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Strategies & Market Trends : TATRADER GIZZARD STUDY--Stocks 12.00 or Less..... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: TATRADER who wrote (52310)12/19/2005 7:10:12 PM
From: hotlinktuna  Respond to of 59879
 
I scalped just .13 off HAUP today, saw this on DMC 13.08 +.08 and as I've been trading it thought I'd pass it along: Business
The legacy of anti-counterfeiting pioneer
By Ben Dobbin
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.19.2005
advertisementLIVONIA, N.Y. — Inventor Tom Wicker sometimes gets breakthrough ideas during walks around his wooded, 15-acre hilltop spread. On occasion, he says, he'll rush down to his printer's shop on this village's Main Street and "100 pages of math later, I have something that works."
Wicker's brainstorms are all about ratcheting up security to foil crooks in the multibillion-dollar world of counterfeiting. His father spent much of his career doing the same kind of work, making currency and vital documents harder to duplicate, but he died feeling denied due recognition or compensation.
Now, his sons have taken up their father's fight. Tom and his brother, David, have attracted formidable allies, and an improbable comeback appears at hand. Tens of millions of dollars are at stake.
Tom Wicker, 44, recalls his father's deathbed words in 1997. "Life's going to be hell," Ralph Wicker whispered, "but if you hang in there, you're going to make this work."
With the proliferation of high-quality color copiers and scanners, counterfeiting has ballooned to a $600 billion-a-year headache, the International Chamber of Commerce estimates. Scams range beyond currency to the packaging that secures medicines, software, aircraft parts and other products of high value.
34 graphic-arts patents
Back in 1961 when counterfeiting hinged on getting help from engravers and other artisans gone bad, 27-year-old Ralph Wicker was awarded the first of 34 patents in graphic arts — a technique to help commercial printers align screen angles precisely and easily.
Wicker, a former Marine Corps sergeant with a gung-ho spirit but also a weakness for whiskey, gave up a steady job as a lithographer to become a go-it-alone entrepreneur — only to confirm that he was not a businessman.
"It was 10 years of never-ending failure," said his middle child, Tom, who had inherited his father's creative flair but opted for a secure job as a chief auto mechanic.
"You're wasting your life!"
In 1982, his father's esophagus ruptured from the effects of throwing back 2 quarts of whiskey a day. This life-threatening condition led to a bedside confrontation between father and son. "You have a talent, you need to use it, you're wasting your life!" the father yelled.
Each made a vital concession. The father quit alcohol cold turkey and never went back; the son began relearning everything about printing he'd first picked up at his father's knee.
In 1987, Tom and elder brother David, a bookbindery foreman with a talent for marketing, packed in their jobs to support their father's research.
While testing a fine-line engraving method, Ralph Wicker befriended Patrick White, a print-shop owner who put all the latest color-copier models at his disposal. Shortly before securing a patent in 1991, Ralph presented his work to Secret Service officials who urged him not to share it with others, his sons contend.
It was his proudest breakthrough because of its lofty potential to become a key buffer for the nation's money.
The euphoria didn't last. The Treasury stopped taking his calls, his sons say, and then unveiled a technique it called "concentric fine-line printing."
That's when Ralph Wicker called in his attorneys.
In a 1995 lawsuit seeking up to $93 million in royalties, he accused the Treasury Department of pirating his patented method of incorporating fine-line engravings in its newly unveiled $100 bill. The micro-patterns cause blurriness, color changes and other electronic distortions when copied.
"It was really painful"
While finding that "the United States in fact was infringing" his 1991 and 1993 patents, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims determined two earlier patents secured in Europe invalidated key parts of his invention.
"It was really painful for everyone involved," says an expert witness, Joseph Noga, an emeritus professor of electronic color imaging at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Ralph died in 1997 of liver cancer, embittered by his bad luck fending off business rivals and the government.
In 1999, Tom and David Wicker received word that the European Patent Office had decided their late father's arming of documents with intricate line patterns was a technological leap over "prior art" patents in Britain in 1968 and Germany in 1986 that had tripped up the lawsuit in Washington.
In 2002, the brothers transformed their expanding portfolio of patents into Document Security Systems Inc., a publicly traded company headed by White and backed by $5 million from investors. Tom Wicker was given 1 million shares. The stock recently surged above $13.
Deals in the pipeline
Tom Wicker, meanwhile, has secured patents of his own to tackle forgeries that employ ever-more sophisticated gadgets like digital cameras. The technology embeds hidden images, icons or warning words that become visible when documents, photographs, movies or compact discs are copied.
The Rochester-based company, which employs 21 people, generates $2 million in sales from anti-piracy products. Dozens of commercial deals are in the pipeline.
The fine-line method appears today in all U.S. bank notes and has been inserted into at least 75 currencies around the world, the Wickers say. Their first patent-infringement target is Europe's 12-nation common currency, the euro.
? Small Business Makeover will return next week.
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To: TATRADER who wrote (52310)12/20/2005 9:32:09 AM
From: sammy levy  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 59879
 
Hello Mark,
Have away from here for a while.Was paying more attention to my IRA account,trying to pull a "Dale" :-)...did fine but am missing the action!

2picks:
ARDI
AERTA.

Sammy

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all



To: TATRADER who wrote (52310)12/20/2005 9:41:46 AM
From: hotlinktuna  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 59879
 
Mark, trying ECGI 1.80 +.35 on .27 earnings vs a loss: Envoy Communications Group Inc. announces fiscal 2005 results
Tuesday December 20, 8:30 am ET
Envoy earns $.27 per share

TORONTO, Dec. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Fiscal 2005 has been another successful year for Envoy Communications Group Inc.
Envoy recorded net revenue of $43.2 million for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2005, an increase of 16.8% from fiscal 2004. Net earnings were $5.9 million, or $0.27 per share, compared with a net loss of $3.1 million, or $0.18 per share, in fiscal 2004.

"With strong earnings in our North American business, complementing the contribution from the inclusion of our Parker Williams acquisition, this has been a very good year," declared Geoffrey Genovese, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer.

For the year, earnings from continuing operations were $4.1 million, compared with a loss of $2.7 million in 2004.

For the fourth quarter ended September 30, 2005, net revenue was $11.9 million, an increase of 31.1% from $9.1 million for the corresponding quarter of 2004. Net earnings were $0.9 million, or $0.04 per share, in fiscal 2005, compared to a loss of $0.3 million, or $0.01 per share in 2004.

Recent developments and highlights of 2005
- Effective February 28, 2005, through its UK subsidiary, Envoy acquired
65% of Parker Williams Design Group. PW clients include Norden Coop,
Sainsbury's and others.
- On June 30, 2005, Envoy sold its investment in John Street Inc.
subsidiary to the management of the company and, as a result, showed a
gain from discontinued operations of $1.8 million in fiscal 2005.
- To ensure compliance with its NASDAQ listing requirements, Envoy
affected a 5 for 1 share consolidation in February 2005.
- Envoy purchased and cancelled 2,447,417 of its common shares during
fiscal 2005, under the terms of a normal course issuer bid.
- For fiscal 2005, the Company will be considered to be a "Passive
Foreign Investment Company" (PFIC) under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code.

Going forward, Envoy believes that there are a number of economic uncertainties, competitive challenges and business risks that will impact the client spending commitments of its operating companies in the 2006 fiscal year. Consequently, Envoy has recently implemented a restructuring plan that will result in annual savings in salaries, benefits and other expenses of approximately $3.7 million in fiscal 2006.

Management's discussion and analysis, containing a full analysis of financial results, is available on EDGAR (www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml) and on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

About Envoy

Envoy Communications Group (NASDAQ: ECGI / TSX:ECG) is an international consumer and retail branding company with offices throughout North America and Europe. For more information on Envoy visit www.envoy.to.

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Financial Highlights
Envoy Communications Group Inc.
Consolidated Statements of Operations
(Expressed In Canadian dollars)
(Unaudited - Prepared by Management)

---------------------------------------------------------- -------------
For the twelve
months ended: September 30 September 30 September 30
2005 2004 2003
--------------------------- -------------

Net revenue $ 43,157,023 $ 36,963,957 $ 37,742,288
--------------------------- -------------
Operating expenses:
Salaries and benefits 28,698,495 24,834,577 24,454,254
General and administrative 7,178,328 6,390,939 5,406,388
Occupancy costs 3,009,008 2,743,120 2,939,418
--------------------------- -------------
38,885,831 33,968,636 32,800,060

Depreciation 2,641,875 2,383,340 2,280,644

Amortization of intangible
assets 45,327 - -

Investment Earnings (2,830,676) (406,683) -

Accreted interest imputed
on warrants and debentures - 2,552,991 718,321

Interest expense and
financing costs (81,479) 995,601 1,989,366
--------------------------- -------------
38,660,878 39,493,885 37,788,391
--------------------------- -------------

Earnings (loss) before
restructuring costs recovery,
gain on disposal of subsidiary,
income taxes and discontinued
operations 4,496,145 (2,529,928) (46,103)

Restructuring costs recovery
(expense) - - 267,212

Gain on disposal of subsidiary - - 2,499,604
--------------------------- -------------

(Loss) earnings before income
taxes and discontinued
operations 4,496,145 (2,529,928) 2,720,713

Income tax expense (recovery) 206,154 150,424 237,264
--------------------------- -------------
(Loss) earnings before
discontinued operations and
minority interest 4,289,991 (2,680,352) 2,483,449

Minority interest 149,808 - -
--------------------------- -------------
(Loss) earnings from continuing
operations 4,140,183 (2,680,352) 2,483,449

(Loss) earnings from
discontinued operations, net
of income taxes 1,801,507 (426,452) 55,313

--------------------------- -------------
Net (loss) earnings 5,941,690 (3,106,804) 2,538,762
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Earnings (loss) per share
Basic $ 0.27 $ (0.18) $ 0.59
Diluted 0.27 (0.18) 0.43

Weighted average number
of common shares outstanding 22,137,757 17,062,152 4,334,813

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.

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Envoy Communications Group Inc.
Consolidated Statements of Retained Earnings (Deficit)

Deficit, beginning of year (48,344,277) (45,237,473) (47,776,235)

Net earnings (loss) 5,941,690 (3,106,804) 2,538,762

Deficit, end of year $(42,402,587) $(48,344,277) $(45,237,473)
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Envoy Communications Group Inc.
Consolidated Balance Sheet highlights
Unaudited - Prepared by Management
(Expressed In Canadian dollars)

(Unaudited - Prepared by Management)

As at: September 30 September 30
2005 2004
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Current assets $ 44,759,297 $ 59,432,456
Long-term assets 38,192,230 29,447,071
------------------------------
82,951,527 88,879,527
------------------------------
------------------------------

Current liabilities 8,843,093 11,626,798
Long-term liabilities 252,093 361,230
------------------------------
9,095,186 11,988,028

Minority interest 300,858 -

Shareholders' equity 73,555,483 76,891,499
------------------------------

$ 82,951,527 $ 88,879,527
------------------------------
------------------------------
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Cautionary Statement

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E(i)(1) of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Envoy's actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by these statements. Such factors include the following: general economic and business conditions, changes in demand for Envoy's services, changes in competition, the ability of Envoy to integrate acquisitions or complete future acquisitions, interest rate fluctuations, currency exchange rate fluctuations, dependence upon and availability of qualified personnel and changes in government regulation. In light of these and other uncertainties, the forward-looking statements included in this press release should not be regarded as a representation by Envoy that Envoy's plans and objectives will be achieved. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise the statements.

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Source: Envoy Communications Group Inc.