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Kinaxis chief executive Douglas Colbeth probably couldn’t have timed his exit any better.
On Jan. 1, he will pass the torch to John Sicard, the chief product officer at Kinaxis – a pioneer in the business of developing software that helps companies manage their chains of suppliers.
Colbeth, who will remain as chairman, can look back at a year in which Kinaxis far surpassed whatever targets shareholders had in mind. Paced by rock-solid growth in revenues and earnings, Kinaxis saw its shares soar 158 per cent to $47.67 apiece as of Dec. 29.
Not only did that give Kinaxis a market value of nearly $1.2 billion, it qualified the firm for inclusion in the prestigious S&P/TSX Composite Index – which includes Canada’s most valuable 242 publicly traded corporations. Indeed, Kinaxis this year had among the best performing stocks in the group.
Although Kinaxis began life in 1984 (as Cadence Computer Systems) it didn’t issue shares to the public until June 2014. You could have bought them then for $13 a share.
To really appreciate how Kinaxis shares have done since then, consider how a similar performance would transform the Ottawa region’s other big tech star, Shopify – the maker of electronic commerce software. Shopify went public last May at $17 U.S. per share, giving it a market value of $1.3 billion U.S.
A Kinaxis-like surge would lift Shopify shares to $62.30 U.S. by January 2017, representing a market value of nearly $5 billion U.S. Not to say that won’t happen, but in high-tech, monster hits like this are rare.
Shopify nevertheless had a very good 2015 – it raised $130.9 million U.S. in its initial public offering, and shares briefly more than doubled before settling back as of Dec. 29 to $25.18 – up 48 per cent.
That made Shopify the second best performing stock among major Ottawa area firms – ahead of Tweed Marijuana owner Canopy Growth (up 43 per cent for the year) and Espial (up 42 per cent). Espial, which has survived a remarkable 16 years of industry zigs and zags under the leadership of founder Jaison Dolvane, specializes in software for enabling online television services.
In sharp contrast, a pair of veteran Ottawa firms proved a huge disappointment to investors in 2015 – wireless technology specialist DragonWave and patent licensing firm Wi-Lan. Share prices plummeted 84 per cent and 49 per cent respectively to Dec. 29.
At DragonWave, the drop was triggered in part by a technical glitch in one of its key products – discovered when a customer in India began deploying it. Though the problem was quickly rectified, the damage to DragonWave’s reputation may not easily be fixed – a problem when you consider that India accounts for one-quarter of the firm’s sales.
Another surprise came from DragonWave’s largest distributor, Nokia, which announced last April it will acquire Alcatel-Lucent. The deal, which should close in the next few months, has produced considerable uncertainty because some of Alcatel-Lucent’s products compete against those of DragonWave. Company CEO Peter Allen is expected to shed more light on his company’s prospects in a Jan. 14 conference call.
The slide in share prices at Wi-Lan in 2015 had nothing to do with technical issues, and much to do with politics.
Wi-Lan CEO James Skippen acknowledged the negative backdrop at his company’s annual general meeting this year when he noted that judges and juries – especially in the U.S. – have been less inclined lately to render verdicts that favour Wi-Lan. It’s very troublesome for Wi-Lan because it depends on the courts for enforcing rights to its patents.
In part, the court backlash reflects ongoing campaigns by high-tech giants such as Apple and Google which have been pushing the idea that the standards for approving patents are too loose, that many patents represent minor changes in a technical process rather than true breakthroughs.
And, for the past four years, targets of Wi-Lan’s lawyers have been able to seek a review by the U.S. Patent Office, which has been receptive to their arguments.
The real shock for Wi-Lan investors came Nov. 4 when the company announced it would slash its dividend to 5 cents from 21 cents per share in order to preserve cash. Wi-Lan shares lost 27 per cent of their value in one day, and nearly 50 per cent over the following two weeks.
The region’s other large tech firms saw relatively minor declines in share values in 2015. Halogen Software shares were down 16 per cent, Mitel Networks suffered a 12 per cent drop and Calian, which sells professional services to the federal government and other clients, saw its share price slip 9 per cent.
The good news for the firms that lost share value in 2015: they will have a much easier job next year topping their performance. The same cannot be said of John Sicard, the new top gun at Kinaxis.
jbagnall@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
On Jan. 1, he will pass the torch to John Sicard, the chief product officer at Kinaxis – a pioneer in the business of developing software that helps companies manage their chains of suppliers.
Colbeth, who will remain as chairman, can look back at a year in which Kinaxis far surpassed whatever targets shareholders had in mind. Paced by rock-solid growth in revenues and earnings, Kinaxis saw its shares soar 158 per cent to $47.67 apiece as of Dec. 29.
Not only did that give Kinaxis a market value of nearly $1.2 billion, it qualified the firm for inclusion in the prestigious S&P/TSX Composite Index – which includes Canada’s most valuable 242 publicly traded corporations. Indeed, Kinaxis this year had among the best performing stocks in the group.
Although Kinaxis began life in 1984 (as Cadence Computer Systems) it didn’t issue shares to the public until June 2014. You could have bought them then for $13 a share.
To really appreciate how Kinaxis shares have done since then, consider how a similar performance would transform the Ottawa region’s other big tech star, Shopify – the maker of electronic commerce software. Shopify went public last May at $17 U.S. per share, giving it a market value of $1.3 billion U.S.
A Kinaxis-like surge would lift Shopify shares to $62.30 U.S. by January 2017, representing a market value of nearly $5 billion U.S. Not to say that won’t happen, but in high-tech, monster hits like this are rare.
Shopify nevertheless had a very good 2015 – it raised $130.9 million U.S. in its initial public offering, and shares briefly more than doubled before settling back as of Dec. 29 to $25.18 – up 48 per cent.
That made Shopify the second best performing stock among major Ottawa area firms – ahead of Tweed Marijuana owner Canopy Growth (up 43 per cent for the year) and Espial (up 42 per cent). Espial, which has survived a remarkable 16 years of industry zigs and zags under the leadership of founder Jaison Dolvane, specializes in software for enabling online television services.
In sharp contrast, a pair of veteran Ottawa firms proved a huge disappointment to investors in 2015 – wireless technology specialist DragonWave and patent licensing firm Wi-Lan. Share prices plummeted 84 per cent and 49 per cent respectively to Dec. 29.
At DragonWave, the drop was triggered in part by a technical glitch in one of its key products – discovered when a customer in India began deploying it. Though the problem was quickly rectified, the damage to DragonWave’s reputation may not easily be fixed – a problem when you consider that India accounts for one-quarter of the firm’s sales.
Another surprise came from DragonWave’s largest distributor, Nokia, which announced last April it will acquire Alcatel-Lucent. The deal, which should close in the next few months, has produced considerable uncertainty because some of Alcatel-Lucent’s products compete against those of DragonWave. Company CEO Peter Allen is expected to shed more light on his company’s prospects in a Jan. 14 conference call.
The slide in share prices at Wi-Lan in 2015 had nothing to do with technical issues, and much to do with politics.
Wi-Lan CEO James Skippen acknowledged the negative backdrop at his company’s annual general meeting this year when he noted that judges and juries – especially in the U.S. – have been less inclined lately to render verdicts that favour Wi-Lan. It’s very troublesome for Wi-Lan because it depends on the courts for enforcing rights to its patents.
In part, the court backlash reflects ongoing campaigns by high-tech giants such as Apple and Google which have been pushing the idea that the standards for approving patents are too loose, that many patents represent minor changes in a technical process rather than true breakthroughs.
And, for the past four years, targets of Wi-Lan’s lawyers have been able to seek a review by the U.S. Patent Office, which has been receptive to their arguments.
The real shock for Wi-Lan investors came Nov. 4 when the company announced it would slash its dividend to 5 cents from 21 cents per share in order to preserve cash. Wi-Lan shares lost 27 per cent of their value in one day, and nearly 50 per cent over the following two weeks.
The region’s other large tech firms saw relatively minor declines in share values in 2015. Halogen Software shares were down 16 per cent, Mitel Networks suffered a 12 per cent drop and Calian, which sells professional services to the federal government and other clients, saw its share price slip 9 per cent.
The good news for the firms that lost share value in 2015: they will have a much easier job next year topping their performance. The same cannot be said of John Sicard, the new top gun at Kinaxis.
jbagnall@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
