19 Mar 06. Germany is witnessing a rebirth of initial public offerings in technology stocks, as investors conquer their fear of questionable IPOs created by the boom and bust of the infamous Neuer Markt. Emboldened by a stream of wind and solar power flotations last year, dozens of dotcom-style businesses have begun queueing up to list, with many of those that have listed so far proving successful. The number of listings in Germany remains modest by standards in the UK or other western European markets, but the return of the German tech flotation marks a huge turnround in sentiment. Until mid-2004, there had been a two-year drought in the German IPO market. Last year there were 14 listings and bankers are predicting up to double that number this year. Listings are expected from Ecotel, a telecoms company, and Magix, a software developer. Andreas Bernstorff, head of equity capital markets at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Frankfurt, said: “The market showed its interest in high-growth companies last year. Investors are interested in new stories.” (Source: FT)
21 Mar 06. State-of-the-art military and homeland security sensors from CyTerra Corporation and non-invasive security systems and portals from SafeView, Inc. L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL) announced the acquisition of two companies that will add significant technologies to its broad range of military and homeland security products. L-3 has acquired CyTerra Corporation and SafeView, Inc. These acquisitions are both expected to be slightly accretive to L-3’s earnings in 2006. The terms of these transactions were not disclosed.
20 Mar 06. Wind River Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:WIND) has acquired privately-held Interpeak AB of Stockholm, Sweden. Interpeak is the leading provider of networking, security and mobility middleware software that enables next-generation devices to connect securely to the Internet. This acquisition broadens Wind River’s device software platform with complementary, high-quality, secure networking technology and strengthens the company’s ability to provide device manufacturers with increased platform scalability and expanded safety and mission critical certification support. Under the terms of the agreement, Wind River paid approximately $20 million in cash and restricted stock for Interpeak. Wind River anticipates this acquisition will be mildly accretive in Fiscal Year 2007 and is not changing its NonGAAP financial guidance for Q1 or the Fiscal Year that was given on March 8th, 2006 in its fiscal year 2006 earnings release. Wind River’s Fiscal Year 2007 ends January 31, 2007.
22 Mar 06. AAR (NYSE: AIR – News) reported sales of $226.0m for the third quarter of fiscal 2006, an increase of 14% compared to the prior year. Prior year third quarter sales included $15m from the sale of the Company’s interest in certain aircraft at approximately book value. Income from continuing operations for the third quarter was $9.1m or $0.24 per diluted share, which includes a $3.9m pre-tax expense ($0.07 per diluted share) related to the exchange of the 2.875% convertible notes to common stock and a $1.6m federal income tax benefit ($0.04 per diluted share) related to export activities. For the third quarter of last year, the Company reported income from continuing operations of $5.2m or $0.15 per diluted share.
20 Mar 06. GE Fanuc Embedded Systems, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), and SBS Technologies®, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBSE) announced today that GE Fanuc Embedded Systems has agreed to acquire SBS Technologies, a designer of open architecture embedded computer products that enable original equipment manufacturers to serve commercial, communication and government customers. Pursuant to the transaction, SBS Technologies shareholders will receive $16.50 per share payable in cash, for a total consideration of approximately $215m, net of SBS Technologies’ cash and equivalents.
The combination of SBS Technologies and GE Fanuc Embedded Systems will cr