Australia Hong Kong UK USA
Search help?
SymbolName
Home BullBoards News Releases Newsletters The Markets Portfolio Tracking
March 1, 2000
StockHouse News Desk
By Keri Korteling (kkorteling@stockhouse.com)
Electric Mail Company: Cyber Post Office Earns PC Magazine Cudos
Investors engaged in enthusiastically bidding the stock of Electric Mail Company higher were interrupted moments before the close of trading Tuesday, as the company issued a halt trading order pending news. According to Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Jim Fish, the company will reveal early March 1 that its software has been accorded a golden stamp of approval in a product review forthcoming in a major computer publication, the April edition of PC Magazine. This cudo follows an early February announcement that the company is supplying the software for wireless email to Rogers AT&T Wireless subscribers.
Vancouver, BC, March 1 /SHfn/ -- Vancouver, BC-based email outsourcing provider, Electric Mail Company [V.ELE], capped its February 29 18% stock gain to $4.20 with a suspenseful trading halt pending the release of news. The executive vice president of sales and marketing Jim Fish late in the day confirmed rumours that ELE had been awarded a five-star rating for its email solutions by the highly regarded PC Magazine.
"We're supplying the email portion of the wireless component. So, all the email that goes to the wireless device goes through our servers."
Though the news was pre-announced at the CTIA Wireless 2000 conference in New Orleans, the publicity generated by a favourable review in the April edition of the widely read publication will help sustain the stock's positive momentum. ELE has also purchased a banner ad that will run on the electronic real estate of PC Magazine's parent company, ZDNet [ZDZ], coinciding with the auspicious software review.
Electric Mail Company is, according to Fish, like an electronic post office. "Companies don't want to run their own email system, so they'll source it to us." The firm manages corporate email accounts, with software providing mail hosting, Electric WebMail?; routing to multiple locations on a company's intranet, Electric InterConnect?; and email management and administration, AKA Toolkit?. The firm's software works seamlessly with off-the-shelf mail programs such as Microsoft [MSFT] Outlook and Eudora. "We do all that translation for them."
With the February 10 announcement that ELE would deliver web-based email services to Rogers AT&T Wireless [T.RCM.B] interactive messaging subscribers, the stock surged 60% to establish a new 52-week intraday high of $5.25, before settling to the more moderate $4.25 level. The announcement means that a potential market of 2.6 million Rogers AT&T mobile customers will view email messages on their wireless devices via Electric Mail software. "We're supplying the email portion of the wireless component. So, all the email that goes to the wireless device goes through our servers."
"Fish says that interest is also growing in European and Asian markets."
Newly installed CEO Iain Black noted in the press releases that "it is also a milestone for the company as the wireless industry represents a key growth market segment for both our existing and future service offerings." The vast potential of this wireless agreement is hidden in the numbers. ELE charges its customers a fee per mailbox per month per user.
The 21-person firm is not yet profitable, though the company boasted a cash balance of almost $2 million when it reported earnings for the nine months ended September 30, 1999. Electric Mail disclosed revenues of $816,585, which was a 10% increase over the same period in the prior year. The business also reported that losses widened as compared to the previous year. During the first nine months of 1999, ELE incurred a loss of eleven cents a share, versus losses of $0.07 a share during 1998. These numbers result at least partially from a substantial increase in R&D spending during 1999.
Electric Mail boasts a newly opened sales office in Sacramento, California with two members on its US sales staff. Fish says that interest is also growing in European and Asian markets. Fish explains that because there are no free local calls in those regions, the software would likely be very appealing as a way for companies to save money on email.
? ? ?
Australia Hong Kong UK USA Investment.com
Home BullBoards News Releases Newsletters The Markets Portfolio Tracking
Disclaimer, Privacy policy ¸ Copyright 00 StockHouse Media Corporation
All Rights Reserved. |
