Guru 1 1/4
Thanks for coming back to my question. Let's hope the new management speeds things up a bit.

Posted by Ken Thompson on 3i's

I've been a long time suporter of the company and I am still fully invested. Recent events, particularly the resignation of Bernard Hulme, and the drop in share price has caused me to agonise and reassess my holding several times in very quick succession.

Nobody enjoys the value of their investments dropping. And as a matter of information those that gloat in it are beyond contempt in my opinion ................but whatever they get off on is their own personal choice.

The results of my dilebrations are that Tadpole have made mistakes, some which they can stiull address and some which they cannot.

1. With hindsight the purchase of the hardware business was a mistake, although at the time it seemd a sound business plan to fund the r and d of the Software side with money made form the hware arm. The only saving grace in this area would be the possible payback for the 19% of the hardware company we retained. It is possibility, but not a certainty, that a hardware float could return more money than the entire group is worth at this moment in time.

2. The number of products being developed at ETI has been too large and this has led to the thin spreading of both reasearch and sales efforts. Hopefully David Lee and Keith Bigsby will and concentrate and focus our efforts on the areas that have the greatest potential for success and quick return on investment. Time is undoubtedly an important factor for Tadpole now and in my opinion it may be necessary to focus our efforts on Applications Express and Instant Messaging. This may well involve Enterprise being put on the back burner till conditions are more favourable but I would retain the IP for this because I believe it will be successful in more favourable conditions.

3. I believe the company will need to look carefully at its target markets and carefully examine its pricing structure for the different markets. Gaining a number of adoptions is now important and lower prices and margins are acceptable. Afterall the r and d is virtually paid for.

4. The progress in Cartesia is pleasing. The alliance with ESRI was a masterstroke. Cartesia appears to be growing in strength and I believe there is much more to come form it. However I feel strongly that to convert the company just to cartesia would be a big mistake. Like it or not the prospects for strong future growth lie with Endeavours and therefore I believe strongly that Cartesia should help to fund ETI in the short term.

5. GEM initially looked like a good way of funding development in the software business without taking on debt. In fact the sale of the hware division probably meant a bank facility was out of the question so a GEM type option was the only choice.
However times have changed and GEM is acting like a dark cloud over sharholder value. Nobody is going to invest or even trade when they know that the company is highly likely to launch another tranch of shares as soon as the share price goes up.
Added to that we have, in my opinion, the questionable ethics of GEM selling 15 days before the rest of us know about the release of new shares. It has also crossed my mind that GEM must place the sale of these share with an unspecified broker and only their snese of fair play and sound ethics would prevent them form taking an advantge of it.
Perhaps that is a matter for the FSA and its new chairman.

One way or another draw down of funds using GEM is now a mistake on the comapnies behalf. It is counter productive at these prices and is alienating their own sharholder base. It must ne stopped as soon as possible.

So where do we stand :

1. The Company has few issues to address as a matter of urgency.

2. With reduced overheads it looks like sales of somewhere in the region of 7 million would see us break even. Based on the Note using the figures as of Sept 2002. I am feeling more confident this is achievable by the end of this year. Cartesia looks to be the biggest contributor.

3. The much quoted 300k for ETI seems to be based on September 2002 estimates of revenue. Somehow I have a feeling that Autodesk, Centia, Mitsibushi. NTT,Livelink, Protarius and any other we win by September will exceed this.


So I personally think the share is oversold and think by September will have recovered from todays low levels on sound basics. Being realistic the idea of a sudden dramatic recovery in share price is also unlikely but with Tad......You just never know.

Ken Thompson

Monday April 7, 5:03 PM

NTT DoCoMo to add credit-card function to handsets

ADVERTISEMENT




Click to enlarge photo
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's top mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo Inc, said on Monday it would soon launch a trial service that would allow subscribers to make payments at stores using their cellphone handsets.

Users of its 504i and 504iS series of handsets, which are Internet-enabled and equipped with an infrared transmission port, would first download their credit-card authentication data from the Internet.

When making a purchase, users would simply transmit the data via wireless transmission by pointing the handset at a special terminal located by the store's registers.

DoCoMo plans to start a test service in June, with a commercial operation slated for early 2004.

More than eight million people are using DoCoMo's 504i and 504iS handsets.

DoCoMo will cooperate with Visa International, Nippon Shinpan Co Ltd, OMC Card Inc and Aeon Credit Service Co Ltd for the new service, a DoCoMo spokesman said.

Nippon Shinpan, OMC and Aeon are Japan's major consumer credit card companies.

Return on Investments 400%

The integration of Magi Application Express into Autodesk's AutoCAD 2002 trial strategy resulted in faster, higher quality lead generation for the company - leading to a 400% return on investment. More trials were generated online versus traditional CD trials, which led to faster customer conversions and more sales.

Magi Application Express provided a rich experience for the streaming trial users. The rapid application download and the exceptional application performance, as if directly installed from a CD, allowed users to immediately utilize the software. With the strong anti-piracy mechanisms of Magi Application Express, Autodesk was able to allow streaming trial users to explore the full functionality of the application. Consequently, a shorter evaluation period was needed for users to determine the suitability of the software and purchase decisions for AutoCAD 2002 were made sooner than planned. Additionally, users were inclined to purchase more complementary products than originally intended.

The detailed user data that was collected provided Autodesk with real-time information about application usage and end-user


http://www.endeavors.com/as_trialware_case.html


M

Nice one .... peeps wil pay for new software if it saves them money

This is a placing of shares organised by the broker with the institutions. David Lee's purchase of shares represents 84% of his annual fee from Tadpole. The placing is not linked with GEM.

With best regards,

Hugh



Morning Hugh

Have seen the news, not sure I fully understand it.

Couple of questions.

Does this replace the gem agreement.

Is it linked to GEM in any way.

Who has bought the 21M shares is it an institution or a consortium, any clues.

Please be as direct as you can.

Good research ML.
Guru

See todays FT

Technology: Mobile Computing



by Karl Cushing

Tuesday 15 April 2003

Ordnance Survey staff to get XP Tablet PCs



The Ordnance Survey is to issue its field surveyors with 300 Tablet PCs running Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition to enable them to supply faster updates to OS Mastermap, its digital map database and online delivery service.

"We are upgrading our Tablet PCs in anticipation of the demands we will be putting on the system," said project manager Simon Bartlett. "There is a definite return on investment in using Tablet PCs and digital technology. It also greatly enhances the quality and accuracy of the data."

The Tablet PCs will use the Ordnance Survey's new data capture and field editing system, Field Object Editor, which is currently under development. Using the pen-based interface, surveyors will record geospatial data such as the position of buildings and streets and send updates to the central database from which OS Mastermap is produced.

The Field Object Editor is based on ESRI software adapted by software firm Tadpole.

The surveyors currently use Fujitsu Siemens FT 3400 and 3500 tablet PCs running Windows 98 and a geographic information system mapping application called Prism that pulls files from a central database for updating.


Mapping IT
The Ordnance Survey finished digitising its 233,000 map files in 1995

Electronic data accounts for 80% of its turnover

It is developing a central database to hold its files in a "seamless" instead of a "tiled" format of individual files. The data will be controlled by a transaction management system from Tadpole to enable access by multiple users instead of a single user, as at present.

http://news.com.com/2100-1039-997699.html

How much turnover to TAD does this gismo represent?

Ordnance Survey, Britain's national mapping agency uses GPS functionality in the PRISM (Portable Revision and Integrated Survey Module) software developed by Tadpole-Cartesia. Ordnance Survey currently has over 800 users for the PRISM software in the field and the office. Each field office has 1 or 2 GPS kits for surveying work in the field. The GPS functionality is used to update urban and rural mapping and the software now makes use of Real Time Kinematic GPS to provide centimetre accuracy.

Ordnance Survey has seen productivity benefits of 25% as a result of the use of the GPS functionality in the PRISM software.

Surveyors can use the GPS functionality to create 'control points' in the map view. If there is a difference between the control point provided by the RTK GPS and the existing map feature point then the surveyor can simply drag the existing map feature point onto the more accurate control point.

The surveyor can also use the existing corner points of an area and the co-ordinates generated by the RTK GPS at the same points to generate a transform to ensure sympathy between RTK derived coordinates and the surrounding detail. This transform is then saved with the area and allows the surveyor to use the GPS equipment to map new features within the area quickly e.g. mapping a new wind farm.



What next? The Ordnance Survey aims to develop a system that will be capable of maintaining polygon data in a seamless environment, whilst making maximum use of advances in mobile communications. In light of the success of their relationship to date Tadpole Technology will hope to be at the forefront of continued PRISM software development.

ah yes the MICROSOFT disaster thread, very surprised that the trainee bullshitter has raised this after the disaster which followed

what disaster?

Endeavors Technology Magi Partners





M

put out more flags

ROTFLMAO

moneyf***er,
where`s the Star Spangled Banner tonite boy

hhahahahahahahahahahah

What its all about!!


'Time to Buy Tadpole - Target 30p+ in 100 days (TAD) Charmed one - 27 May'04 - 12:57 edit



Tads has metamorphosed into an exciting software company. The new management which is heavily influenced by the FD has re-motivated the staff and the market.

Cartesia has shown the way first and has a full order book and more and is busy taking on new staff to handle both the sales enquiries and the contracts gained. A recent US exhibition generated an enormous number of new enquiries from US utilities. Profit margins are high and talk is of a 2 million surplus by year end in this division. Tads share price is lower than the market value of Cartesia imho.

ETI has been the cost drain as we have been paying for the R+D out of GEM and the profits from cartesia - this expenditure is now slowing at a
very fast rate of knots and we have already moved into the sales/marketing phase. The strategy is to concentrate on big users and the major resellers on both sides of the Atlantic and in Europe. There is increasing evidence this is working and we are currently waiting on the details of A big US telecoms contract. It is rumoured to be MCI and it is rumoured they will be kicking off the PR to the trade press right across the world any day soon. Tads are expected to follow this up with a big push of their own. There are many rumours of both big user contracts and at least one big new reseller for Appsx.

There are around 300 million shares and in an ideal world we need to see the cap at say 100 million to get the tracker funds and other institutions on board in a big way. That's around 33p a share and that's my target in the next 100 days. I appreciate it will mean doubling today's price and some but all the right constituents are there ...and some. Interims are expected soon after the US telecom details are made public and although they will still show a loss - serious improvements will show through and the forward statement will be very very bullish. I expect the finals to show a net profit.

We all know Tads is news led and with 30000 shareholders plus another 30000 who look in from time to time the share price can easily double in just a few days - a 100 days should be a doddle

I am a substantial holder of Tads shares and so are my family and friends. I have bought another million shares over the last few weeks and added another 50k this morning at 15.5p.

I strongly suggest you do your own research and this is high risk /high return where I think the risk reward is looking very very good. If in doubt stay away - wait another day for the newsflow to restart.

I am starting this thread in advance of activity and accept we may have to wait a week or so - I trust mam will ensure that the spammers stay off this thread. I don't mind free speech but prefer it to be constructive /interesting/ informative or at least on subject :-))'

ahhhhh......a tad thread....THANK GOD

Moneylender.

Damn, are you a good cheerleader or what?

I'm hoping that despite gloomy politics and terrorist activity, once the telco deal is announced, 30p will flash by, well before the 100 days. Once TAD announces the telco deal, they'll receive renewed credibility and investor confidence. It's just, when?
Let the bidding commence.

Cheers all.
Highride

Highride

Its just that i think the next few days will be very exciting for TAD holders.
We are now very close to some excellent news. Get up early tomorrow and Wed to see what I mean.

M