Megabuyte - Technology sector intelligence

After a relatively brief search for a new CFO, Micro Focus has today announced the appointment of Mike Phillips to the role; he will join the company on 4th October. A well known figure in the industry and the City, following nearly 10 years as CFO at Microgen, Phillips joined Morse in 2007, first as CFO and then CEO. At Morse, Phillips led a dramatic turnaround in the company’s fortunes which saw its share price rise tenfold up to the point it was acquired by 2e2 Group earlier this year (see 2e2 revealed as Morse suitor). Sharp eyed readers will have spotted that Micro Focus Chairman Kevin Loosemore was also Phillips’ boss at Morse. Premium subscribers can read our first thoughts on the appointment in Newswire Plus.

XLN Telecom - focussing on the S in SME

We initiate coverage on XLN, which is one of the leading independent providers of business telecoms services to SMEs, particularly at the lower end of the scale. The company has grown strongly, both organically and through the early 2009 acquisition of OneBill, aided by funding from Zeus, who invested in 2008. Formal accounts to March 2010 have yet to be made available, but the company has published a headline £54m revenues, which implies organic growth of c11%.  According to the Sunday Times in December 2009, XLN has been put up for sale at an expected but in our view unrealistic price of £100m, but 9 months on, a sale has yet to happen. Given these valuation expectations, the ultimate buyer is more likely to be private equity than a strategic buyer. Read our full initiation note here.

Resilient Thunderhead continues solid growth

Document management software vendor Thunderhead has filed its results for the year ending December 2009, posting another year of growth despite the continued downturn in global economic environment. Revenue increased 15.3% to £18.3m driven by strong growth in North America and Australia which were ahead 27.4% and 25.7% to £7.1m and £2.0m respectively. Revenue from UK also increased 5.1% to £9.1m. Read our full review of the results in Newswire Plus and Premium Plus subscribers can view the updated financials here.

Avanti’s HYLAS1 satellite at last given definite launch date

Avanti Communications has at last secured a (semi) definite date for the launch of its HYLAS1 broadband satellite on Ariane5; within a few days of the 15^th November.  The launch date has been continually slipping back, and even this date is over the previous ‘up to 6 weeks’ delay from the end of September (Premium Plus readers see here). The launch will now take place a year from the original plan, and several months after the revised June 2010 launch date. Whilst launch slippages are a fact of life for satellites, this episode suggests either a serious lack of communication between Arianspace and Avanti, or Avanti has been overly optimistic in its PR communications. Either way, we now look forward to tracking HYLAS1’s financial and operational performance. Premium subscribers can read the full story in Newswire Plus.