year was a tough one for IPTV middleware company Orca Interactive.

Just months after scoring a partnership toward the end of 2005 with Lucent, one of the marquee vendors in telecom, Orca heard the news that Lucent was to merge with Alcatel.

Hearts sank at Orca, along with the company's 2006 revenue.

Now Orca itself may be consumed by another company.

Orca on Jan. 12 announced that it had received preliminary approaches expressing an interest in making an offer for the company. And as Orca today released its financial results for the first half of 2007, the company revealed that "discussions in this regard are continuing to progress and we expect to give further updates in due course."

The company was not available for comment on acquisition talks this morning. However, in January when Orca first began discussing the prospects of its acquisition, Comverse, which has been on a buying binge in the past couple years, surfaced as a likely suitor.

However, as for Orca's former agreement with Lucent, it "was a very strategic one, an OEM agreement where they bundled our software into their end-to-end IPTV solution," Orca's CEO Haggai Barel recently told xchange. "And we started bidding all over the place. We had even [been able to get] short listed on some accounts. Most of our pipeline was built on Lucent for 2006. And then, as you know, in March of 2006 they announced this deal with Alcatel. The merger stopped all relationships between the companies because Alcatel had their own solution."

Revenue at Orca had reached $5.5 million in 2005, only to plummet to $3.3 million in 2006 due to the loss of the Lucent relationship as well as by what Barel calls the "freeze in the IP market" as customers waited for Microsoft product.

It took about six months for Orca to recuperate from the fallout with Lucent, but in the fourth quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of this year, Orca started getting "back to business," said Barel, adding that has been aided by the fact that the IPTV market is now maturing.

"Following a difficult year in 2006, where we saw our revenue impacted by sector consolidation, we have seen a positive return to momentum in the first half of 2007," said Barel Wednesday in announcing the company's results for the six months ended June 30. "We have seen a clear increase in new orders, especially in the EMEA region, which, as the most advanced market, has been the focus for our sales and marketing investment over the past 18 months."

Revenue in the first half of the year was $3.2 million, compared to $900,000 in the first half of 2006. Orca's gross profit margin was 72 percent, with a net loss of $2.1 million, and a strong net cash position with $14.6 million at the end of the period.

The company said its revenue during this half were boosted by new deals with Latvia's Lattelecom, Greece's On Telecoms, Russia's Sibir Telecom and WT Services of Texas, Orca's first U.S. customer.

The addition of a U.S. customer for Orca is a sign of things to come, said Barel in an interview with xchange. He said the company in the third quarter of this year plans to open an office on the West Coast. Barel added that Orca already has IPTV-related partnerships in place with a variety of vendors including Amino, BitBand, MetaSwitch, Trilithic, Quintrex, Tribune Media Services, Verimatrix and Widevine.

As for customers, Orca has a dozen deals in place with service providers in 11 countries. Those providers include the ones mentioned above as well as Chunghwa Telecom, ComX, Jazztel, Media Company, NewNet, Sonaecom as well as two additional service providers. "We do have 12 commercial deployments worldwide. And I am talking about 12 telcos, tier 2s or tier 3s," not very small independent telcos, which many IPTV suppliers boast about in discussing their commercial customers, said Barel.

Additionally, Orca today announced a new, combined WebTV and IPTV solution and revealed that it had won a $3 million deal for the new system with Blockbuster Israel. Using Orca's new combined solution, Blockbuster Israel will launch a new Internet service for progressive download of up-to-date digital content over PCs by the end of the year. In early 2008, Blockbuster Israel plans to provide an IPTV-ready set-top box to enable TV connectivity from the PC and advanced services such as push VoD and HDTV, followed by a complete digital TV offering.

"This announcement marks a new era for Blockbuster Israel, driving us to the forefront of next-generation video services and demonstrating our market leadership. Breaking new ground with a cutting-edge Web service, we can now deliver the latest movies and television series directly to subscribers' homes through an advanced digital platform", commented Ofer Lowy, chairman of Blockbuster Israel. "Orca's unique solution powers high quality interactive TV and digital content services, so that our subscribers can benefit from a triple bundle of local branches and vending machines, Web content and a full IPTV package in the future."

Another significant part of Orca's comeback plan centers around new solutions for navigating the sea of available video content. The company expects to announce details of that solution Sept. 7 at the IBC show in Amsterdam.