Megabuyte - Technology sector intelligence

EMIS shares wobble and Montanana backs new network security roll-up

Newly floated healthcare software vendor EMIS has issued a period end trading update covering its first half to June. Overall trading is said to be on track with revenue broadly flat at £29m in H1. There is no comment on profits but, given the improving mix of revenue, we suspect that margins have ticked up. However, there are a couple of areas of weakness; hardware and engineering services were below expectations (although these have been offset by better than expected hosting revenues) and the Canadian business, which is only a very small proportion of the group, was also below par. The market has not reacted well to this statement and the shares are off 7% in early trade. Read our views on the update in Newswire Plus.

Montanana backs new network security roll-up

Datatec founder and CEO Jens Montanana has taken a non-exec position and invested in software tiddler Corero and created a vehicle for a roll-up in the network security space. Corero, which has a market cap of less than £1m, has announced this morning a fundraising, the disposal of in Financial Market business and a new board. The main driver behind the day to day execution of the strategy will be Andrew Miller, the former head of Datatec subsidiary Logicalis. The placing, which will raise £6.5m, is supported by Montanana and other as well as institutional investors. We’ll have more detail on this in due course following a conversation with management.

Growth continues to slow at Telecom Plus

Telecom Plus’s quarterly update shows that growth in subscribers and services is continuing to slow, and reversed for business customers in the last quarter, with much of the services growth coming from the new cash back card. If growth continues to slow for the rest of the year, we believe that FY12 revenue forecasts might start to look challenging. The 6.1% (barely covered) dividend yield remains the main reason to hold the stock. Read our full review in Newswire Plus.

Craneware continues strong growth in FY10

Supplier of revenue integrity solutions to US healthcare organisations Craneware has issued its period end trading update confirming that results the year to June will be in line with expectations. Revenues for the year increased 25% to around $54m and, importantly, this growth has been delivered by an increasingly broad range of products. Moreover, Craneware also had a strong year for order intake which, given that essentially all of its revenue is recurring in nature, bodes very well for growth in future years. Read our views on Craneware’s valuation in Newswire Plus.

Intel stock jumps as it announces record quarter

Share in Intel the were up 7% in after hours trading on Wall Street as the world’s largest chipmaker posted its Q2 2010 results, beating analyst estimates. Revenue jumped 34% to $10.8bn ahead of the company’s previous guidance of $10.2bn. Backed by strong demand from corporate customers, revenue from major PC and data centre segments were up 31% and 42% to $7.8bn and $2.1bn respectively. Operating income was $4bn compared to zero operating income in Q2 2009 and net income was $2.9bn against a net loss of $0.4bn in Q2 2009. For Q3 2010, the company gave a revenue guidance of $11.2-$12bn (against the market expectation of $10.9bn).

SRT’s order book already ahead of last year’s revenues

Marine navigation specialist SRT has announced the receipt of a further $2.1m of AIS orders, taking the total forward order book for this year to $5.7m, and already exceeding last year’s £3.5m of revenues after just over one quarter. The orders, which will all be delivered this financial year, come from customer addressing markets worldwide, highlighting the growing AIS opportunity as governments start to mandate AIS equipment for marine navigation and safety purposes. Read the full story in Newswire Plus.