Flagged this one up on another board thread the other day and said it was one to watch very carefully. It more or less as a momnopoly position within the growing IPTV market. It has a good management, is moving into a profit making company , now has positive cash flow and has around 13 million cash in the bank, enjoys margins of around 80% yes 80% and works with some of the biggest Tech companys on the planet.

Contracts should be announced very soon which should lead to a pushing of the price upwards. The spread is an off puter but you can normally deal within side it. Citywire have tipped this one so I will post their findings below.

DYOR

Orca could be a whale of an opportunity

By: Joanne Wallen, Associate Editor Citywire 3/02/2005



Orca Interactive is off to a good start as a separate company having spun off from Emblaze in October and with the might of HP and now IBM behind it, Orca should be a force to be reckoned with.

Shares (ORCA) in the AIM-listed company are unchanged at 126.5p today, well above the 93p flotation price and valuing the business at 43.2 million.

The Israel-based company, which states its earnings in US dollars, saw revenues for the year to December grow by 106% to $5.2 million while losses decreased to $1.8 million (953,000) from $4.9 million. The company had $24.5 million of cash on the balance sheet.

Orca offers a complete suite of applications to fixed line telecoms companies, enabling them to offer television services over their telephone networks (IPTV). The software covers everything from the user interface (every click on a remote control), to integration with a telcos back-end billing and customer interface systems.

IPTV is just starting to take off as telecoms operators upgrade their networks to IP (internet protocol) or data networks. The telcos, losing out from declining voice revenues and competition from the cable operators, are now looking to offer services such as video on demand and full broadcast television over their networks.

Orca has already announced relationships with Hewlett-Packard, Lucent, Nortel, Nokia and Siemens, and today added IBM to the list. These companies will resell its software and act as systems integrators.

Chief executive Haggai Barel told Citywire he expected to be able to announce deals with these partners very soon. At present, Orca still has to provide a considerable amount of professional services to customers, but in the longer term Barel hopes that its partners will provide all of this and Orca will revert to being a pure software players, with margins to match. Gross margins are already nearly 80%.

The companys main competition comes from Alcatel, which has its own software but is also looking to be the systems integrator for that software. This is likely to inhibit any of the major systems integrators from dealing with it, and leaves the rest of the market open for Orca.

Citywire Verdict:
It is clearly still early days, but Orca is in there ready for what looks like being an explosion in IPTV. Few network operators will have a choice. They will have to compete for customers television and internet business, or lose out in a big way.

The fact that the two major competing hardware manufacturers and systems integrators, IBM and HP, have chosen to work with Orca sounds like very compelling endorsement both of the technology, and of the fact that there are few viable competitors out there. Well worth a punt for those that like the risks inherent with IT stocks.

cheers GF.

GF. Whats your position on Yoomedia (YOO)?

Not a big fan Chad, dont care for the balance sheet. Seen shares mag this week and like the piece on blue sky stocks. Blockshield, stanelco and Zytronic, look the best of the picks. DATs in a very competitive market.

Quiet monday morning for me.

cheers GF.

same here GF.

Can't find anything on the Orca website that directs me to examples of the technology in action, unfortunately.

Still, I've gone in for a few of these. The deal with HP is what impresses me most.

Doug

Off hand Doug cant think of anywhere else unless one of its customers have it on their web site.

Im sure news flow will push these up as the year goes on.

cheers GF.

Indeed. All round I think this looks like another one of your top picks with huge potential as the deals roll in. It'd just be nice to be able to see it in action. I did check out a couple of their customer sites but couldn't find any tv to watch.

Doug

More buyers have come in this afternoon.

cheers GF.

One trade of 41,000 at 128.31p which is recorded as a sell but is very close to the mid price so could equally be a buy.

You might have already mentioned this somewhere GF but what kind of time scale are we looking at for those deal announcements?

Very soon if you have a gander at the piece by CityWire at the very top of the page, first item.

cheers GF.

Here we are copied from above....................

"Chief executive Haggai Barel told Citywire he expected to be able to announce deals with these partners very soon"

cheers GF.

Thanks GF. Are there any sites that explain IPTV in more detail? I wanna get into this one but I just need to totally convince myself this IPTV is gonna be a big thing.

Chad do a search with one of the seaarh engines.

cheers GF.

Deliver TV Services Over Broadband IP Networks
Microsoft TV is currently deploying end-to-end software solutions for Internet protocol television (IPTV) delivery to network operators worldwide.

If you're a telecommunications operator looking to offer digital TV services over your broadband network, Microsoft TV IPTV Edition provides a competitive and scalable end-to-end software solutions for delivering next-generation TV experiences to your customers, including video-on-demand (VOD) and digital video recording (DVR). The Microsoft TV IPTV Edition offers all the benefits of delivering video over an IP-based network and unique service bundles with voice or data products.

If you're a cable operator, the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition offers an economic transition path to all-digital networks, while capitalizing on modern video compression, such as Windows Media 9 Series in standard and high definition formats. This will allow you to use bandwidth currently allocated to analog for new, revenue-generating services including a broad range of digital TV services such as VOD and DVR and personalized content and advertising possible with a broadband IP network.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Better TV
Microsoft TV IPTV Edition opens new opportunities for delivering services that will increase consumer satisfaction and loyalty.

Better Selection of Content Offer virtually limitless programming and on-demand content because only channels selected by consumers are delivered over last-mile, broadband networks. Advanced video compression allows standard- and high definition video to be delivered using todays broadband network technologies.

Better Navigation The multimedia program guide provides a unified user experience with integrated listings for broadcast and on-demand content, consistent navigation and search features, and picture-in-picture.

Better Channel Surfing Experience instant channel changing; the delay associated with tuning channels in a digital system is effectively eliminated.

Better Video-On-Demand (VOD) All content - including HDTV - can be distributed on a subscription or a pay-per-play basis with content promotion integrated into the user experience.

Better Digital Video Recording With an internal or external hard disk, customers can pause, fast forward, and rewind live and recorded content, and since its IPTV, multiple recordings can be made without the need for tuners so theres no need for costly hardware upgrades.

Better Bandwidth Utilization Windows Media 9 Series advanced compression technology - a core component of the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition platform delivers standard definition video at bit rates ranging between 1 and 1.5 Mbps and high definition programming ranging between 5-6 Mbps. Thats as little as one half to one third of the bandwidth required by comparable MPEG-2 solutions.

And guess who Microsoft use as its partner???????????????????????

Orca's user-friendly, end-to-end applications enable delivery and
management of VOD, TV channels, EPG, NVOD, Pay-Per-View and e-commerce for
related merchandise. Orca Interactive has formed strategic partnerships with
Amino, BitBand, GooMe, ECI, HP, IBM, Kasenna, Kreatel, Microsoft, nCUBE, NDS,
Nokia, Nortel Networks, Optibase, Pace, Samsung, SeaChange and more).

cheers GF.

This ones just ticked up aswell.

cheers GF.

Im in, finally.

Moving up nicely aswell.

cheers GF.

A good day all in all

Moves me into profit after only two days. That's the kind of share I like. Thanks for another great tip, gf.

Doug