Interesting post Frank. Check this out from yesterday's
Ottawa Citizen High Tech Report. Very encouraging
particularly the comment that the demand exceeds the supply
for the Private Placement. Nice to see institutional
support.
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Ottawa Citizen High Tech Report - March 20, 2000
It's full steam ahead for Plaintree Systems.
By: Karyn Standen
If Dave Watson is looking confident these days, he has
reason to be. Seven months ago, in an 11th hour bid to save
his technology components firm, Targa Group Inc., he merged
the struggling Stittsville network switch manufacturer with
Plaintree Systems Inc.
Mr. Watson became president and chief executive of the
merged firm, witch kept the Plaintree name.
Fast forward to the present. Plaintree, which never once
reported an annual profit in its 11 years before the
merger, now has investors buzzing over its proposed multi-
million-dollar private placement.
What's more, with last week's acquisition of an Ottawa
wireless networking company -- its first since its near
collapse -- Plaintree is making inroads into niche markets
that are "far in excess of what we could ever supply," Mr.
Watson said.
Plaintree is moving quickly to rebuild its product
distribution systems and expand into the hot wireless
market.
To that end, the company has hired Taurus Capital Markets
Ltd. To help it raise up to $10 Million through a proposed
issue of special warrants.
Mr. Watson is on a three-day road trip to Toronto this week
to drum up support among institutional investors, but
already it appears that Plaintree is attracting interest.
"Taurus has indicated that the demand (for the special
warrants) exceeds supply," he said adding that no decision
has been made to increase the offering.
On the Toronto Stock Exchange (LAN/TSE), Plaintree's share
value is up 400 per cent since the beginning of the year.
It closed on Friday at $2.31.
Coupled with the $1.2 million Plaintree has in the bank,
the private placement will create a war chest large enough
to fuel additional acquisitions and give the firm added
flexibility.
While nothing is in the works, Plaintree is looking
to "boost itself with a company that has a good knowledge
of distribution," Mr. Watson said.
Plaintree's most recent acquisition, that of a wireless
networking firm A.T. Schindler Communications Inc., gives
it access to infrared communications systems. That means
Plaintree can move into the wireless market without having
to provide extensive transmission infrastructure.
Infrared LED signals can send data at 10 Mbps between
points as far as 1.5 kilometers apart, while lased can
transmit information at a rate of 100 Mbps to a destination
five kilometers away, Mr. Watson says.
Plaintree intends to use its wireless technology to round
out its existing telecommunications networking product
offering, and move quickly into key markets: the military,
the printing industry, hospitals and schools. |
