OT- If you have some money lying around you might like to consider a position in SiGEM Corp. That makes Wireless Tracking devices. They hype themselves as possibly the next RIMM and they're stocks been moving up nicely. They've had some great press lately. You can also Check out Their forum here on SI. Take alook at this recent article that appeared In the Ottawa Citizen.
Good luck
Rhys
From the The Ottawa Citizen:
Investors track stock of firm that tracks people
Bert Hill
Investors are betting that SiGEM Inc, a tiny Kanata company, is about to break out as the next big play in hot wireless technology.
The stock price has jumped 500 per cent so far this year, including a 35-per-cent jump yesterday to $6.75.
It is attracting deep-pocket backers to a new product called ePing that will let people track the movements of small children or elderly people with Alzheimer's on computer screens.
Yesterday, SiGem announced it is negotiating to buy an unidentified software company that will help develop the product as well as increase revenues of the company.
It is also considering moving its stock from the Canadian Dealing Network, an over-the-counter market, to one of the major exchanges.
But more significant in explaining the stock price rise is a series of meetings with institutional investors in Toronto in late January.
Those meetings spread the word about the ePing technology and quickly sold $14.25 million in new financing in units of $150,000.
With sales of only $516,000 in its most recent quarter and 25 employees, SiGEM is now sporting an impressive market capitalization of $90 million.
The recent stratospheric rise of the stock price of RIM Inc. of Waterloo has many investors looking for the next hot wireless product. RIM is marketing a new pager that will let people check e-mail and investments.
RIM stock soared 80 per cent so far this month to $180 before backing off yesterday to close at $161. Fidelity Investments, the biggest U.S. mutual fund company, revealed yesterday that holds 13 per cent of RIM stock.
Mark McKechnie, senior wireless analyst with Banc of America, is predicting strong growth of the wireless Internet as new better and technology drives down costs and attracts new users. "There is a giant sucking sound called the wireless Internet, which is just in its infancy."
The potential market for SiGEM's product could be bigger than RIM's if it is successfully developed in the next year.
"RIM is our model and we would like to do what they have achieved," said John Roberts, a spokesman for SiGEM. "But instead of one RIM product for people on the road, we think we could put several into many households."
SiGEM plans to market the product and service through Internet service providers, such as AOL and Sympatico, that want to build traffic.
Advertisers are expected to buy banner ads on Web sites that provide the tracking service. "We think the service could generate $80 million to $100 million annually for service providers."
He said that SiGEM will not directly sell the product and service but would get a share of revenues.
Mr. Roberts said SiGEM is working with ST Microelectronics, a major European semiconductor company, on a low-power processor to run the units. It is also working on battery selection and packaging. He said the tracking technology has been refined to the point that it is now accurate within three metres.
Expected to sell for $200 U.S., ePing will be smaller than a pager and will use global positioning satellites to track people wearing the device.
Signals from satellites will be flashed over cellular networks and the Internet to maps on a computer screen, identifying the tracked person with a dot.
The device will also create an "electronic fence" by emitting a distinctive noise when the wearer leaves a certain area.
Another major reason for the interest in SiGEM is the credibility of Mr. Roberts, a veteran angel investor who has built several successful companies, and early investors such as Celtic House, the investment vehicle of Newbridge magnate Terence Matthews.
Founded in 1997, SiGEM takes its name from silicon germanium, a semiconductor material used in wireless equipment.
It was created by Mr. Roberts and Derek Hougton, a National Research Council scientist, to develop new products.
Mr. Roberts spun off SiGEM Inc. to develop ePing and other products. SiGe Microsystems, the other company, is currently seeking additional financing for its projects.
SiGEM initially developed tracking devices for trucking companies and had sales of $516,000 to a European customer in the quarter ending Oct. 31. It had a loss of $491,000 in the quarter.
Mr. Roberts, a native of Wales and a long-time associate of Mr. Matthews, has a deep history in the semiconductor industry.
The second employee of Mosaid Technologies, he later co-founded Calmos Semiconductor and hired Adam Chowaniec, who has built the company into Tundra Semiconductor Corp., a successful public company.
Mr. Roberts leads a group of investors who made investments in numerous start-ups.
He was involved in Skystone Systems, which was sold for $69 million to Cisco Systems, and helped raised money for ATMOS Corp, a Kanata embedded-chip company.
There were a few mistakes along the way, including an ill-fated venture in a wireless-speaker company and some companies that achieved only modest success.
But Mr. Roberts said none of the ventures went bankrupt and none of his investors lost money.
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