Prelude Trust Share Discussion Threads

[rivaldo] 16/1/2007 14:31

Sciona have been busy - launching a new web site and positioning themselves at the centre of nutrigenomics:



Here's the press release:



"Sciona, Inc. Announces Launch of MyCellf.com ushering in a new era of consumer focused DNA and lifestyle conversations

BOULDER, CO (PRWEB) January 16, 2007 -- Sciona, Inc., the leading supplier of direct-to-consumer DNA testing for lifestyle and nutritional guidance, announced today the launch of MyCellf.com, genes with diet and lifestyle.

The site was conceived to provide a balance between information, customer interaction and commerce for interested consumers and healthcare professionals. Because nutrigenetics is a complex subject, Sciona provides direct access to its staff geneticists and dietitians through an extensive Knowledge Center with in-depth genetics information specifically focused on gene, diet and lifestyle interaction. Due to the speed and advancements in the field of nutrigenetics, the site also includes the latest research and industry news within the resource center with links to relevant websites.

Sciona CEO Peter Vitulli commented, "We are excited to announce the launch of our new website. The new design offers easy navigation, provides broad user-friendly content with access to the most up-to-date research and news in nutrigenetics, as well as updated Sciona product information and a simplified online-purchasing process. Most importantly, direct access to information from Sciona staff geneticists and dietitians provides a unique and invaluable resource for consumers and health professional who visit our website." "

[rivaldo] 15/1/2007 21:14

One more post on DisplayLink - their technology is expected to be commercially available in Q1'07 via IOGEAR, so this is near-term stuff:

[rivaldo] 15/1/2007 19:35

News of DisplayLink's breakthrough is spreading:



"Sure, wireless USB hubs for your mice, keyboards, printers, and other random peripherals are quite handy in removing that rat's nest of wires you're currently dealing with, but now it seems the "wire free PC" is within our grasp. DisplayLink's DL-120 and DL-160 ICs allow "monitor manufacturers, PC OEMs and PC accessory companies to develop products for multi-monitor computing including USB-connected monitors, video-enabled USB laptop docks, and a host of other goodies for the cordless monitor. These USB chips are the "world's first" to offer VGA over a USB 2.0 connection, and there's reportedly no loss in quality or lag incurred when watching films or performing other fast-moving tasks, but that's a claim we'd have to see to truly believe. The DL-120 supports resolutions up to 1,280 x 1,024, while the more robust DL-160 kicks it all the way up to 1,600 x 1,200. Notably, DisplayLink mentions that these chips could not only be used in LCD monitors, but in digiframes as well, potentially giving users the ability to beam new galleries over wireless USB. While both ICs are current "available in production," we've no idea how much the firm plans on charging folks to integrate the wireless goods into their monitors, but at least the countdown to a cable-less PC (and some real-world wireless USB applications) has begun -- now we're just waiting for a few hundred watts to be channeled sans cabling."

[swalker] 15/1/2007 15:34

Dont forget that some of the cash is already earmarked for follow on investments in investee companies. Agree though, some cash to repurchase would be a good idea but then again we come back tot he old problems we discussed around the time of the Alpha realisation - smaller no of shares in issue + smaller mkt cap = even more off the old radar of investing instos.

WINS will, Im sure, do a better job given their IT strengths. The recent rejigging of holdings carries all the hallmarks of them working behind the scenes. EVT gone me thinks?

[tiltonboy] 15/1/2007 14:46

riv,

No idea. I would like them to go into the market and support the price up to a certain level, rather than tender at a high price, which adds nothing to NAV.

tiltonboy

[rivaldo] 15/1/2007 14:20

Darron, tiltonboy etc, given that PDT have £16m of cash, or 41% of their m/cap, and with relatively minimal (as previously declared) necessity for follow-up investments in most of the portfolio, do you feel there's any chance of buybacks or distributions or will all this cash be reinvested and retained (for management fees etc...)?

Just 14,5k shares traded today including those on PLUS, amazing. I asume Winterfloods promised they would do wonders for the share price with some good news to plug. Well, here's their chance. Any research or updates they send out gratefully appreciated.

[swalker] 15/1/2007 10:27

Morning all.

So CPS sails into the sunset.

At least we see a profit, allbeit small. Lets not forget that at one point CPs looked like a bust (when they lost the US deal to Andrew Corp). Agree that it isnt a great IRR but it adds cash, increases NAV and we can see the money recycled into new companies that offer better potential such as several of those in the portfolio.

[hvs] 15/1/2007 09:40

Nicely put rivaldo,

PDT are now in a very good position to pursue the more successful investments
and the discount to NAV should narrow this year,

[rivaldo] 15/1/2007 08:44

All agreed jtjh, Orange1. I prefer to look at the here and now, and at the end of the day (Brian) the overriding point is that CPS' sale at well above current valuation justifies PDT's current NAV.

The 114p share price is therefore at too great a discount to the almost 150p NAV.

It also means PDT now have a £16m wodge of cash after investments post-30/9/06 as against the £39m m/cap.

[hvs] 15/1/2007 08:40

Th exit give these cash to invest in the mor successful companies before they are floated.

Better to concentrate n the more promising ventures. I expect further couple of disposals this year.

[orange1] 15/1/2007 07:58

Don't forget too that the book value at 31.12.06 might have been 5.15m but the amount of cash that PDT has poured into CPS over the years is 5.818m.
Maybe not such a fine investment after all in financial terms.
But given the still incertain prospects of CPS and above all given the uncertainty about their ability to pull in a steady stream of income, maybe not such a bad idea to exit now.

[jtjh] 15/1/2007 07:50

Don't forget Riv that management fees over the years reduce your attributable profit figure and, of course, the lack of interest on the monies employed. Still it is good to see some action on the exit front at last!!

[timtom2] 15/1/2007 07:49

Was expecting more for CPS. That said GPS on handsets with feedback channel to track is old hat now - HTC have a # of units with TomTom badge shipping into UK and a lot of users, even OEM, don't care about the urban performance and other not so perfect performance characterisics of GPS.

[rivaldo] 15/1/2007 07:17

Glad I said "maybe" re CPS in my post above!

Excellent news. As I've said in the past I was always more worried about CPS' valuation than the other companies', and here PDT are coming out with a likely £1.75m profit, a pretty good outcome imo. Also adds around 5p to the NAV...

And it brings in a load more cash - for share buybacks or distribution maybe? Well, we can hope and pray...anyway, it justifies the now 150p or so NAV.

Here's the RNS:



"Prelude Trust plc ('Prelude' or 'the Trust), the investment trust that
specialises in technology-based growth businesses, announces that portfolio
company Cambridge Positioning Systems Limited ('CPS') has been sold to CSR plc
('CSR') for a total consideration of $35 million.

Prelude has received net proceeds of £6.16 million in cash on closing with up to a further £0.74 million, also in cash, held in escrow and due to be paid in two years. This compares with the book value of £5.15 million, which was included in the Net Asset Value of the Trust on 31 December 2006, which was announced on 9 January 2007.

Cambridge Positioning Systems has developed proprietary technologies referred to as ''EGPS' which reduce the cost of GPS in the handset to sub $1 and enable
consumers to receive fast locations and all environments which is a fundamental
requirement for the delivery of Location Based Services. The technology
comprises Network based equipment combined with handset-based software, and has
been extensively and successfully trialled in partnership with several leading
Industry players.

Prelude has been an active investor in CPS since the first investment was made
in the business in 1998 and Dr Robert Hook, a Partner of Esprit Capital
Partners, has sat on the CPS Board since its inception.

Commenting on the sale Dr. Hook said: 'At the time of our first investment we
had to make a judgement on the likelihood of location technology becoming widely adopted in mobile handsets, and the quality and uniqueness of CPS' technology as a leading offering. We also had to decide whether these factors and the emergence of Location Based Services would occur within a five year time frame. In the event we made the right call on CPS but the mobile technology services it pioneered has taken longer than anticipated to emerge.'

He added: 'In a campaign led by Mooreland Partners the market interest in the
acquisition of CPS on a global basis was significant and this was the right time to sell the business and we are delighted that they are becoming part of a
corporation, which has both the resource and vision needed to help it realise
its full potential. I am delighted that the Trust has made a profitable exit
from this investment and the very able team at CPS has found an excellent home
for its technology at CSR.'"

[jtjh] 15/1/2007 07:16

At least they made a profit on the CPS investment, but hardly earth shattering! Almost better to have left the money on deposit! The longer these investee companies lie on the shelf the smaller the value obtainable.

[tiltonboy] 13/1/2007 19:46

I can't help but get very excited by DisplayLink. I take it that these articles are independant reviews, and are not sponsored by the company.

We have picked up a few bits and pieces this week, with the replaced Panmure's seemingly having a lot of stock on offer.

tiltonboy

[rivaldo] 13/1/2007 18:45

TT2, I didn't see anything.

DisplayLink seem to have met with a terrific reception in the USA as another groundbreaking product. I remember the time when there was all the excitement over Alphamosaic - isn't there now a much wider range of equally exciting, groundbreaking and actually being commercialised investments?

- DisplayLink
- Siconnect
- ZBD
- M-Spatial
- Oxford Immunotec
- Xmos
- CPS (maybe)
- Polatis and Phyworks

Anyway, here's the latest on DisplayLink:



"Now that external video cards are a possibility thanks to DisplayLink and Wireless USB is practically out (finally), it's inevitable that the two seek marriage in a tech demo at Alleron's CES booth to form the Cable Free PC. Essentially recreating what Apple did with their Bluetooth iMac G5 only for the PC world, the demo setup consists of a mini tower equipped with a Wireless USB dongle that connects to a Wireless USB hub integrated into a typical flat panel display, using DisplayLink's chipset to provide VGA over USB. Response time was fast, and video was surprisingly smooth with no hiccups. Only two cables were used in the demo, and they were just to power the tower and monitor. Don't be surprised if we see this come out as an after market dongle that works with your existing monitor, or if future monitors natively support Wireless USB, as this technology is frighteningly real."

[cerrito] 12/1/2007 18:28

more than 2m shares traded today

[timtom2] 12/1/2007 17:02

Has anyone posted about PHY expecting further funding to take them through to profit at the end of Q1, 2008? Read earlier this week and no can't find the source. Funded expected from existing backers.

[hvs] 12/1/2007 15:20

I agree TimTom,

We may be pleasantly surprised.

Recetly read that Board of Directors are aiming for significant returns to
shareholders. For once they may actually produce.

[timtom2] 12/1/2007 15:04

Those of us that have hung into this long enough to be called investors deserve a decent exit or 2. Portfolio looks exciting and it keeps me holding on but some movement would be pleasantly received in the next 3-6 months. Suspect it may be 2008.

[rivaldo] 11/1/2007 07:42

DisplayLink's products seem to hace caused a bit of a stir at CES in Vegas this week - high hopes for this one:


Small extract:
"The show stopper from a local point of view however, is a genuine world first in the form of Cambridge based DisplayLink's demonstration of wireless display connectivity, a breakthrough that effectively removes the last remaining reason for proximity between user and CPU.

DisplayLink provides high-performance connectivity chips that allow monitor manufacturers, PC OEMs and PC accessory companies to develop products for multi-display computing. The first product to have hit the market is a video-enabled USB notebook docking station, but a host of other devices and accessories are currently under development.

Bill Gates reportedly works with three monitors attached to his PC and one of DisplayLink's aims is to make the dramatic improvements multi-display computing brings to work-flow available to the 'Average Joe.'"



"The Year of the Wireless Monitor?
By Eric Griffith
January 10, 2007

A lot of computer connections have gone wireless today, from your network to your printer, but there are two things that can't go wireless: the power supply, and your monitor's video connection.

Right?

Well, wireless extension cords may not be real, but work may be progressing on wireless energy transfer -- which involves no cords, although the products still have to touch... But what about your display? DisplayLink of Palo Alto, California (formerly Newnham Research) thinks it has that problem licked.

The company has been providing the technology for displays to work over Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0 connections for a while. It's not much of a stretch to move that to Wireless USB (wUSB).

"We have a protocol to take a display and lossy compress (define) it, while keeping interactivity over a network connection," says Jason Slaughter, senior product manager at DisplayLink. To date, the technology is built into a single product from Kensington, the $180 Notebook Expansion Dock with Video, providing video output on the USB port. Yesterday, DisplayLink announced that IOGEAR will use the tech in a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 External Video Card to come out in the first quarter of this year. Both, of course, use USB cables.

It is the eventual take-off of wUSB, based on the WiMedia Alliance's ultrawideband technology, that could mean cordless monitors come sooner rather than later.

"What's interesting about USB is the simplicity," says Slaughter. "It's faster and more simple than VGA. In the past, USB-to-video or VGA performance was terrible... but we drive monitors at 1600x1200 pixels and have 32-bit color. The interactivity is still great as well -- move the mouse, and it moves like you'd expect."

Slaughter calls the move to wUSB the "logical extension" for the company, and says a lot of wUSB makers have shown interest in what DisplayLink does.

The company has new chips out this week for connecting PCs to monitors using USB 2.0, one supporting 1280x1024 resolution and another for 1600x1200. DisplayLink also includes a Virtual Graphics Card that runs on a Windows PC, which translates the information sent to a Hardware Rendering Engine in the chip on the display side. Slaughter says this works the same on wUSB as it does on wired. "We're not a WiMedia company, we don't make radios; we just make the technology for sending video that is network-agnostic," says Slaughter. "It's just USB to us. But we're working with those guys making radios to make sure our technology is optimized for wireless."

Slaughter says their closest partner currently is UWB chip designer Alereon; DisplayLink planned to demonstrate display connectivity over wUSB at CES 2007 this week in Alereon's suite. It was part of a "clutter-free desktop" demo, where the only cables in sight would be power cords.

"Our protocol degrades gracefully when bandwidth is not available," says Slaughter, talking about the company's roots working with Ethernet for display signals. He says vendors of wUSB products are having issues getting the bandwidth up to the 400 Mbps speeds they want, but he believes even the speed of today's products, like the recently released Belkin wUSB hub, would work with well with DisplayLink chips.

Slaughter says he hopes to see DisplayLink technology on Wireless USB before the end of 2007."

[rivaldo] 10/1/2007 16:21

Done FSE, not received anything yet?

Siconnect news - they're revving up:



"January 10, 2007 08:00 AM Eastern Time
SiConnect appoints Non-Executive Chairman
SWINDON, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Grant Masom has become Non-Executive Chairman of in-home communications technology company SiConnect. The move coincides with the launch of SiConnect's first digital powerline transceiver product for in-home multimedia networking.

With 20 years senior executive experience, Masom brings to SiConnect extensive knowledge of a broad range of telecom, networking and IT service sectors. Over the last 8 years, he has worked as a Non-Executive Director and Chairman with 12 early and later stage technology companies in UK and international markets. He joins the SiConnect board with immediate effect and will work alongside CEO Trevor Sokell.

As Chairman with Amino Technologies, Masom guided the company from being a pre-revenue start-up through to a position of worldwide leadership in the fast growing IPTV market and an IPO on the AIM market. He currently holds Non-Executive Chairmanships at Comunica Holdings and TIS Software.

"It's clear to me that SiConnect is offering a truly cutting edge technology to a sector that's set to offer tremendous growth opportunities," said Masom, "I look forward to working with the great team at SiConnect and helping them achieve the success that's due."

SiConnect CEO Trevor Sokell commented, "At this stage in SiConnect's evolution it's very important for us to strengthen the board of directors to ensure we maximise all of our growth potential. Grant's experience and industry track record will help us do just that." "

[fse] 09/1/2007 18:22

>rivaldo... check PGB thread ?

[rivaldo] 09/1/2007 18:11

Agreed TT. And Siconnect are at quite a late stage development-wise.

Good news from DisplayLink - a contract win:



"January 09, 2007 10:00 AM Eastern Time
DisplayLink and IOGEAR Team to Bring Multi-Monitor Computing into Mainstream
Leading Connectivity Provider Selects Innovative USB Display Networking Technology from DisplayLink for IOGEAR's External Video Card

PALO ALTO & IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DisplayLink Inc. (formerly Newnham Technology) today announced that IOGEAR has chosen its display networking technology for its new External Video Card, a cost-effective and easy-to-use USB 2.0 video adapter that brings the productivity of multi-monitor computing to mainstream notebook and desktop computer users.

The Hi-Speed USB 2.0 External Video Card allows a VGA-based monitor to be connected to a Windows computer via a USB 2.0 port. The External Video Card delivers high-resolution graphics and DVD-quality video playback with highly responsive mouse and keyboard interactivity. The adapter offers full 32-bit true color at all supported display resolutions and automatically recognizes the monitor type and configuration (EDID) for plug-and-play simplicity.

"IOGEAR now has the opportunity to expand its focus on connectivity solutions to displays with a solution that makes it much easier for PC users to get their work done," said Bryan Wells, Sr. Product Manager at IOGEAR, Inc. "Working with DisplayLink has allowed us to deliver an innovative display adapter with the industries best user friendliness and performance – two of the hallmark features of all IOGEAR products."

"With this new IOGEAR adapter and DisplayLink's simple connectivity, consumers can now easily keep adding monitors, photo frames and other displays to a single PC in their work or home environments using the popular USB link," said Hamid Farzaneh, DisplayLink president and CEO.

DisplayLink's display-networking technology combines software in the computer with an IC in a display or peripheral for transporting high-resolution graphics to a display or multiple displays over standard wired and wireless network protocols. The technology breaks the inherent 1:1 PC-to-monitor connectivity constraints of VGA/DVI, providing the ability to network multiple monitors, laptop docks, digital picture frames and other devices to a computer. Future generations of the technology will support monitor connections over wireless USB, Wi-Fi, Ethernet and other networks.

IOGEAR's External Video Card (GUC2015V) will be available in Q1 2007 and will be available from all major catalog resellers, online resellers and selected retail outlets. It will come with IOGEAR's standard three-year warranty."