GEAC.....Canadian best kept secret Message Board

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Gold/Mining/Energy : GEAC.....Canadian best kept secret

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To: Quick Bucks who wrote (73)	9/23/1997 8:46:00 PM
From: Michael Dean	of 1571

I'm another long time GEAC fan. Just to fill in a little history as I recall it (perhaps a bit off). Back in the early 80's GEAC's main markets were library systems and also banking - cheque and transaction processing. These systems used proprietary GEAC hardware. Many customers liked the S/W but their IS depts didn't want non-standard hardware and the company fell into receivership. Most of their customers remained loyal. The company had begun phasing out its hardware manufacture and switching to UNIX based systems. The stock had once been about $16, but had fallen to somewhere around $1 to $2. I was fortunate enough to know about it and bought at $2.55 and $3.55 just after Helix came in and paid of their debts. Helix installed some of their own management. The stock rose a bit, but then fell (with most of the technology stocks) and one day actually traded about $1.70 or so. I wondered whether to bail out. I looked at the company, which now had no debt, money in the bank, loyal customers and had restructured before the recession in the late 80's. I couldn't find a better place to put my money so I stayed. I'm sure glad I did! I did sell half at $16 in '93 and some more at $38. Oh well - best not be too greedy. The best part of the story, IMO, is that the company grows by aggressive acquisitions of companies whose business's they understand and fit within their overall scheme of things. Most of these acquisitions have been largely funded from retained earnings - except D&B. Last year, one of the execs, (Steven Sadler, I think) relinquished his CEO duties and the stock fell from $20 to $16. He then stated the reason that he gave these up was to concentrate more on acquisitions - and this lifted the stock a bit (back to $20 or so) but I guess the market really didn't beleive him. Have they ever been on tear since. I think there is still a lot of room for well managed specialty software firms, and I expect I'll hold my remaining stock for quite some time. Not too many 30 baggers out there. If anyone can point me to the next GEAC I'd be thankful.

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