Prelude Trust Share Discussion Threads

[orange1] 07/2/2007 08:10

Could be as Panmure's have finally upped their offer price.

[jonwig] 07/2/2007 07:18

tiltonboy,

"...but I would guess that it's a block trade from a few days ago."

- that would seem the most logical explanation, but marking it "O" doesn't seem to fit in.
If it's the hoovering-up of an overhang it's very good news.

[tiltonboy] 06/2/2007 22:01

I think m-spatial would be a perfect fit for Yell. Capitalised at nearly £5bn, I'm sure they could afford £100m.

I will have a look at that big trade tomorrow, but I would guess that it's a block trade from a few days ago.

I would hope that WINS would be in a position to take out any overhang, or even better PDT buying back for cancellation.

As in the bottom of the Splits market, it does make you think who is selling and why.

We've got over 1m shares now, and will probably continue to add.

tiltonboy

[rivaldo] 06/2/2007 20:24

I wonder if that means the overhang has been cleared?

Ta for the ZBD info FSE, it seems ZBD could be a very big winner....along with Siconnect, DisplayLink, Polatis, Phyworks, Oxford Immunotec....

Talking of which, M-Spatial (what is their valuation - a mere £7m or so?) announced more good news:



"m-spatial's LSDE adopted by Wind for Italian Mobile Local Search
February 6, 2007

Wind becomes first Italian mobile operator to offer Seat PG's directory services to 800 thousand i-mode subscribers - based on m-spatial's Local Search and Discovery Engine (LSDE)
Cambridge, UK, 6 February 2007: m-spatial, the market leader in mobile local search, today announces Italian mobile network operator, Wind, is now offering on-the-move access to Seat Pagine Gialle's (Seat PG) Yellow and White pages directory services via its i-mode and WAP mobile internet portals. Leveraging on m-spatial's Local Search and Discovery Engine (LSDE), the new service delivers a wealth of domestic and business information directly to the mobiles of 800 thousand i-mode users and 14 million WAP users.

This is the first operator deployment of the joint Seat PG / m-spatial mobile application that was launched in July 2006 to provide users with a highly intuitive and enhanced mobile local search experience. Today's announcement sees the service made available to Wind subscribers, delivering a comprehensive, location-based directory service - accessed via its i-mode and WAP portals.

"Given the over 270 million hits on Seat PG's directory assistance services, it was logical to extend this popular consumer service onto the mobile," said Andy Walker, CEO at m-spatial. "Delivering mobile access to the wealth of information, at the precise moment of need, is an incredibly powerful proposition, and addresses the demand for compelling and innovative services from the growing community of i-mode and WAP mobile data users."

Paolo Cellini, Head of Internet Division of Seat PG said: "We're delighted Wind has become the first Italian operator to adopt our new service. Underpinned by m-spatial's proven LSDE, we have created the market's leading mobile local search service, providing maximum benefit for both Seat PG and Wind consumers, and developing a powerful new channel to market for Seat PG's local advertisers.""

[jonwig] 06/2/2007 19:59

Yes, Orange, that single trade alone (1,446,169) is itself 3.8% so we should be due an RNS tomorrow for holdings.

It's strange that it goes through as an 'O' trade - any explanation of how that can be?

[orange1] 06/2/2007 18:50

3.8% of the company changing hands today.

[hvs] 06/2/2007 18:48

Looks like it would be a good time to top up.

Cannot see anything else that is a SCREAMING BUY.

[hvs] 06/2/2007 18:48

Looks like it would be a good time to top up.

Cannot see anything else that is a SCREAMING BUY.

[fse] 05/2/2007 23:34

>rivaldo.... Re ZBD again.. Its not just about the cost savings of making label changes in the office rather than sending someone around with a grease pencil, or even the extra information displayed....the other major factor is it reduces wastage and gives better/added control on product shelf life etc....

For example the office staff can quickly see that they advertised Quiche at 3.25 but sell by date is approaching so a quick edit puts them on 1/2 price to clear.
Numerous other applications.
The displays dont just offer high impact, accurate labelling ...... they also know when the stuff was put out and can manage the product cost effectively.
Sounds a lot more interesting ?

>jonwig.....Tesco do not have an exclusive with ZBD. Tesco management have exhibited good foresight in choosing this solution.
Expect more announcements.

[rivaldo] 05/2/2007 21:23

Nice spot tiltonboy, looks a good fit for M-Spatial.

This Toshiba docking station incorporates DisplayLink's technology. The writer's pretty excited about it, and I'm excited by the fact that all these products incorporating DisplayLink's technology are already out there selling and DisplayLink seem to be the market leader:



"2:42PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: CES, Laptops, Peripherals

Toshiba wasn't exactly forthcoming on this dynadock of theirs, but since it sounds pretty nifty, and was hanging out at Toshiba's booth like it just didn't care, we thought we'd give you the lowdown. The dynadock is a USB 2.0-based docking station that beefs up your laptop's video and audio ports considerably with minimal hassle. Once you've hooked up to the upright dock via USB, you'll automagically be flush with 6 more USB ports, S/PDIF audio, Ethernet, Serial, microphone in, headphone or speakers out, plus the bestest of them all: VGA and DVI-I ports. That way you can have your jumbo LCD, 7.1 sound system and full-speed internets all primed to go with the insertion of a single cable into your laptop, which sounds like an alright deal to us. We're not sure when this thing is going to show up in stores, or for how much, but isn't every thing so much more exciting with that kind of suspense?"

[tiltonboy] 05/2/2007 17:26

JIMCAR,

I certainly was.

We picked up a few more PDT today, with no sign that the seller has finished.

tiltonboy

[jimcar] 05/2/2007 16:56

tb

I think this is it



Were you thinking of it in connection with m-spatial?

[tiltonboy] 05/2/2007 09:38

I can't find the link, but there was an article on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph titled "Mobile giants plot secret rival to Google"

A couple of quotes from the article:

"In the UK alone, more then 20 per centof subscribers are expected to have access to mobile internet at broadband speeds by the end of 2007, which should prompt a DRAMATIC (my capitals) increase in teh use of search engines via mobile phones"

"There is a big play in mobile search that we need to be part of, and we are exploring those options at a very high level"

tiltonboy

[rivaldo] 05/2/2007 09:24

Not exclusive from ZBD's point of view jonwig since they're also in Dixons and John Lewis. Don't know if they're precluded from other supermarkets though.

Ta for that FSE. Somehow I hadn't appreciated ZBD had all this other info on their labels re ingredients etc as well as pricing - this makes it even more valuable.

A new article here re Siconect follwing their promotion in the working group - the possibilities seem huge to a non-techie like me:



"Meeting the challenge of in-home powerline communication
by Robert Stead, SiConnect

The idea of a single wholehouse network providing immediate access to telephone, Internet and TV services from any location in the house is an incredibly attractive proposition - so why don't we all already have one?

Well in Europe at least, solidly constructed houses built on multiple levels with thick brick or concrete walls can create significant problems for wireless technology, and re-wiring a house with Category 5 Ethernet cabling is likely just too costly and time-consuming an option for most of us.

The domestic AC power cables have long held an intriguing promise in this respect – houses come with the network preinstalled and it generally covers the whole house! While this may well address the basic infrastructure challenge, the technical challenges faced in harnessing such a network to carry a complete complement of digital media services is significant. SiConnect's POEM technology has been purpose-designed to tackle the inherent challenges.

WHOLE HOUSE COVERAGE
Creating some crucial design criteria for power line communication (PLC) networks, a number of these challenges, and SiConnect's response to them, are considered here. However, as will be discussed, the success of inhome PLC vitally depends on the ability of competing solutions to co-exist.

Unfortunately, noisy domestic electrical cables were never designed for broadband data transmission, and while there are pairs of sockets that will provide a good signal to noise ratio link for even the highest data rates, there are always pairs with a much poorer response (Figure 1).

By using a peer-to-peer network topology, SiConnect's POEM technology is able to embrace all available power sockets in the home to achieve whole home coverage. Each node can act as a repeater, which not only maximises coverage but also optimises throughput.

The connection quality of each link is always known to every POEM-enabled node on the network, and as a result, the best path is always used to optimise throughput. New nodes are automatically authorized and up to 255 networks, each with 255 nodes, are supported.

A good consumer experience of in-home PLC networks will depend on all connected equipment working correctly all of the time. To this end, management of traffic priority and bandwidth is critical, within a single network or across several co-existing networks. What's clear is that the "best effort" approach of Ethernet-like technologies falls short when the requirements for in home distribution of IPTV, VoIP, and data are taken into account. The asynchronous carrier sense multiple access/collision detection (CSMA/CD) protocol that they rely on cannot ensure the controlled latency and jitter that's required. The POEM technology therefore takes a different approach in that it uses a synchronous multiple access/contention resolution (SMA/CR) protocol and a QoS management structure based on 16 different service levels for prioritising traffic.

EMS COMPLIANCE
Since existing PLC technologies sit in the 3 to 30MHz band, concern has often been expressed regarding the prospect of powerline communication interfering with radio broadcasts. Certainly, technologies using spread spectrum techniques or orthogonal division multiplexing (OFDM) across a large part of the short-wave band can cause problems (Figure 2).

Conversely, POEM technology's detect and avoid scheme effectively moves carrier signals to avoid interference with any amateur radio band in local use (Figure 3). This has long been demanded by the amateur radio and broadcast community as the only effective way of ensuring local radio users are not disturbed by powerline carriers.

Designed to operate within global EMC regulations, POEM technology complies with Europe's EN55022 regulation for conducted emissions and EN55024 regulation for immunity to interference. It meets the requirement of the USA's FCC part 15 regulations for radiated emissions, and CISPR 22 and CISPR 24 regulations in the rest of the world.

INSTALLATION, SECURITY, PRICE
Like any consumer electronic device, ease of use is a crucial design criterion for PLC networks. The inherent ability of a POEM technology enabled network to continuously self-configure, combined with the fact that it has no dependency on a network PC or central controller, means user installation will be simple and truly plug and play. As a result, the need for service providers to provide technical support and to incur costly home visits is eliminated.

POEM technology also includes encryption to provide privacy and security features that ensure broadcast and personal multimedia data remain protected.

Moreoever, even the most technically brilliant PLC solution will fail if the price point isn't right. Because the POEM technology was designed specifically for in-home communications, it will achieve a chip price of $5 per node - less than half the cost of competitive solutions.

COEXISTENCE
In answering the question "Why don't we all have a PLC network in the home?," the aspect of coexistence is a vital consideration. Even the most technically brilliant technical solution in the world will have limited appeal if it cannot coexist on the same power lines as other PLC solutions.

PLC technologies use either OFDM or multiple carrier approaches. A characteristic of OFDM is that it uses many carriers across the entire bandwidth; therefore another PLC system on the same power lines is very likely to suffer RF interference and lose performance. This interference is mutual and will ultimately cripple the operation of both networks. Avoiding this by achieving active coexistence must be a key objective for all semiconductor manufacturers working in the field.

CEPCA, the Consumer Electronics Powerline Communications Alliance, (www.CEPCA.org) is a technology-agnostic industry body that has put coexistence very much at the top of its agenda. With a membership composed of all of the world's major consumer electronics manufacturers, it sees coexistence as the essential route to reliability and sustained consumer confidence and the only means by which power utility service calls can be reduced and CE product returns minimized.

Its philosophy is that with so much momentum behind PLC, there's a real need to get global consensus on a PLC coexistence standard now, rather than wait the many years required for a single standards to be published. The long-term success of PLC in the home requires that coexistence be built into the different manufacturer's technology in the same home. This is not complex to achieve but does require a level of cooperation that only an independent industry body like CEPCA can achieve."

[jonwig] 05/2/2007 08:54

Tesco have the knack of thinking ahead of the opposition, and reading the public mood.
They were the one who initially (and rightly, in my view) rejected the government's traffic-light way of displaying salt, fat content, etc.

Since most people spend a large part of the time in a supermarket just waiting around (at least those, like myself, who are with their wife...) display screens such as this will capture the attention.

And where Tesco leads, others will follow. Is the partnership which ZBD has with Tesco an exclusive one?

[timtom2] 04/2/2007 23:01

ZBD is maturing nicely - like a good stilton.

[fse] 04/2/2007 22:47

Its all happening ! (Tesco Deli section)

Britain revealed as nation of fat fighters
29 January 2007

High fat content tops the no-go list for 77% of supermarket shoppers.

British consumers are more aware of the food they eat than ever before, according to new research from ZBD.

77% of those questioned by the retail display innovator admitted to being more conscious of fat content compared with 12 months ago.

A massive 79% said that they were concerned about the amount of salt contained in food products.

One third of people cited fat content as the most important information that they look for when buying a product. This was closely followed by number of calories.

The survey asked shoppers to take into account their buying habits across a twelve month period. The results demonstrate a sustained approach throughout the year and also an increased awareness of the ingredients that make up the food we eat.

Clear labelling can help to identify foods that are high in fat, salt or sugar. This can be helped by the introduction of electronic point of purchase (epop) displays which can be updated with ingredient and price information from the back office quickly and easily.

"The ingredients that make up the food on offer is clearly of upmost importance to consumers" said David Rogers, VP of sales and marketing, ZBD. "In order to improve the shopping experience for customers, clear labelling is essential given the diversity of foodstuffs on sale. If people can see the information they need at a glance, Britain will be one step closer to fighting the fat."

[jonwig] 04/2/2007 09:11

Thanks FSE.
A fairly good and easy-to-follow summary of where we're at with multi-core processors:



They're all at it - Intel, IBM, AMD, Sun, Microsoft, ...
I imagine there'll be total silence from XMOS up to the point when they actually deliver something.

[Abuse team] 04/2/2007 03:16

Post removed by ADVFN

[fse] 03/2/2007 19:54

>jonwig..... thats sounds some what like the latest breakthrough news from intel. about multi core chips ... cant remember the details.

Certainly seems like Xmos is in the picture at least. Looks like they are targetting very high end applications though.

Thanks for the posts though I will have to get reading....

[jonwig] 03/2/2007 19:39

Just ferreting about some of the forgotten stuff in PDT's locker - XMOS.

There were just a couple of posts when the initial investment was made last September 19th (see #7187ff). Here's the brief announcement:

Prelude Trust plc ("Prelude"), the investment trust that specialises in early stage, technology-based businesses, and which is managed by Esprit Capital Partners LLP, has made an initial investment of £625,000 in XMOS Limited ("XMOS"), following which Prelude has a 22.3% shareholding in the company.

XMOS is a fabless semiconductor company developing new microprocessor technology and is based in Bristol.

Russell Haggar, a partner at Esprit Capital Partners, joins the board of XMOS. He commented: "Prelude is delighted to be investing in XMOS. It is led by a world-class team who have created a technology which we expect will become a core part of the electronics industry."



The XMOS website is pretty poor for discovering just what's so special about their semiconductors:

Targeting the consumer electonics market, XMOS is developing a family of low cost configurable and programmable semiconductor devices for launch during 2008.




But something here has the 'Holy Grail' feel about it:

A good deal of interest in 2007 will be focussed on what comes out of XMOS, the company founded by the architect of the Inmos Transputer, Professor David May FRS, which received $1.2 million in late 2006 to commercialise a revolutionary new microprocessor design.

Serial programming has been the main thing holding up development of parallel processors ... has XMOS the solution? More here:

[hvs] 03/2/2007 10:36

Hi Jonwig,

I appreciate your past experience and the 2004 debacle.

Another way to look at it is : PDT is a "GEM", the share price has done nothing since then and all the investments they have done are doing well.

As rivaldo says , the NAV at book cost is 1.43p , I never decline a chance to
buy something at less than its worth.

Apart from that the managers are now openly talking about providing substantial shareholder value,very little out there that has so much promise.

[jonwig] 03/2/2007 10:02

Hi Rivaldo.

I've just started doing my homework on some of the portfolio, and picked up the Siconnect - CEPCA membership as a definite potential.

Also looking at blue-chip partnerships, M-Spatial with Vodafone, Orange and O2 as partners, and ZBD with Fujitsu and Tesco must be in there among favourites.

Polatis is a big slice of the portfolio. I see it's teamed up with Grass Valley, part of Thomson:



Is this the same Thomson as in "Thomson Multimedia"? If so, we've another high-class partnership.

Any of the pharma stuff could surprise, but as they only make up about 14% of the portfolio, the impact wouldn't necessarily filter through.