A recent aquisition for Intelliplus Group plc and new contracts for this company are coming in thick and fast. Result - share price is consistently heading north - Up 46% since 1/10. Perhaps one to quietly be a ten bagger over the next few months. DYOR

LOL

I have been tipped that this one will go to around 35p.. i bought at 17p already making me a nice return.

Easty and Leggins want to introduce to Nematode, Dalrymp and Ricardopage three guys who talk the talk, and walk the walk, know their stuff but are stuck in high with RTD they think thats going places but I think they are waiting on a .25 raise (above 13.5) but unlike so many others who have got in and got out with a bit of a profit, this share is been talked up when the only way its going is southwards. This share ECKOH linked into to big named mobile providers and 12 months to prove itself, has a tremedous potential and is a 'buy' recommend in several newspapers and as you say has a 'Northward direction is a good opportunist share - one to stay with I feel. Look forward to hearing from the RTD crowd.

BANKONE

I still hold RTD but bought into CYH on Friday (wish I'd been quicker there but it looks like being another YOO and 3.50p to 30p - 40p will do very nicely) I will research Eckoh over the weekend.

Do you hold cyh?

Hi easty and Bankone, thanks for an introduction to Nematode, Dalrymp and Ricardopage who, I expect might be feeling a bit glum recently while they've been seeing some previous gains dwindling, particularly if they've been holding onto RTD for the past two months. But it now looks as if another leg north with RTD is maybe about to start and I may do a couple of trades to get into this stock. CYH looks very interesting and I'll will research a bit more before monday and then see what happens to price and volume as it opens before ploughing in and I think Telematics is an industry about to explode like the P.C. market has done.

ECKOH - currently 18.5p (Mid) odds are that we will be seeing the price to continue ticking up heading north. Won't speculate on how far but well worth holding onto.

Legins, what is the reason behind your assumption of 'ticking up heading north'?

BANKONE

CYH is flying!!!!!!!!!!

so anything good for ECKOH. I also read a research in ohter www, poditive research.

ckmtang, what has your research reveal? I am too doing some research on this company will post later with any news/findings.

http://www.lemminginvestor.com/

ticker,

The reason for my assumptions on Eckoh is due to using a combination of share trading indicators overlaid on charts (MACD, RSI, 10day Moving Average of RSI, Bollinger Bands of RSI) which give me the signals of when to BUY, HOLD, SELL plus also the use of trendlines etc. but generally I make my final trading decisions upon research into fundamentals, news threads and its markets.

This company first came to my attention last year by an article in either Shares or Investors Chronicle. I can,t find this article at present but from my notes and memory, Eckoh has some interesting artificial inteligence technology in voice recognition software for telephone answering and call management for handling & directing callers to the correct person or department in large organisations and companies. Eckoh's technology solves a problem that many companies suffer in the loss of business and customer confidence, patience and satisfaction with existing older telephone call answering /queing systems that are not able to quickly and efficiently handle & connect the customer to whom they wish to speak to. This is just one of many tasks that the technology can handle and together with the capacity of 8000 prime rate telephone lines they own and get used by terestrial/digital/sky/cable TV Co's for shopping, competitions etc. ECK is cash flow positive and debt free.

Well worth some DYOR! Hope this is of help.

ckmtang/Legins,

Many thanks for your replies. I have read up on the company and decided to buy 20k worth.

Are you guys still holder of this stock? What would be your projection of the share price in a few weeks time?

Thanks

Ticker,

The following info should help you to project what the share price in a few weeks time.

06/11/03 END OF DAY DATA for ECK

PRICE CHANGE
OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE GBp % VOLUME
18.50 18.65 18.00 18.50 0 0 307,434

RECENT LOW & HIGH TRADING RANGES OF CLOSING (MID) PRICES

The table below shows the last 4 Support (Lows) & Resistance (Highs) of Closing Mid prices. Figures in 'Days Ago' columns refer to the number of trading days since 06/11/03 and not the trading days in between Lows & Highs.

LOWS & HIGHS PRICE CHANGE
GBp Days Ago GBp Days Ago GBp %
Price since last LOW 18.50 06/11/03 6.75 57.45
LOW 11.75 28 -3.50 -22.95
HIGH 15.25 52 2.50 19.61
LOW 12.75 56 -1.50 -10.53
HIGH 14.25 67 3.25 29.55
LOW 11.00 79 -2.00 -15.38
HIGH 13.00 90 1.00 8.33
LOW 12.00 91 -1.75 -12.73
HIGH 13.75 100 3.00 27.91

MACD INDICATOR
As of 06 November 2003 the current trend for ECK is BULLISH.

The MACD crossed above its signal line 23 trading period(s) ago. Since the MACD crossed its moving average, ECK's closing share price has increased 48.00% and the share price has ranged from a low of 12.50 to a high of 19.00.

How do you interpret the above legins? I am new to this and the info given is just beyond me.

Hi winalot,

I hoped this table would show the figures in an informative way and formated the table with tabs but did not show the formatting in the message posted, but copy this and format it in a spreadsheet or even word processor. The table showed the past recent 4 Lows (Support)& Highs (Resistance). From this it shows the trend where the share price is heading and the gains & losses between peaks & troughs. There are two columns for LOWS of GBp (price) and Days Ago with figures since the present day, two columns for HIGHS of GBp & Days Ago and two columns showing the price change & % gain / loss between high and lows.

a bit rise today... looking forward in it. Hopefully rise more.

Lets hope so :-)

Should see more rise tommorrow. RSI(14) indicator for ECK is oscillating between 60 & 80 and although some profit taking took place last Friday, while the RSI(14) continues to stay above 60 (currently 65.4254) there should be further upside.

Great day : + .75/+ 4.35 per cent on volume 1,745,385

Technical analysis in Short Term :-
Levels under 18.10 can be opportunities to enter long in the market,when the
trend slopes at the highest levels.

Tech analysis mid term :-
Still Bullish this week.Be alert to resistance 17.25 and a possible retracement
from this level.

1 Broker recommendation -- it is Strong Buy

ajren, which broker gave out the strong buy recommendation?

ticker:-Sorry,but cannot help as usually do not get names on my searches ---
Anytime I get names I will post it.
Also,I have to go through a VAST amount of info very quickly and pick out the
most relevant bits.rgds

Thanks for that ajren.

The price is ticking up slowly but surely I am glad to say. I wonder if there is something in the pipe line that we don't know about.

:)

Perhaps,but I doubt it on such a low Volume.

Incidentally,Volume is often the best way to analyse any share.The greater
the Volume means Institutions are analysing and acting on new information/or
in 99 per cent of the time anticipating what MIGHT be good information e.g.
Company X hopes to get financial facilities in 3 weeks.They will CALCULATE
the likelihood of that happening and price it in BEFORE the finance is agreed
-if they think,from their research in the City,that it will be agreed.

I did exactly that when I bought Corus at 8 p i.e.decided,on the information
given,that they would get the finance.However,I sold at 14 p and they went
up to 32 four -approx - months ago.I still feel sick.

This baby is going up today and there seems to be lots of people buying in. Something is in the pipe line....... Anyone have any news??

Way to go ECK!!

NEWS :-

A = Nov 12 eck have issued 20,000 shares................

B = Nov 13 eck ADDITIONAL LISTING : Ref - Intelliplus Group plc
Best of luck

NEWS :-
Bullish

Volume only 901,953.Institutions DEFINITELY have priced in Nov 12 news.

ticker, There is something in the pipeline that the MM's are confident about & the future of growth for ECK. The best indicator to show support of this is the RSI(14) which I think rates the strength of sentiment of a company with MM institutions. When the RSI() is above 50 and rising and stays above that level the share price is going up and that is exactly what the indicator has been doing with ECK for some while. It seems the investment ECK has made into artificial intelligence for voice recognition software & phone line capacity to 8000 lines some while ago to increase & strengthen its customer base, products & services is paying off.

As more deals get signed, ECK's profit & cash position position will just get better and probably, this is what the MM's are in the know about, that further deals in the pipeline are fairly imminent.

Thanks for that info Legins. I think this is a good stock to hold and am looking forward to a good steady rise.

:)

have a good week....

We might have a rough ride today. The FTSE is down over 1%!

yes... so we need to look forward the rest of this week.

RED day today

Looks that way across the board.

MY OPINION but dyor

I am very optimistic and can find no reason anywhere for todays downside.
However,I do not have shares.....but I might.

I think the red day today is purely due to the FTSE's reaction to Wall St last Friday and as a result the MM's got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning. Should see the price picking up again during the rest of the week.

Could be a good day for buying!

Totally agree with you Legins.

ajren, you are a wise man. This company has a great product, they already have a few FTSE 100 companies signed up for their products and am sure there will be more contract wins to come.

if it is not too much trouble can you mention whcih FTSE 100 companies signed up their product?

Eckoh Technologies Plc

Eckoh signs exclusive contract to provide hosted telephony services to Vodafone Rapide corporate customers* 1-year exclusive contract for any Vodafone Rapide 'Virtual Event' using Eckoh's speech recognition and IVR capabilities.* Astra Zeneca, Barclays and Whitbread are already signed up for the Vodafone Rapide 'Virtual Event' service

Eckoh Technologies plc (Eckoh), Europe's largest speech application serviceprovider, today announces a 1-year exclusive contract with Wire-e, leadingdeveloper of business software tools, for the provision of speech recognitionand IVR services to corporate customers of Vodafone's Rapide 'Virtual Event'.Wire-e, who has an exclusive agreement to supply Vodafone with Rapide, wanted to expand and enhance the range of services they can offer. They selected Eckoh astheir long-term partner because of the breadth of speech recognition and IVRsolutions that were available, the speed with which these could be deployed andthe size of the call-processing platform on which the applications were to behosted.The Rapide service, which is designed for Vodafone business users on the move,offers a suite of products which includes having a personal assistant managingyour contacts and numbers, sending emails that appear as if they were sent byyou, sending voice messages to groups of people and recording voice broadcastsfor others to dial into. Rapide is accessed by calling 1500 on a Vodafone mobileand there are currently over 300 corporate customers who are signed up to theservice.The first 'Virtual Event', which went live on October 15th with Astra Zeneca,allows corporates to upload audio broadcasts remotely onto Eckoh's system andthen invite selected parties to access the broadcast by alerting them with anSMS containing the access details. Other corporate customers including Barclaysand Whitbread have also signed up to use this service.Nigel Shanahan, Managing Director of Wire-e said: 'Vodafone Rapide is used bymany of the UK's largest companies who not only expect the product to be of thehighest quality and reliability but also continuing to innovate. This is why wechose Eckoh, to provide us with market leading hosted solution capability and acreative and responsive delivery team. In addition, with regulations tighteningon mobile use in cars, the ability to use speech recognition instead of thephone keypad becomes vital going forward when designing services for businessusers on the move, and Eckoh gives us the capability to deliver on this withconfidence.'Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer of Eckoh Technologies said: 'We are veryhappy to announce another important contract for Eckoh Speech Solutions withthis exclusive agreement with Wire-e. The Rapide service has to satisfy not onlythe high technical standards of Vodafone but also the long list of FTSE 100companies who utilise it, so we are very pleased to have been selected as theexclusive supplier to this audience. The reaction from customers to the launchof the 'Virtual Event' service has been extremely positive and we are veryexcited about other product launches we have planned with Wire-e.'

For further information, please contact:Eckoh Technologies
Tel: 08701 100 700 Martin Turner, Chief Executive Officer, Nik Philpot, Chief Operating OfficerBuchanan Communications Tel: 020 7466 5000Mark Edwards/Jeremy Garcia

Notes to Editors About Eckoh TechnologiesEckoh Technologies plc designs, builds, hosts and manages Speech Solutions forlarge corporations and organisations using ASR (Advanced Speech Recognition) andIVR (Interactive Voice Response) technologies. It is a leading UK serviceprovider and infrastructure owner/operator, and intends to exploit theanticipated growth in demand for Speech Solutions across Europe.In January 2003, Eckoh signed a landmark deal to create an exclusive speechalliance with BT to provide hosted speech recognition solutions to theircorporate client base over the next 2 years. A two-year contract with TDWaterhouse for a speech recognition share check service was announced by BT andEckoh in October 2003.In June 2003 Eckoh enlarged its call processing infrastructure to 7,000 lines(capable of handling 500,000 calls an hour) by installing another platform intoa BT hosting facility. This created the largest speech enabled call processingplatform in Europe.Eckoh has secured contracts to supply hosted Speech Solutions to clientsincluding Virgin Mobile, Centrica, William Hill, Wyevale Garden Centres and theRNIB.Eckoh also operates the following businesses:* IVR - provides managed IVR and SMS services to media clients including GWR, Channel 4, Chrysalis, Endemol, EMAP, Johnston Press and Cartoon Network. Following the acquisition of Intelliplus plc in Sept 2003, Eckoh's IVR operation is one of the largest providers in the UK.* Network Services - under the 'Symphony' and 'Freecom' brands, Eckoh supplies fixed line and mobile telephony services, broadband and data services to SMEs in the UK and Ireland. Following the acquisition of Intelliplus Network Services now has an SME customer base of over 13,000.In the year to 31 March 2003, Eckoh generated turnover of #55.1m.To hear a demonstration of Eckoh Technologies' speech recognition product range,dial 08701 100 600. Further information can be found at www.eckoh.com.

Wouldn't be surprised if ECK's next deal in the pipeline is with Orange or T-Mobile.

Legins, doesn't the term exclusive apply both ways? ie vodafone cannot use another supplier and eck cannot supply a vodafone competitor?

Great thing about ECK is that you can buy it in your ISA (provided you have some funds built up there!)

Additional Listing : 63,770 shares @ 0.25

Dec 15

Interim results

Analysts meeting 9.30

Arlington Group

Sold 7,250,000 = 2.76

However,no of holdings left = 6,661,000 = 2.54

Wonder why they have disposed of so many shares. I hope it is because they need the cash and nothing to do with the results coming out in Dec.

Just an OPINION :
I think there is nothing to worry about i.e.they still have 6,691,000/2.54 p.c

Has anyone any ideas what the results might be?

yes but the Dow finish strong, so this should reverse in a while (hopefully). We should see the FTSE rising again.

HERALD INVESTMENT TRUST 21st november bought 1,750,000 shares and now holds 18,770,000 shares 7.15%.

This purchase by Herald Invt must be good for the share price surely? This stock has not done much for a couple of weeks.

Not sure what the results will be like when it comes out in a couple of weeks. Anyone any ideas?

Herald Investment Trust are obviously expecting good results otherwise it would be rather foolhardy to buy this close to the results date.

ticker, I think the 1.75mln buy of Herald Inv is part of the strategy of ETQ to fund a vigorous publicising, marketing and sales campain of the stand alone portable Nightingale UVGI units.

As perhaps you may know, ECK's management want to get the Nightingale out in the market and being used as quickly as possible. Hence the reason they focused on the two stand-alone portable models first.

The cost of upgrading an existing air conditioning system in large buildings e.g. hospitals etc., would mean an extremely long lead-in time for the budgets for these types of contracts to be approved. This is because it is not just a simple matter of adding the filters to the air conditioning ductwork system but also to lower the position of the air extraction inlet and sanitised air outlet grills from ceilings to extracting air from floor level and deliver sanitised air at desk / standing zone of a room. Therefore, it would be sometime before sales for UVGI filters in existing air-conditioned systems for public, commercial & industrial buildings would show to build-up. New buildings in the future may well be designed to incorporate the Nightingale UVGI filters in new air conditioning systems but this will not happen overnight.

In the mean time, the stand-alone portable Nightingale UVGI filters are an immediately effective air sanitation unit that can work alongside air conditioning systems or on their own. These units give ETQ & UVGI a much faster route into the market and show its products effectiveness. The unit which will be on trial with NHS sometime next month will mean that relative quickly they will not just be accredited by Porton Down 'Dstl' but also by the U.K. public health authorities.

UVGI believe that the first companies to buy & make use of the filters is the Food Processing and Co's in industry, Insurance Co's in commerce & Passenger Cruise Lines Co's in Travel/Leisure industry.

I would have thought that it is near to the time UL labs in USA will have completed tests and accredited with approvals for entering that market. Certainly I think the City has some knowledge and confidence in this coming to fruition and news of this could be any time but are waiting for this to come out before the share price will begin to head north.

Legins,

a little late night confusion over ETQ and ECK me thinks? Given that i also own both it was interesting for me but perhaps baffling for others. worth reposting on th eother board though.... I took the liberty of doing this for you

global nomad

Thanks for your post GN. I was rather confused when I started to read Legins recent post.

Anyhow, I still think ECK is a good company with excellent products. I will hold onto my shares for the time being.

Any other supporters out there?

i alao holding ECK

Thanks guys, yes I,ve posted my last post on the wrong thread - late at night and not concentrating on what I've been doing. Sorry for the confusion, I'll repost this in the right place. However, I do hold ECK & ETQ, both of which are long term plays and start with E.

My appologies, especially after a pint to many.

is it still looking good?

Red hot penny shares this week,say buy.

I take it from your post roma that perhaps these guys think the results will be good.

Lots of activities today, volume is pretty high. Can anyone with L2 tell me the two big trades of 1m+ shares whether it was a buy or sell?

Thanks

Not sure whether to buy some of this stock before the results. Their website is pretty impressive.

Care to comment?

Not sure whether to buy some of this share or not before the results. Their website is pretty impressive.

Care to comment anyone?

17.75 :-Low V = No institutional interest

Yahoo says opinions are Bullish and they - not me Hyping - expect 18.75 rgds aj

ajren, which Yahoo site do you visit to get such info?

ticker :-
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com
rgds aj

NEWS - not yahoo
Additional listing 288,690 shares.See Ref Intelliplus group
rgds aj

Interesting to see will anything happen next week rgds aj

I am wondering the same. I hate playing this earnings game, have always lost so far. But I know that as soon as I sell out it will shoot up like always.

Anyone have any ideas as to what the earnings will be like??

Excellent news just before the results!!



Eckoh Technologies PLC
10 December 2003

10 December 2003


Eckoh Technologies and BT extend their
Speech Recognition Alliance to December 2006


Eckoh Technologies plc ('Eckoh'), one of Europe's leading speech application
service providers, and BT, one of the world's leading suppliers of
telecommunications services, today announced that they are extending their
alliance to provide BT's customers with advanced speech recognition technology.

The original 2-year agreement, which commenced in January 2003, provides BT with
a range of products developed by Eckoh to target companies in sectors such as
government, finance, utilities, retail, IT and travel and leisure. The Alliance
provides a dedicated, managed service infrastructure operated by Eckoh and
installed in a BT facility, which is one of the largest self-service call
processing platforms worldwide.

In September 2003 the companies announced a 2-year contract with TD Waterhouse,
and have since secured other significant business, demonstrating a strong new
business pipeline. As a result of these successes, and to give customers
confidence in the long term, both parties have agreed to extend their agreement
by a further 2 years until the end of 2006. Under the terms of the agreement,
revenues generated by customers of the Alliance are shared by both parties on a
variable basis.

Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer of Eckoh Technologies, commented:

'Over the past year we have worked extremely hard developing a strong team and
close working relationship with BT which has created the right platform from
which to develop our Alliance. It is therefore immensely satisfying only midway
through our agreement to be able to point to a profitable venture which is being
extended because of its early success. We remain committed to Eckoh becoming the
market leading hosting provider for Speech Solutions and having a longer term
contract with BT undoubtedly brings us closer to delivering on that strategy.'

Andy Hill, head of Voice Commerce, BT Global Services, said: 'Our relationship
with Eckoh Technologies has enabled BT to provide an effective platform for the
delivery of hosted advanced speech solutions to our business customers. Early
wins with this exciting proposition have demonstrated the significant impact
that well-designed speech applications can have in transforming businesses
operations, and have truly proven the hosted model.'


For further enquiries, please contact

Eckoh Technologies plc Tel: 08701 100 700
Martin Turner, Chief Executive Officer
Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer

Buchanan Communications Tel: 020 7466 5000
Mark Edwards/Jeremy Garcia


For further information on BT, please contact
Band & Brown Communications Tel: 020 7419 7000
Josephine Bowen/Laura Lynne


Notes to Editors

About Eckoh Technologies:

Eckoh Technologies plc designs, builds, hosts and manages Speech Solutions for
large corporations and organisations using ASR (Advanced Speech Recognition) and
IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technologies. It is a leading UK service
provider and infrastructure owner/operator, and intends to exploit the
anticipated growth in demand for Speech Solutions across Europe.

In January 2003, Eckoh signed a landmark deal to create an exclusive speech
alliance with BT to provide hosted speech recognition solutions to their
corporate client base over the next 2 years. This contract was then subsequently
extended until December 2006. A two-year contract with TD Waterhouse for a
speech recognition share check service was announced by BT and Eckoh in October
2003.

In June 2003 Eckoh enlarged its call processing infrastructure to 7,000 lines
(capable of handling 500,000 calls an hour) by installing another platform into
a BT hosting facility. This created the largest speech enabled call processing
platform in Europe.

Eckoh has secured contracts to supply hosted Speech Solutions to clients
including Virgin Mobile, Centrica, William Hill, Wyevale Garden Centres and the
RNIB.

Eckoh also operates the following businesses:

• IVR - following the acquisition of Intelliplus Group plc in Sept 2003,
Eckoh is one of the largest providers of managed IVR and SMS services in the
UK to media clients including the BBC, Channel 4, Chrysalis, Endemol, EMAP,
Johnston Press and Cartoon Network.
• Network Services - under the 'Symphony' and 'Freecom' brands, Eckoh
supplies fixed line and mobile telephony services, broadband and data
services to SMEs in the UK and Ireland. Following the acquisition of
Intelliplus Network Services now has an SME customer base of over 13,000.

In the year to 31 March 2003, Eckoh generated turnover of 55.1m.


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

Not a bad day so far. More to come I hope?

Been looking at this one for some time now and going in on Monday.

Scottie
Be careful ........
Results are out Monday and price could be volatile ... Regards
I,ve been holding this one since August.

Thanks amardev - will be watching for the response to the results! Good luck with your holding.

I have a feeling that the results will be good. I have been a holder of this stock since Sept and it has been a quiet time for this stock since then.

Looking forward to Monday!!

Tenby Deckchair on the Sharecrazy site bought into these on Friday. Enough said!

Have you guys seen the excellent results and new contract news? Boy, this stock is heading north today!!

results look good,new contracts singed and more to come yet the price is dropping as i write.am i missing something or are the mmsjust being naughty again

My sentiment entirely. I was looking forward to a nice Xmas until the price started to tick downwards. What is going on?

Cash reserves paragraph ???
Everything else looks good so I think nervous investors are just being flushed
out and things will normalise again.rgds aj

a lot of people who buy shares do not know how to play the game and the mms know this,hold tight and xmas will come with this share (in my humble opinion)

dropping again today but still more shares bought than sold

Application for 1,000,000 shares,to be admitted to market,tomorrow,issued pursuant to the exercise of options, announced at 16.45.

I am really lost with this share. The results were fantastic together with a contract win announcement but the share price keeps on heading south. Anyone out there know what is going on??

after mondays results i was all set to get a 32 inch lcd tv out of profits.oh well back to the 14 inch portable.

I am lost as well bought in August and expected some drop due to profit taking but not as much as this. Bought Baggeridge Brick recently as well can't understand how they increased profits by almost 100% upped their dividend and the share price is falling. I'm giving up on this game after Christmas.

Greeting! to all eckoh holders.
Commiserations to all of us who didn't book the profit on day of results.
Yes it's been painful watching it melt away before my very eyes over the last few days.
I'm keeping hold of my stake.
Let's hope all the short term holders have now been flushed out.
Good luck to all.
Regards.

i'm as baffled as you all, I think its the market makers shaking out nervous recks, obviously not us... I'm thinking of buying more after buying @ 18p and 17p

If it is the mms shaking out the nervous recks then surely we would see some big trades going through made by the mms.

The price is up slightly but for how long I am not sure. Don't get me wrong, I have faith in this company, they have the best products in this sector.

I am still a holder but not sure whether the price has bottom yet?

investers chronicle recon ECKHOis"fairly priced"I STILL THINK THEY ARE A HOLD

They are definitely a hold for long term. I do personally think that this stock will do very well in 04.

Have taken the advantage of price drop to top up some more.

Have a good Xmas and New Year all.

Looking good today. Anybody know why?

Legins have not heard from you for a long time. What is your view on this stock now? Is it still worth holding onto?

Hi ticker,

Sorry for not posting for a while on this thread as I've been very busy with construction & building work starting up.

My view of this stock is that this remains a good solid company that will continue with growth over middle to long term and is a company that will follow perhaps slightly behind the growth expected throughout 2004 in Telecom, TMT, and Technology sectors.

However, I also speculate that a significant deal between ECK, and Peter Dubens companies Pipex Communications PXC and ukbetting UKB could be forming due to this RNS news on 29Dec. The following extract is what has interested me and sparked this train of thought:-

Eckoh Technologies plc ('Eckoh') today announces that it has agreed to sell its
40% equity investment in Rivals Digital Media Limited ('Rivals') as part of a
sale of the entire share capital of Rivals to ukbetting plc. Eckoh will receive
consideration totaling 700,000, payable half in cash and half in ukbetting plc
shares.

Eckoh will have approx. 700k shares at around 50p each in ukbetting plc. ECK's technology in voice recognition and artificial intellegent call services for betting account customers of ukbetting plc has enourmous potential for both companies in forming a deal.

What do you think? I wonder if ukbetting would accept a bet on this happening 2:1 favorite!

Eckoh Technologies PLC
28 January 2004


28 January 2004

Eckoh Technologies appointed as interactive telephony partner for ITV

Eckoh Technologies plc ('Eckoh'), one of Europe's largest speech application
service providers, today announced it has been appointed by the UK's biggest
commercial television network ITV (formerly Granada and Carlton), to provide
interactive telephony services to the channel.

The contract, which commences on March 1st 2004, was won after a competitive
pitch process, and is anticipated to generate considerable revenues for both
organisations as the interactive telephony formats for broadcast programmes
continue to grow and develop. The agreement covers existing shows which use
telephony such as This Morning, CITV, Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway,
Trisha and The Vault, as well as new formats that are yet to be broadcast.

Today's announcement will allow ITV to gain access to Eckoh's sophisticated call
processing platform which with over 7,000 ports is the largest of its kind in
the UK. The platform supports the traditional telephony broadcast services such
as votes, competitions, polls and audience data capture, but also provides new
technologies such as speech recognition which gives ITV the opportunity to
enhance new programming concepts still in development.

Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer for Eckoh Technologies, says:

'This deal further consolidates our position as one of the largest providers of
managed interactive telephone services in the UK and having worked well with
Granada in the past we are very much looking forward to a similarly productive
relationship with ITV. We have a shared desire to grow telephony revenues by
developing innovative, compelling formats and we are delighted to be assisting
ITV harness the huge potential of interactive television.'

Ian McCulloch, Managing Director of Operations for ITV Broadcasting, commented:

'We have appointed Eckoh as our partner in this area after a rigorous process
and I believe they are best placed to help us take the telephony services
business forward. I am confident that they bring us the necessary technical
capability and expertise which is essential to maximising the potential
opportunity and we are very excited about what we can do together'

For further enquiries, please contact


Eckoh Technologies plc Tel: 08701 100 700
Martin Turner, Chief Executive Officer
Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer
Brian McArthur Muscroft, Finance Director

Buchanan Communications Tel: 020 7466 5000
Mark Edwards/Jeremy Garcia

Notes to Editors

About Eckoh Technologies:

Eckoh Technologies plc designs, builds, hosts and manages Speech Solutions for
large corporations and organisations using ASR (Advanced Speech Recognition) and
IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technologies. It is a leading UK service
provider and infrastructure owner/operator, and intends to exploit the
anticipated growth in demand for Speech Solutions across Europe.

In January 2003, Eckoh signed a landmark deal to create an exclusive speech
alliance with BT to provide hosted speech recognition solutions to their
corporate client base over the next 2 years. This contract was then subsequently
extended until December 2006. A two-year contract with TD Waterhouse for a
speech recognition share check service was announced by BT and Eckoh in October
2003.

In June 2003 Eckoh enlarged its call processing infrastructure to 7,000 lines
(capable of handling 500,000 calls an hour) by installing another platform into
a BT hosting facility. This created the largest speech enabled call processing
platform in Europe.

Eckoh has secured contracts to supply hosted Speech Solutions to clients
including Virgin Mobile, Centrica, William Hill, Wyevale Garden Centres and the
RNIB.

Eckoh also operates the following businesses:

* IVR - following the acquisition of Intelliplus Group plc in Sept
2003, Eckoh is one of the largest providers of managed IVR and SMS services in
the UK to media clients including the BBC, Channel 4, Chrysalis, Endemol, EMAP,
Johnston Press and Cartoon Network.

* Network Services - under the 'Symphony' and 'Freecom' brands, Eckoh
supplies fixed line and mobile telephony services, broadband and data services
to SMEs in the UK and Ireland. Following the acquisition of Intelliplus Network
Services now has an SME customer base of over 13,000.

In the year to 31 March 2003 Eckoh Technologies plc generated a turnover of 55
million and had a cash balance of 12m. In December the company announced deals
worth over 6 million covering a range of clients including the Royal National
Institute for the Blind.

Further information can be found at
www.eckoh.com
.


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

This is great news but the share price is still not moving as much as I would have thought.

Lots of buying into this one. It is the considerable revenues that will commence in Mar04 that will really see the share price moving. ECK will no doubt be handling calls for ITV programs like "Pop Idol", "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here" amoungst many others.

Definitely a very strong BUY. Added more to my holding.

I have also topped up a few days ago but my average price paid is still 18p, got in when it was at its peak a few months ago. Am looking forward to the day whent he share price really takes off. :0)

Saw this article posted in another thread and thought may be ECK holders might find it an interesting read.

Five tech stocks that could deliver in 2004
Published: 08:10 Mon 2 Feb 2004
By Richard Lander, Editorial Director
Email to a friend | Printable Version


Picking some technology winners for 2004 is a far tougher job than finding those for 2003, but here are five companies that should have bigger things up their sleeve this year.

Our five technology tips for 2003 gained an average 78% in twelve months and several others that we selected in the middle to end of 2002 have done even better.


However, we have been warning for some time that valuations appeared to be running ahead of actual company results, and as we stand at this early stage of 2004, it looks highly unlikely that we will see anything like the levels of return available last year.


One veteran technology analyst, Richard Holway of Ovum, reckons we are likely to see a correction in technology stock valuations half way through this year, and his forecast for growth in the tech sector over the next decade is a very modest 5% a year. However, he does concede that there are still some good individual companies that should offer opportunities for greater returns.


The five tech companies we think could still do well this year are; Pipex Communications, Intec Telecom, Systems Union, Eckoh and, still speculative at this stage, Superscape.


* PIPEX (PXC) is an alternative telecoms company that has been rapidly built by taking advantage of a unique moment in history. The former GX Networks reversed into AIM-listed Zipcom and bought up several small companies that had invested millions of pounds of dotcom-era money in infrastructure only to burn through their cash before they could realise a return on their investment. Pipex's management has an aggressive strategy of cutting costs and leaving itself with the valuable infrastructure.


The company made an audacious 55 million acquisition of profitable internet service provider Pipex in October 2003 and has just produced its first profits before goodwill amortisation. It looks as though there could be more acquisitions in the pipeline, and the business now has the feel of one that could become a far larger player and a serious alternative telecoms operator to the UK business community.


The shares are currently at 10.5p, valuing the company at 187 million. This prices the business at 26 times this year's forecast earnings. While this may not be exactly cheap, you would be buying in to the distinct possibility that Pipex could become a much bigger player in the next 18-24 months.


* INTEC TELECOM (ITL) provides billing and operational systems software for telecoms companies. Its interconnect billing software enables operators to bill each other for calls carried across their networks and its mediation software gathers all of the necessary data from the telecoms switch to feed into systems such as billing and security. The company has had to scale down its expectations during the severe telecoms downturn, but has still managed to sign significant new business and turned in revenues for the year to September 2003 up 7% at 59.7 million with pre-tax profit before write-offs of 5.4 million from 2.2 million last time.


At 71.5p with a market capitalisation of 187 million the shares trade on a rating of 28 times next year's estimates. So at first glance it looks pretty fully valued. However, there are plenty of fund managers who seem to think that analysts are still being overly cautious on their earnings estimates in general, and that therefore there is scope for upgrades if the economic recovery shows signs of longevity. The punt on Intec is that for the type of software it provides to the type of global customers that it services, 148 million is still a pretty insignificant size with plenty of scope for upside.


* ECKOH TECHNOLOGIES (ECK) has spent the past couple of years incubating its new speech recognition technology, aimed at further automating call centre and interactive voice applications. The company has a deal with BT, under which BT hosts the system, and, hopefully, brings in some blue chip customers. Eckoh's bread and butter business is interactive voice response (IVR), and it recently announced a win with ITV to provide the voting, polling and interactive services used on programmes such as This Morning, CITV, Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Trisha and The Vault. (continued...)

The company saw turnover for the half year to September down slightly at 25.7 million, although continuing operations were up slightly. Operating losses were reduced to 1 million from 7.4 million and net losses down to 1.3 million from 9.4 million. The IVR business is profitable, but it is the new speech business that has yet to break even.


At 16.5p (38.6 million market cap), the company is valued at 18.2 times next year's forecasts, but a couple more large wins for the speech software could significantly transform the company.


* SYSTEMS UNION (SUG) is the developer of Sun Systems and Pegasus accounting software chaired by serial entrepreneur Bob Morton. It ran into trouble a few years ago when, known as Freecom at the time, it made a disastrous acquisition of ecommerce company Oneview, for which it had to write off a massive 100 million.


* SUPERSCAPE (SPS) has been promising jam to investors for so long now that many have given up and walked away. Citywire has followed the company for several years, and now reckons that if 2004/5 is not Superscape's year, nothing will be.


The developer of real-time three-dimensional graphic software originally designed for virtual reality on a PC finally found the perfect market for its technology in the mobile phone space, and particularly for the next generation of mobile phones. The company effectively re-wrote its software for wireless, and in the past couple of years signed a deal with chip designer ARM to embed the software into ARM's mobile phone chips. Significant deals with handset manufacturers and content providers have started to flood in but as yet we have not seen any effects of these on revenues or profits. The last published results in October showed turnover for six months to July of just 94,000 down from 510,000 the previous year with losses down 26% to 3.7 million. However this did not include any revenues from the wireless business.


Since the start of this year the company has announced licence deals with two further brand owners. But there is still a problem with Superscape. Citywire has been talking about its jam tomorrow story for a couple of years now. Research analysts have clearly been driven away from the stock, and even house broker Evolution Beeson Gregory has not written on the stock since September, at which time it was still expecting a 5.4 million loss for the year just closing.


ARM has taken a 12% stake in Superscape and also put substantial research and marketing effort into the deal. There are some very large names being announced as licence partners, and Superscape could be on the cusp of becoming a major supplier of both software and content (sophisticated 3D games in particular) to the mobile industry. If that were to happen, its 34p share price and 42 million valuation could look very cheap in a couple of years time. But we are still waiting to see the money roll in.

What is happening to streaming prices - I can't believe my eyes bid/offer 45 - 55p - is this real?

I must have missed it Legins.

There seems to be alot of people buying into this stock today. Do you think there is something in the pipeline? I have been such a faithful holder, and am hoping for a good return :)

Might we begin to see some upside in the share price now and see new highs?

Eckoh Technologies PLC
15 March 2004


15 March 2004


Eckoh Partners with Celador International to Launch the
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Telephone Game

Eckoh Technologies (Eckoh), Europe's leading speech applications service
provider, has teamed up with Celador International to create a telephone version
of the hit TV programme Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Fans of the show can now play their favourite game from any telephone 24 hours a
day with guaranteed prize money available of over 100,000 in cash.

The product has been designed for syndication to telecom operators, media owners
and other distributors and is available exclusively through Eckoh. The game will
also be promoted on the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? TV show from Saturday
13th March ,.

The game launched to the public on Saturday 21st February and will be available
for 3 months. To play the game participants call a premium rate number 09064 72
72 72 (charged at 60p per minute) where they are greeted by the voice of Chris
Tarrant. They face a maximum of 10 multiple-choice questions which they answer
by pressing the relevant number on their keypad as quickly as possible, and just
like the TV game they have the opportunity to use three familiar Lifelines if
they face difficulty.

The questions are tiered into three levels and each day there are cash prizes
awarded to the fastest players who progress through the levels in the shortest
time. Answering the first three questions correctly in the fastest time wins
100, the first six questions 200, and answering all 10 in the fastest time
wins 300

In addition, a weekly prize of 1,000 is on offer to the fastest overall player
whilst the person identified as the quickest to answer 10 questions correctly at
the end of the tournament will walk-away with 50,000!

Chris Tarrant said, 'The new Telephone Game is a fantastic way for Millionaire
fans to play from home, and what better incentive to get those fingers dialling
than 50,000 in cash!'

Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer of Eckoh, commented, 'This is such a great
project to have been involved in as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is the
biggest global TV game show brand. We had to make sure that we translated the
same quality experience that people get from viewing the show onto the
telephone, and we feel that we've done that exceptionally well. The reaction
from promoters and players alike has been fantastic'

- ENDS -

Are you still in this Legins? Unfortunately, I gave up on it a few weeks back. It has generated a large loss for me in the end.

News came out this morning but the price went down. Wonder why??

another new contract lookin good for 2004

I think the millionaire game sounds pretty weak. I'm still holding but the share price is well and truly stuck. We need some real news of significance.

Hi ticker, yes I'm still in. I bought in again in the trough just prior to Eckoh's news announcement of their contract win with ITV commencing 1st March. You only need to see the 3 month chart to see the MM's reaction which has been to tree shake and perhaps gather stock to fill large institutional buy orders. My judgement may well have back fired as prolonging -ve ecconomic news on the $, Dow, Nasdaq front has dragged down global market sentiment in general and together with recent terrorist atrocities in Madrid any good news flowing out of companies is just getting buried.

Taking an overall picture on fundamentals together with the +ve flow of contract news since last interims and significant increases in revenues that should bring next results well into profit(year end 31st March - Finals will be out in early June) IMHO Eckoh's share price should have surged. May have to wait untill a little closer to finals before my patience is rewarded.

Hi All I'm new to this game, I also hold some shares in ECK. I wonder if anyone else have noticed that in many cases buys are recorded as sells because it's below the mid market price. On two occasions I've bought shares and it's been recorded as sells together with other purchases at the same price. Makes things very confusing.

At last some very positive news for Eckoh Technologies that should see a significant revenue stream for the company!

Eckoh Technologies PLC
03 August 2004


For Immediate Release Tuesday 3 August 2004



Eckoh Technologies selected as primary partner to
supply interactive services to Trinity Mirror


Eckoh Technologies plc ('Eckoh'), one of Europe's leading speech application
service providers, today announced it has been appointed, with immediate effect,
by Trinity Mirror, the UK's biggest newspaper publisher, as the primary partner
to supply its interactive services in the UK.

As well as national newspapers such as the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and
The People, Trinity Mirror also publishes some 240 regional and local titles.

Eckoh will provide a range of services to Trinity Mirror including competitions,
votelines, games, dating and astrology using IVR, SMS, MMS and the Web. The
services were previously operated by Arrow Interactive, Trinity Mirror's
in-house operation.

Martin Turner, Chief Executive Officer for Eckoh, commented:

'UK newspapers are now increasingly using interactive services as a means of
developing a deeper relationship with their customers and Trinity Mirror has
been, and remains, one of the leaders in this fast developing technology.

'We will be working closely with Trinity Mirror to continue developing services
which engage readers and grow revenues for the Group's titles.'

Matt Brittin, Commercial Development Director for Trinity Mirror, said:

'We have been reviewing the future of our interactive services for some time and
saw an opportunity to enjoy improved services, more innovation and better
returns by working with a small number of market-leading players.

'Eckoh are leaders in the field of interactive service development and have the
capacity to handle the volume of traffic that a group like Trinity Mirror
generates.'

double bottom forming or is it just another step down ECK's slippery staircase?

well the final leg is pointing upwards, just hope we breach 9.5p soon!

wonder when ECK will begin to announce "new deals" from their new/prospects pipeline!

from the AGM statement back in June 2004

Outlook

The new financial year has started well, with the group trading in line with our expectations. In particular, our recent announcements of substantial speech contracts with UGC and the London Stock Exchange and the launch of a
self-service solution for Vue (Warner Village Cinemas) are very exciting
developments, and serve to further validate our strategy in this area.

Moving forward, we have a strong pipeline of new and prospective business and
believe that this will continue to fill as major corporations appreciate the
significant benefits that advanced speech recognition and self-service
applications can bring to their customer contact strategies.

They need to announce new contracts. They are near my loss limit . It will be a shame to bail out as I think they have a good product.As your note says June was three monthas ago, if they are not winning a major contract every couple of mnths they are not going to get their revenue satream flying are they?Will hang in there for the moment

Will

looking at the RNS announcements I can only see the Trinity Mirror deal in the last 3 months, and while it seems to be a 'big contract' and will have a positive effect on eps, I agree we need to see a much more regular flow of new contracts to get the share price moving....

having said that looking at the 2002 and 2003 chart for this share, September seems to be historically the low point and by December has put on 50%/100%....I wouldn't be unhappy at history repeating itself at these levels!

im with you on that one!

very nice 500,000 buy at 7.9p

might just set the bottom on this share?

another 250,000 bought at 8.25p just gone through, someone building up a stake?

another 250,000 @ 8.2p, somethings brewing!

But the price still going nowhere...

queen1,

been wondering that too, another 200,000 buy today and still no reaction, beginning to think that MMs have a big seller feeding them stock on the QT!

something very strange going on here!

yesterday it was virtually all buys, today there has been c.450,000 sells against 300,000 buys....

no change in bid/offer spread however the MMs will now buy stock off you for 8.03p rather than 8p yesterday

fractionally stuff I know but with the level of sells today I would have expected a drop back to 7.75p on the bid on the basis the MMs would have more stock to shift??

perhaps we will get a T trade buy later on...

Do you think we're going to be at this level for a while? The chart looks awful but I'm still there as their story seems to have legs...

looks like the big seller theory is true!

500,000 sell @7.5p has got the mid price back down to 7.875p(third time this happened during last 30 trading sessions)....is there such a thing as a triple bottom??

managed to find this site regarding triple bottoms, oh er missus!

http://stockcharts.com/education/ChartAnalysis/triplebottom.html


maybe hope yet?

Does any one know wht the value of the trinity contract won in August was worth?Whilst the Speech recognitions is a high margin part of the business it only accounts for 5%(3.2 Million) of their 62 million pound turnover.It would be useful t know what this new contract was worth and any new contract news would be also very helpful to the shareprice.

will,

I wish I knew how much the Trinity deal was worth too!

I just wonder how far these shares can fall?

Personally I would like to see ECK use up some of their cash pile and buy back some of the shares:-

say 8.0m @ 6.5p a share = thats c.125,000,000 shares

if EVOs projections for y/e 3/2005 are still accurate then ECK makes PTP 1.9m(also worth bearing in mind EVO's report 6/2004 doesn't include the Trinity deal)

current shares o/s 271,000,000 less 125,000,000 bought back = 146,000,000

would give an eps of 1.3p

even on a 10x multiple the shares left would be worth twice as much as the ones bought in by ECK, personally I would have thought a 15x multiple is more appropriate and that gets you to 20p a share!!

Mack,
I like your reasoning, a bit more technical than me.From your calcs doesnt this say the eps is .7P with the actual current number of shares?Providing their retention of customers is good they should have a constant stream of revenue bing topped up by both new contracts and amendments/incremental business from existing customers.It seems a good product, just ring one of the numbers(Warner for instance)it performs very well.
I still have reservations I have caught a cold on several small shares that have performed well but have not handled the city well with updates, releases and the like,and have consequently had their share price do a slow decline over time.However I am sticknig with it for the moment. Many thanks for the numbers.

will

I was using the PTP figures from the last EVO report(June 04) which suggest an eps of 0.7p for the current year

at current price I also think that ECK could be ripe for takeover...they have a tax loss asset of c.15m(based on about 70m losses in the last 4 yrs) which would be very useful for a profitable acquirer, plus they get 10m cash, plus a network business with 13,000 SME customers, a useful IVR business with some large corporate customers and a SR business which could have massive growth potential. Must be worth at least 35/40m to a predator? certainly alot more than the current 20m market cap!!!

bit of newsflow from ECK!

'Fabulous opportunity' for Music TV, says Eckoh

M2 Presswire
27 September 2004

The UK Music TV industry has a 'fabulous opportunity' to develop ground-breaking formats and new channels to market.

So said Paul Parry, the managing director of Eckoh Communications, part of Eckoh Technolgies plc, speaking at 'The Future of Music TV' conference in 'The Pop Factory' in South Wales this week.

"Broadcast interactivity is as much about the marriage of imaginations as it is about the marriage of technologies," said Parry. "The biggest successes come when programme formatters don't just look for bolt-on solutions to add value, but when they use the power of the interactive platform to drive their imagination into new territory."

Eckoh has recently delivered a string of interactive solutions for major UK shows including Hell's Kitchen, The Vault and This Morning. Now, says Parry, the time is right for the music TV industry to develop a new range of formats that move the industry on from the success of programmes like Fame Academy and Pop Idol for example.

"The UK currently leads the world in interactive format development," says Parry, "And Eckoh is proud to be part of that development and looks forward to helping the UK continuing to remain the world leader."

Parry was part of a panel of experts chaired by broadcast format development guru Malcolm Gerrie, the chief executive of Initial, an endomol company. Gerrie has been responsible for the development of many of the UK's leading interactive TV formats, including The Tube, The White Room, and the massively successful Fame Academy.

Parry says: "Talking to music delegates at the Conference, there was little doubt that the industry knows the scale of the challenge it now faces with the many new channels to market for digital music. What will be really interesting is to see the new ideas and how we can work with programme formatters and producers as they develop these."

Eckoh is currently working with a number of programme formatters on leading shows which will hit TV screens in the coming months and remains the main provider of interactive services for both ITV and the Trinity Mirror group.

Note to Editors:

The Future of Music TV Conference took place on 21 September at The Pop Factory in South Wales.

Eckoh Technologies plc designs, builds, hosts and manages speech solutions for large corporations and organisations using ASR (Advanced Speech Recognition) and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technologies. It is a leading UK service provider and infrastructure owner/operator, and intends to exploit the anticipated growth in demand for Speech Solutions across Europe.

To hear a demonstration of Eckoh Technologies' speech recognition product range, dial 08701 100 600. Further information can be found at www.eckoh.com.

Issued on behalf of Eckoh Technologies plc by TDM Marketing Associates.

CONTACT: Simon Shrouder, Eckoh Technologies plc Tel: +44 (0)162 557 5592 Gary Perry Tel: +44 (0)870 880 2020 Fax: +44 (0)162 557 4313

very interesting , many thanks Mack

useful endorsement of ECK's Speech Recognition product, hopefully we will get a few more in the run up to the results in Nove/December?

Eckoh Technologies PLC
28 September 2004


For Immediate Release 28 September 2004


Eckoh Technologies plc


BT and Eckoh Technologies to supply automated train information service for ATOC

Eckoh Technologies plc ('Eckoh'), one of Europe's leading speech application
service providers, today announces that through its speech alliance with BT,
they will help develop and host an automated train running information service
for the Association of Train Operating Companies ('ATOC').



The automated train update service will provide callers with another way of
accessing train times and the same real-time train arrival and departure
information already available from National Rail Enquiries by telephone, WAP and
on the National Rail web site,
www.nationalrail.co.uk
. It will allow callers to
select the relevant train stations by using either speech recognition or
touch-tone entry



The service will for the first time allow travellers to call an automated
service to see if there is disruption to their planned journey. ATOC currently
provide the National Rail Enquiries which receives more than 50 million calls a
year. The new service will provide a complementary method for users of the UK
rail network to obtain real-time train running information.



BT and Eckoh are in the process of developing the service for a soft launch
later this year.



Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer for Eckoh, commented: 'We are delighted to
be working alongside both ATOC and BT to supply what we expect to be perhaps the
busiest automated service using speech recognition yet delivered in the UK. We
believe that this service will deliver real value to the rail user and will
clearly demonstrate the benefit and convenience that speech technology can
deliver. We see the service as yet another validation of our decision to invest
in building such a large call processing platform capable of using speech
recognition, a factor that was central to ATOC's requirements.'





For further enquiries, please contact



Eckoh Technologies plc Tel: 08701 100 700
Martin Turner, Chief Executive
Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer

Buchanan Communications Tel: 020 7466 5000
Mark Edwards/Jeremy Garcia



Notes to Editors



About the Association of Train Operating Companies:

The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) is the official voice for
the passenger rail industry - representing train companies to the government and
other opinion formers on transport policy issues. Britain's train operators are
working together to change rail travel for the better.

ATOC manages many joint activities for train operators including revenue
allocation and settlement, impartial retailing, the National Rail Enquiries,
Railcard marketing, staff travel arrangements, international products and travel
agent licensing.



About Eckoh Technologies:

Eckoh Technologies plc designs, builds, hosts and manages Speech Solutions for
large corporations and organisations using ASR (Advanced Speech Recognition) and
IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technologies. It is a leading UK service
provider and infrastructure owner/operator, and intends to exploit the
anticipated growth in demand for Speech Solutions across Europe.



In January 2003, Eckoh signed a landmark deal to create an exclusive speech
alliance with BT to provide hosted speech recognition solutions to their
corporate client base over the next 2 years. This contract was then subsequently
extended until December 2006. In December 2003, BT and Eckoh announced
significant contracts to the value of 6m with UGC Cinemas, TD Waterhouse, RNIB
and Wire-E.



In June 2003 Eckoh enlarged its call processing infrastructure to 7,000 lines
(capable of handling 500,000 calls an hour) by installing another platform into
a BT hosting facility. This created the largest speech enabled call processing
platform in Europe.



In addition to those above, Eckoh has contracts to supply hosted Speech
Solutions to clients including Virgin Mobile, Auctionworld, William Hill,
Wyevale Garden Centres and Vue .



Eckoh also operates the following businesses:



* IVR - following the acquisition of Intelliplus Group plc in Sept
2003, Eckoh is one of the largest providers of managed IVR and SMS services in
the UK to media clients including the BBC, ITV, Trinity Mirror, Channel 4,
Endemol, Celador, EMAP and Cartoon Network.

* Network Services - under the 'Symphony' and 'Freecom' brands, Eckoh
supplies fixed line and mobile telephony services, broadband and data services
to SMEs in the UK and Ireland. Following the acquisition of Intelliplus Network
Services now has an SME customer base of over 13,000.



In the year to 31 March 2004 Eckoh Technologies plc generated a turnover of
62.5 million and had a cash balance of 10.2m.



Further information can be found at
www.eckoh.com

ATOC deal may also prompt a new EVO report and it would be interesting to see if they are sticking with their projected 0.7p eps target for current financial year and also whether they amend their short term target price of 20p which looks daft or a fantastic buying opportunity when viewed against current 8p price!!

doesn't look like the market is overly impressed by ECK's new contract with ATOC!!

bid raised this morning to fill a 1,000,000 buy at 8.125p however nothing else has filtered through and bid dropped to 7.75p and offer around 7.92p

still think the opportunity to buy below 8p will be short lived!

Same problem Mack. What is this business worth?Its obviously good news but you find yourself wanting to know a little more

will,

I guess the market is probably focussing on the term 'soft launch' which some might class as no more than a trial...I read an interesting article on this subject recently which provides more background to this 'phrase' and attach the link for your info
http://www.varbusiness.com/sections/columns/columns.jhtml?articleId=18827326&_requestid=292520

Also EVO have produced an updating brokers report everytime a new Speech Recognition is announced. Will be interesting to see if we get a new EVO report later this week because they will have to come clean on their expectations for eps in current financial year. If they continue to stick with 0.7p eps this can only be good news given all the sector concerns over network margins being eroded.

If a report fails to materialise then you have to ask why not!

Many thanks for that Mack

Will,

the following table of brokers consensus opinion on peer group Alt Telcos makes interesting reading from a ECK shareholder's perspective!

Assuming EPS targets are achieved ECK seems to stand out by a mile as being undervalued against its peers, ignoring the cash balances it holds(equating to 4p a share).

As far as I can see the ECK figures ignore the recent Trinity Mirror and ATOC deals which could add s to the bottom line.

Wonder how long it will take the market to latch onto the fact that ECK is massively oversold???

05EPS 06EPS SP 05x 06x

Red 0.1 0.3 7.75 77.50x 25.83x

Pipex 0.26 0.69 8.00 30.77x 11.59x

Thus -0.8 0.1 14.75 -18.44x 147.50x

KCOM 1.3 3.8 56.00 43.08x 14.74x

Eckoh 0.7 1.1 8.00 11.43x 7.27x

looks good to me, but i am more of a conviction politician and believe they have a product that is the future. I know they are trying to do the more clever stuff, but making calls handsfree in a car will be by speech recognition. Every switchboard will route people and respond by speech recognition. Basically at all levels of business there is a demand and therefore an opportunity. The list is huge and they appear to be at the leading edge

strange trading going on today...not alot of sells but the mid price drops...

also alot of trades going through at full offer 8p whereas MMs were selling at 7.90/5p on Friday when the best offer was 8.25p!

MM manipulation don't you just love it....

I had expected to see a big T sell appear after hours, but no sign yet.

All that seems to have happened today is the MMs have closed the spread to 7.75p-8p from 7.75p-8.25p on what is below daily average trading volume.

lots of sells going through today, but the SP ticks up!

all very strange!

I'm looking to buy but the 7.75-8.25% spread is putting me off. Is it worth waiting for this to narrow? I too thought the large no of sells should have dropped the price....shome mishtake shurely?

thanks Bonfield,

what is really confusing me is that I was quoted 7.8p to sell and 7.92p to buy

this bears no resemblence to the current quoted spread of 7.75p-8.25p

seems to me the MMs want the mid price to be showing at 8p for some reason


yesterday EVO dropped their spread to 7p-8p which reduced the mid to 7.875p and raised their spread this morning to 7.25p-8.25p which got the mid back to 8p...


I'm sure EVO must have a reason for doing this I just can't fathom out why???

my broker is TDW, and they quoted 8.2, by the sound of it I can do a lot better. I saw one trade for 480 shares go through at 7.95 presumably a sell? last trade was 10k at 7.75, another sell, so will look to get a price closer to 8p or under if possible in next few days.

very interesting Bonfield

looks like the MMs are pretty undecided on what is the right price to sell stock to the punters...interesting that one punter paid 8.25p for 50,000 shares this morning

just before the close my broker(Charles Stanley) was offering stock at 7.92p

I can only assume that the trade at 7.95p was a buy and all the trades at 7.75p and 7.8p are sells

probably need to shop around for best price at the moment however the MMs do seem keen to sweep up shares at 7.75p from holders losing their nerve!

The trades at 7.95 today were buys. Plenty of sells though, doesn't seem to make sense. I bought some of these last week for 7.95 using Halifax, who I have to say are pretty useless. However, I had to get a quote approx 8 times at 8.20 before they offered them at 7.95 - so just keep pressing that button!

MMs are playing a very tight game today

can't buy even 1,000 shares at less than 8.15p and if you want 50,000 you need to pay full 8.25p

looks like something is getting ready to blow!

maybe not he's back on 7.92p to sellto punters!!!

all my quotes have been 8.2p with TDW, should I get another broker?

bonfield,

they are taking the piss now!

back up to 8.25p for buys of 1,000 shares or more

how can they justify a 5% increase in purchase price based on the trades today which have been mainly sells...

well with 120k shares changing hands (less than 10,000) the MMs haven't made alot of commission today, in fact it doesn't look as though they were really open for business at this trading level!

see what tomorrow brings...

right, in at 7.95, thx Mack for saving me a few quid, I'll be a lot more careful with spreads in future.

bonfield,

definitely one to watch closely

L2 information suggests that we are in a very tight trading range...quite a few of the MMs are taking in very small amounts of stock at 7.75p and then moving the spread back up to sell shares at 8.15p/8.25p

WINS on the other hand seems to be buying in at 7.75p and selling at 7.83p!!!

can only conclude that there aren't any large buy or sell orders at the moment.

probably no bad thing if it introduces some stability to share price and develops a floor which allows price to rise significantly as we get closer to the Interim results(they posted the results last year on 15th December - ECKs web site is suggesting the results will be out in November)...

somebody has snapped up 50,000 @ 7.83p!

just looked at the 12 month chart.this has taken a beating.alot of ramping earlier on in the year

directors options have been rebased at 7.88p which is good. They have some incentive now to get the shares moving.

well spotted Bonfield

this is brilliant news


if you look closely at the terms of the option agreement you will see that the option price can only be exercised if the share price is more than:-

7.88p x (15%+RPI) x (15% +RPI) x (15% +RPI)

assuming RPI averages at 2.75% for the next 3 yrs the share price needs to hit at least:-

13p

in addition eps has to be more than 1.5p per share....

it now makes perfect sense why the shares have been stuck at around 8p for the last two months!!!


time to top up I think!!!

definitely got a point there Mack!

why would the directors choose now to redefine terms of 'old' and 'out the money' options???

bearing in mind interims are out in November(ECK website hints at November but gives no specific date) why would the directors agree to accept a new option price unless they reckoned the newsflow in the run up and beyond the interims announcement would be anything other than positive???

looks like the directors are calling the bottom of the recent slide in ECK share price....looks like a vote of confidence in ECK going forward?

surprised there wasn't alot more buying on the back of this decision today!!!

Guru,

don't disagree, obviously the 'new options' must have a much better chance of being in the money within next 12 months than the ones they are giving up!

bearing in mind the terms attaching to the exercise price it does look like the directors are also of the opinion that the shares are worth alot more than they are currently trading at...

I also take your point about the timing of the RNS disclosure...it is potentially only 4/6 weeks until we get a trading update, which probably will be in line with expectations or better, so it is more than likely that the share price will begin to drift upwards?

have a good weekend, be lucky!

horrible day for ECK!

I'm expecting to see some large T trade sells to appear after the close today to explain the fall because I can't believe that 15k of share sells can have such a major negative impact on the share price!!

1p spread suggests that level 2 must be looking like 6 v 6

yes not a good day Mack!

checked the buy/sell spread just before the close and I could buy 100,000 shares at 7.34p...makes me think that the trade for 80,000 shares late in the day was actually a buy...

not sure if this is a MM treeshake but it is strange that all the MMs are currently on 7p-8p spread which doesn't exactly encourage buying!!!

no sign of any late large sells so it maybe MM games...

just checked trading volumes for the last three sessions and if you ignore a 150k rollover we seem to be averaging 300,000 shares or c.25k a day...

potentially a massive buying opportunity at these levels bearing in mind the enterprise value of this company is now less than 10m or 3.75p a share, thats right 50% of current 7.5p mid price is cash covered!!!

another tick down, another day of low trading volume...

wonder where it will stop??????????

a bounce, rejoice!

Whats happening here then ? News expected ?

ECK, broker comment:

Eckoh adds new speech contracts and meets forecasts

The Speech Solutions business continues to grow, seeing further contract wins with prestigious clients such as Warner Village and the LSE itself. It is solidly supported by the larger IVR and Network Services divisions. FY03 sales are in line with expectations at 62.5m. As expected, reduced gross margins saw the adjusted pre-tax loss of 0.3m. This led to a small 0.1p loss per share compared to a 0.1p profit last year. But these are minute bottom-line differences; overall the group maintains a breakeven position whilst it steadily builds its innovative Speech Solutions business.

The new year has started very well and new contracts have been announced today, with prestigious clients such as Vue (formerly Warner Village) and the London Stock Exchange. They join UGC, RNIB and TD Waterhouse as converts to this leading edge technology.

On the financials, revenue from ongoing operations was flat at 42.4m but was boosted 17.8m by the acquisition of the Intelliplus business, offsetting the net 10.4m drop from the closure of the mobile wholesale business. The addition of that low-margin Intelliplus revenue dragged down the groups gross margin (33% to 27%) but margins have also been under pressure in the IVR business. This led to a reduced GP contribution, but that was mitigated by the reductions in overheads instituted by the management over the year, but nevertheless forced last years fragile pre-exceptional & pre-amortisation profit just below the line. Readers should note however,that the break-even position has been held despite losing the 2.2m profit from the mobile wholesale business, which suggests real underlying progress has been made.

The 0.3m loss was outweighed by 0.5m exceptional gains. Several exceptional items netted-out positively over the year with gains on disposals covering losses on closure and restructuring costs. The group thus generated 0.1m from operations but spent 2.1 settling Intelliplus loans and factoring arrangements, bringing the cash balance down to 10.2m.

The future focus of the Eckoh Group is now very much on the high-growth, high-margin Speech Solutions business. It utilises the same leading edge telecoms platform, one of the biggest in the UK, as the IVR business and there is increasing convergence between the two. Together they offer large corporate clients a unique combined package for high volume call handling.

We expect strong performance in FY05, with Intelliplus contributing a full year and the burgeoning Speech Solutions business seeing additional contracts being signed. In total this should drive revenues to over 81m in this year, and we do not alter our forecasts for a strong pre-tax profit. At just a 5.9 EV/EBITDA multiple the stock is clearly attractive given the growth rates.

nice rise today...looks like we have just about made a BREAK OUT!

must be a first in a long time!

ECK has managed to get on the biggest winners of day board...

trades going through at 8.12p are actually buys not sells

interest T trade for 978,000 shares just
gone through

looks like a delayed purchase at 7.75p

Continuing it's rise now. A leak of news or an overhang clear.

BREAK OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone noticed the constant 250K buys comming through.

moneyman,

yes...someone accummulating?

perhaps its a US Venture Capital Fund stalking us...ala THUS

3 vs 1 and cannot see Wins staying on the offer too long.

3 v 1 sounds good moneyman

certainly better than 1 v 4 which we have seen for what feels like months!


amazing what a difference a day makes

punters were queuing up to sell at 7p yesterday now some are prepared to pay 8.75p to take a position

a 25% difference is huge!!!

trading momentum looks good too

Agree Mack. Not too many people holding sub 8p IMO

with some increased momentum I would like to see 9.5p taken out very quickly, say within the next couple of trading sessions

when do we get the interims?

ECK web site suggests November but no specific date?

closed at 8.25p mid....not a bad result

managed to take out the 40 day moving average with ease which was down to 8.1p

last time ECK came close to the 40 day MA it was the middle of June...it hit the average and promptly dropped back...

next MA to take out is the 50day which is sitting at 8.3p

60 day MA is at 8.4p

mid price hasn't been above the latter two MAs since last March!!!

the next few trading sessions could be interesting with trading volumes increasing and buying momentum picking up.

EVBG's target price at 20p may not be that daft after all!
http://www.research.evosecurities.com/comview.asp?company=369

Think it's a couple of months away so this rise may continue for some time. i am adding now on any pull back.

Talk of the company actually purchasing their own stock for cancellation !! Now if that is confirmed hold onto your hats.

Hi Moneyman, the ECK, broker comment you posted 168 of 182 is very positive IMO and wonder if this has something to do with the SP rising 11.86% on the day.

Interestingly, the broker comment does not seem to mention or include in any of its forecasts about the ITV revenue making contract Eckoh won that commenced on 1st March 04 and whereby since then the SP has consistently been falling to the low of yesterday @ 7.5p. Perhaps also the news today of ITV now owning 75% of GMTV through acquiring SMG's 25% for 31mln and as a result will this give a significant boost to the ITV revenue stream ECK now has from this contract? The remaining 25% of GMTV is owned by The Walt Disney Company and ITV is now obliged to offer Walt Disney the same terms for its stake.

Looks even more positive for ECK

Morning leggins. Yes this was very oversold and no factor of the note had been taken into account. Continuing it's upward momentum today which is surely a good sign.

whats the level 2 looking like Moneyman?

On Aim, Eckoh Technologies, which provides interactive telephony services, jumped 0.88p to 8.25p on bid chatter. Volumes reached 8m shares, or 3.3pc of the company.

http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2004/10/14/cxmktrep14.xml

takeover bid?

just had a look at the last set of Accounts.....

company has 10m cash

tax losses of 100m - say 30m to someone who can use the losses

last EVBG report projecting 1.9m PTP

say 20x on 1.9m = 38m

38m+10m+30m = 78m

shares on issue 271m


value per share - 29p

say a 30% bid discount - 20p per share!!!


could be worth a serious punt!

Go post that on the other board Mack. Get them drooling ;-)

OT watch GON could explode.

which board moneyman?

they must have read it on here Moneyman...the price has just ticked up!

interesting press release...sounds like a nice little earner!

'I'm a telco', says Eckoh 'Get me into here!'
Eckoh Technologies

M2 Presswire
14 October 2004

There is a 'real need' for more collaboration between the telecoms and television industries if interactive TV is to realise its full potential.

So says Paul Parry, managing director of Eckoh Technologies' Communications division, speaking at the 6th Interactive TV Show in Barcelona today. The message comes as Eckoh prepares to deliver interactive voting services and viewing software to ITV's 'I'm a Celebrity Get me out of Here!' next month.

"Telecoms and television projects need to share a vision for the future," he says. "Conceptual collaborations generate robust formats that, in turn, generate real ratings success, enhance revenue streams - and improve broadcast intelligence."

Eckoh will provide premium rate Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) vote lines for 'I'm a Celebrity', including - for the first time - real-time phone, red button, SMS and web statistic viewing using Eckoh's VISTA software.

"Interactivity is central to the 'I'm a Celebrity' format," continues Paul.

"The key is entertaining voting opportunities that enhance rather than interfere with the audience experience - how many other programmes can offer that range of interaction and involvement?"

Both Parry's speech and the 'I'm a Celebrity' deal follow a series of interactive collaborations with ITV following the announcement that Eckoh is preferred supplier for the channel's telephony services. It also comes hard on the heels of the launch of VISTA, Eckoh's own web-based software package that allows broadcasters to track viewer phone, red button and web votes in real time.

"We are on the cusp of a revolution in television - and in telecoms," says Paul. "There is huge potential to capitalise on the great work that has already been done to develop enhanced products and services in both market sectors."

The 6th Annual Interactive TV Conference is one of several industry events that Eckoh has been involved with in the last few weeks, including the Edinburgh TV Festival, the Future of Music TV Conference and the Broadcast Commissioning Conference.

Note to Editors: The 6th Interactive TV Conference took place on 14 October 2004 in Barcelona, Spain.

Eckoh Technologies plc designs, builds, hosts and manages speech solutions for large corporations and organisations using ASR (Advanced Speech Recognition) and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technologies. It is a leading UK service provider and infrastructure owner/operator, and intends to exploit the anticipated growth in demand for Speech Solutions across Europe.

CONTACT: Rachel Conway/Simon Shrouder, TDM Marketing Associates on behalf of Eckoh Technologies plc Tel: +44 (0)1625 575592 Fax: +44 (0)1625 574313 Paul Parry, Eckoh Technologies Tel: +44 (0)8701 100 200

((M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com)).

Nice find Mack

chart is looking so much better than it did on Monday...

amazing what a difference a week makes!!!

punters were queuing to sell at 7p on Monday, now they can't buy the stock at less than 9.15p....

a 31% difference to the positive

onwards and upwards!!!

I'm tempted to top up, but the price keeps moving against me. Never mind, I expect the weekend press will be tipping this one.

looks like 9.375p mid price is a significant closing price...no negative reaction at 9.25p today so hopefully this will now become the new support and the next resistance level is 11.7p...

Investtech from this morning said:-

Has broken through the ceiling of a falling trend channel. This indicates a slower falling rate initially, or the start of a more horizontal development. The stock is approaching the resistance at p 9.25, which may give a negative reaction.

Yep, the chart looks pretty good, 10p should be easily broken by the end of the week as fundamentals support the buying, especially the level of cash to market cap!

OH DEAR!!!

smell something fishy going on here!

just tried to buy 100,000 shares online and was unable to do so....best my broker could offer was 50,000 @ full ask - 8.75p

when I asked for a quote to sell 250,000 shares I was offered 8.625p


think the MMs have dropped the mid to accommodate a 'big boy' who wants to pay well under 9p for a large chunk of ECK

time to accummulate again I think...

100,000 buy at full ask(8.75p) and we get a tick up...suggests the MMs are not overly keen to release a large amount of stock at below 9p

another tick up...on the bid this time!!

tick up again!!!

MMs are having a laugh now!!!

any substance to the carphone warehouse bid rumour? looks like someone took the op to take a few profits.

Bonfield - looks like there may be quite a lot of substance following today's announcement. This is obviously good news but for someone who bought in at 15p, an offer around 11-12p doesn't do me too many favours.

this is great stuff. my avg is 8.5, glad I topped up last week.

Citywire
Edmond Jackson: Eckoh bounces back
Published: 09:23 Fri 22 Oct 2004
By Edmond Jackson, Columnist

With the Aim-listed shares in developer of speech recognition services Eckoh Technologies up 2p, or 25%, to 11p this morning, on news of an approach, albeit early stage, there are some useful pointers generally.

First, the timing of bid approaches for emerging companies tends to be when they are finally moving into useful profit, after shareholders have endured a few bumpy years. This group, capitalised at about 20 million, posted normalised losses of 14.7 million in its year to the end of March 2000 and 11.4 million in 2001/02, then spent the last two years at roughly break-even. Evolution Securities, Eckoh's broker, projects a near 2 million pre-tax profit in 2004/05, for earnings per share of 0.7p.

Second, this is a market leading company - as affirmed by Trinity Mirror in selecting Eckoh (ECK) as its primary partner for interactive services in the UK. A strong position enhances takeover appeal.

Third, smaller company valuations can easily drift and attract an approach. A difficulty for any company below 50 million capitalisation is getting on the radar of institutional investors. Although Herald Investment Trust (a technology specialist) owns 8.2% and UBS Global Asset Management 4.6%, Eckoh's volatile share price may reflect trend chasing by smaller investors. This year it has slumped from 17p to a low of 7.75p. It is worth being aware for value opportunities when companies get marginalized like this, and not to fret if you own the shares and are confident about its prospects. Eckoh is not really my cup of tea, but I recognise a classic chain of events.

A final yet key point and indicator is that approaches tend to leak. Eckoh's jump from its 7.75p low this month, above 9p the other day, now looks a bit cute to be coincidental.

Although Eckoh has yet to define a proper earnings record, its 28 July annual general meeting statement was positive - with the chairman summing up 'a number of large client wins in our speech solutions business, extension of an alliance with BT, expansion of speech-enabled call processing and the prospect of new contract announcements'.

Now is the logical time for another operator to make an approach, although today's announcement makes plain 'discussions are at an early stage and there can be no certainty that an offer will ultimately be made'.

The August Trinity Mirror partnership involves competitions, votelines, games, dating and astrology - with Eckoh credited with 'the capacity to handle the volume of traffic that a group like Trinity Mirror develops'.

In September a train information service was announced with BT, enabling callers to select relevant train stations by speech recognition or touch-tone entry.

I find it speculative to buy on this news, as if the approach cannot agree terms then the shares will fall back - albeit unlikely back to their recent low.

This is good news for Eckoh holders: hang on to your shares.

Current mkt cap 24m, 10m in bank, gives an EV of just 14m. Forecast profits 1.9m. Value must be nearer 40m so any bid would come in around the 20 pence mark.

The first half ended on 30th September. ECK will already know how they have performed, these need the auditors to look at them before their release which is why there is always a couple of months before they are published. ECK like all companies will produce results at least monthly and they will know within reason the performance well before they make any results public so they do not need to wait until December to decide whether the offer is reasonable or not.

I would have thought they would be more than one party interested and others may become interested after the disclosure today in that case a bidding war could erupt.

BT, Carphone Warehouse, Pipex Communications could be the touted ones.

Why all the profit taking was absorbed by the market makers today?

A big buy order had to filled in tranches at 11 pence....most likely given to the MMs this morning at 10.30am which caused the offer price to rise to 11.50 pence from 11.00 pence on nothing much in terms of buys that were coming through. The below buys were being filled in the background hence the jump on the offer this morning :

500,000 T BUY at 11.00 pence
250,000 T BUY at 11.00 pence
250,000 O BUY at 11.00 pence
900,000 BUY at 11.50 pence

The press will be all over this at the weekend. Monday could bring another healthy markup. Very good volume today.

1.25 Million Broker BUY trade has also just come through at 11.40 pence....

Press mention : will appear in tomorrow's Daily Mail Newspaper.

Beyond the Footsie: Friday close
22 October 2004, This Is Money

UK SMALL caps closed higher today, outperforming their blue-chip peers as bid speculation surrounding Eckoh Technologies and Prestbury Holdings boosted sentiment.

The FTSE Small Cap index ended 4.7 points higher at 2,595, while the FTSE 100 index closed 2 points lower at 4,615.4.

Eckoh Technologies remained sharply higher, up 2.13p pence at 11p, after the voice recognition group confirmed it has received an approach from a third party, which may or may not lead to an offer.

It said discussions are at an early stage and there can be no certainty that an offer will ultimately be made.

http://www.thisismoney.com/20041022/nm83841.html

Mention on Shares, Channel 4 Teletext, Page 513.

Eckoh Tech 11p 2.13p +24%

(Bid approaches received)

Press Mention : in today's Guardian Newspaper...no specific mention about the bid though has Eckoh mentioned.

Carphone Warehouse, up 6p at 160p, is thought to have run its slide rule over the business in recent weeks but no bid is believed to be imminent.

As well as its voice recognition business, which does everything from automated cinema listings to train timetables, Eckoh recently bought telecommunications service provider Intelliplus. The business would fit well with Carphone's Opal Telecom, which lies behind its successful Talktalk home phone service.

"As well as its voice recognition business, which does everything from automated cinema listings to train timetables, Eckoh recently bought telecommunications service provider Intelliplus. The business would fit well with Carphone's Opal Telecom, which lies behind its successful Talktalk home phone service".



Is the above paragraph trying to put Carphone Warehouse as one of the companies that might be interested....

Press mention : in Financial Times Newspaper.

2. UK small cap opening - Eckoh Technologies gains on bid talks
AFX UK (Focus), Oct 22, 2004
LONDON (AFX) - Buyers came in for Eckoh Technologies after the voice recognition group confirmed it has received an approach...

3. Eckoh Technologies in talks after possible bid approach from 3rd party
AFX UK (Focus), Oct 22, 2004
LONDON (AFX) - Eckoh Technologies PLC today confirmed it has received an approach from a third party, which may or may...

Press mention : in today's Guardian Newspaper, does actually cover the bid news as well.

Frothy Friday has traders on the run

Market forces

Richard Wray
Saturday October 23, 2004
The Guardian

Traders did not know which bid situation, or phoney bid situation in some cases, to watch yesterday - what with talk that HBOS was bidding for Prudential, approaches being made for Kidde and Eckoh Technologies, another player appearing in the Manchester United saga and stake-building by Icelandair in easyJet.

Elsewhere among the second liners, speech recognition software specialist Eckoh Technologies - what remains of former dotcom darling 365 Corporation - rocketed 23% to 11p after the company said it had received a bid approach.

Carphone Warehouse, up 6p at 160p, is thought to have run its slide rule over the business in recent weeks but no bid is believed to be imminent.

As well as its voice recognition business, which does everything from automated cinema listings to train timetables, Eckoh recently bought telecommunications service provider Intelliplus. The business would fit well with Carphone's Opal Telecom, which lies behind its successful Talktalk home phone service.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1334278,00.html

Press Mention : in today's Daily Telgraph Newspaper.

Mentioned in the TELEGRAPH that the ECK directors reckon this is worth at least 15p even though 11p has been mentioned as a possible bid offer BY Carphone Warehouse.Other parties will be interested they reckon!

Here it is: -

"Carphone listening to Eckoh
(Filed: 23/10/2004)


Carphone Warehouse's golf trip in Dublin teed off to an interesting start yesterday as traders speculated that the mobile phone retailer could be mulling a takeover offer.

The talk was fuelled by speech recognition technology company Eckoh Technologies confirming it had received a bid approach from a third party. Traders have speculated for the past week that Carphone Warehouse is considering making an offer at around 11p a share.

Although Eckoh did not name the predator, traders put two and two together, noting the early departure of Carphone Warehouse finance director Roger Taylor from a company golf event yesterday. Eckoh surged 2.13p to 11p on chatter that it is about to spurn the approach, because its directors believe that it is worth 15p a share. A second bidder is also rumoured to be in the frame. Carphone rose 6 to a three-and-a-half year high of 160p."

Two bidders can only be good news.

I reckon the shares could close 13-14p on Monday. 11p is too low, plus the takeover talk in the paper will increase interest. if carphone warehouse does bid, then BTs move will be intresting given that carphone warehouse now offer a competing service and they have a partnership deal. One bid will force any other serious interested parties to show their hands. 15p is probably the lowest the bid will come in at in my opinion, add another bidder and 18-22p.

Hope your right about 18-22p bit, as got in yesterday at 11p. Are you sure this is going to start a bidding war, rather than just fizzle out ?

Lifted the following from ECKs website

Looks like we can expect a Trading Update within next 5 weeks?

Any predator will probably want to agree a takeover before this date as the results can only be extremely good off the back of recently signed contracts, particularly the ITV and Trinity Mirror deals...

Calendar of Financial Results

2004 Annual General Meeting 28 July 2004

2004/5 Half Year Results November 2004

2003 Annual General Meeting 27th August

2003/4 Half Year Results November 2003

RNS Number:4038E
Eckoh Technologies PLC
25 October 2004


25 October 2004



Eckoh Technologies plc ("Eckoh")


Rule 2.10 Announcement - Relevant Securities in Issue


In accordance with Rule 2.10 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, Eckoh
confirms that, as at close of business on 21 October 2004, it had in issue
271,206,588 ordinary shares of 0.25p pence each ("Eckoh Shares").



The International Securities Identification Number for the Eckoh Shares is
GB0033359141.




This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END

RTTQKBKPABDDQKB

I would personally be disappointed if the company is sold for anything below 20p.
WHY?

On fundamentals alone based on previous estimates/balance sheet I believe current share price should be around 16p but then if you add goodwill and on assumption growth/profit can be improved (based on current expectations by analysts why not) then 20p it not unreasonable.

I realise my analysis is 'back of a matchbox' but I do think ECK management will be selling themselves short by saying 15p is fair price as it does not take into consideration IMHO goodwill,potential,return on capital,p/l credit they currently have etc.

twiddling my thumbs waiting for move north.......its the only way it can go...

obviously the directors are not prepared to sell ECK on the cheap

got to be a positive coming up to the trading update next month

also indicative of how the Directors view the future growth prospects for Speech Recognition division going forward...

would reckon share price will take a dip but rebound strongly once the speculators are out of the way!

Let's hope so - false dawns are always disturbing.

Any views as to wether there was any discissions with PXC.

MS

mickey

now that ECK has your attention have a butchers over the fundamentals!

ECK has the potential to be very big over the next couple of years look at the client base...

stay lucky

p.s.

wouldn't surprise me if Dubens had a look, but he's a tight bastard when it comes to price...just look at the bargain he got when he nicked HER at 2.5p a share LOL

it was very strange that Pipex shares started going up shortly after Eckoh Tech stated that takeover talks had terminated?

news item from ECKOH...interesting read and plenty more opportunities for developing their product mix...

Eckoh Technologies

M2 Presswire
01 November 2004
[What follows is the full text of the news story.]

Broadcast professionals and format developers do not see a threat to the development of interactivity from the Personal Video Recorder (PVR).

So says a new survey produced by Eckoh Technologies hard on the heels of the 6th Interactive TV Show Europe 2004 held in Barcelona last month.

Eckoh conducted an instant poll of over 300 delegates at the Show, which included leading professionals from across the European continent, the USA, and a major delegation from the UK, with 62.7 per cent of delegates stating that they did not think the PVR would be a threat to the growth and development of interactive TV.

While over 27 per cent of delegates said the PVR would, 'or might' threaten, iTV developments, the backing for the PVR must come as a relief for hardware developers in a market that is now starting to develop rapidly.

Paul Parry, managing director of Eckoh Technologies, said: "We asked delegates a number of questions at the Show and the results show some firm opinions.

There has been a long running debate on what effect PVRs will have on advertising revenues and interactive platforms, but it seems by a sizable majority, delegates at the conference in Spain felt digital gains outweighed digital pains in this respect."

The Eckoh poll also revealed that over 68 per cent of delegates feel that not enough is being done to harness the potential of sponsorship for iTV initiatives and over 60 per cent felt that not enough was being done to measure the success of the new medium.

With gambling now high on the agenda in the UK delegates were asked if they thought gaming or gambling services were a threat or an opportunity in the iTV environment. Over 70 per cent (72.8 per cent) saw it as an opportunity; 10.2 per cent as a threat; 6.8 per cent weren't sure and the rest (10.2 per cent) said they 'didn't care'.

Parry says: "The debate on gambling in the UK is likely to run for some time and I think this survey shows that, while the majority of delegates see the development of these type of services as an opportunity, there are realistic concerns about the need to show sensitivity as we move forward."

Eckoh Technologies plc designs, builds, hosts and manages speech solutions for large corporations and organisations using ASR (Advanced Speech Recognition) and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technologies. It is a leading UK service provider and infrastructure owner/operator, and intends to exploit the anticipated growth in demand for Speech Solutions across Europe.

CONTACT: Rachel Conway, TDM Marketing Associates Tel: +44 (0)162 557 5592 Simon Shrouder, Eckoh Technologies plc Tel: +44 (0)162 557 5592 Paul Parry Tel: +44 (0)870 110 0200 Fax: +44 (0)162 557 4313

nice up tick today and its on the back of heavy buying volume

wonder if something has leaked on the trading update front?

or is another takeover bid about to surface?

thought there might be a bit more chatter in here?

shares are up 16% today and still rising!!!

news release from ECK

Eckoh gives music fans a voice

M2 Presswire
12 November 2004

Eckoh Technologies has made the UK Music Hall of Fame the first mass-vote TV series where screaming at the telly really did make a difference.

For fans armed with phones, voting for their favourite rock and pop idols really was as simple as saying their name. The programme's innovative iTV voting platform, which was capable of recognising individual artist names, made easy work of welcoming the likes of The Beatles, U2 and Robbie Williams into the UK Hall of Fame.

Eckoh, which provided the platform to programme makers Endemol, has revealed this is the first UK use of speech recognition for a series of mass-call shows in iTV. It is a step change in interactive voting, as viewers can call one premium rate number, rather then a range of numbers, and a single spoken word can trigger the vote.

Chief Operating Officer for Eckoh Technologies, Nik Philpot, comments: "This is a defining moment in the history of iTV. IVR-based interactivity has already proved hugely popular. ASR platforms like ours add further value and give greater scope for new initiatives."

He adds: "Speech recognition provides a quick and easy one number solution, which really simplifies the on screen proposition.

"The technology recognises all UK accents and works equally effectively for a simple vote as well as more complicated recognition such as name and address capture." Nik says: "Until now, speech recognition has been used predominantly in the corporate sector - however we believe the potential for iTV formats is enormous."

Eckoh Technologies has made a significant investment in adding speech recognition to its call processing platform, and the company can handle over 5,000 simultaneous calls utilising the technology, allowing it to terminate over a million votes in an hour.

Nik says: "This means that TV producers looking to run mass call events can at last seriously consider using speech recognition, as we have the necessary capacity to handle the large spikes of calls that are produced.

"We are the only company in the UK to be able to offer this, and we believe that this significantly differentiates our offering in the competitive media market."

UK Music Hall of Fame enabled viewers to honour the greatest musicians of the last five decades. A choice of 10 influential artists from each decade, chosen by a panel of industry experts, was featured each week. Viewers were then invited to vote for their favourites by calling Eckoh's premium rate number (09011 331133) and simply 'speaking' their votes.

This latest collaboration with Channel Four features VISTA, Eckoh's new web-based software package that allows broadcasters to track viewers 'phone', 'red button' and 'web' votes in real time.

Note to Editors:

Eckoh Technologies plc designs, builds, hosts and manages speech solutions for large corporations and organisations using ASR (Advanced Speech Recognition) and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technologies. It is a leading UK service provider and infrastructure owner/operator, and intends to exploit the anticipated growth in demand for Speech Solutions across Europe.

CONTACT: Rachel Conway/Simon Shrouder, Eckoh Technologies plc Tel: +44 (0)162 557 5592 Fax: +44 (0)162 557 4313 Paul Parry Tel: +44 (0)870 110 0200

((M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com)).

nice reading that last post......wouldnt use it myself of course, i mean, who wants to waste effort voting for some minging slum dweller to become a karaoke artist destined for the bargain bin at smiths...oops,they do do pop idol dont they? and if they dont why not!....going to have to buy more of these...

trading volume gone through roof today relative to last 7 days!

lots of what appear to be sells but the mid price is holding...

very strange!

On the rise again....AT LAST!!!

WE HAVE LIFT OFF!!!

Onwards and upwards..Skyhigh hopefully!

heres hoping...12p+ before Xmas

Why the 16% rise today?

Echo Technologies chart seems to be confirming the SP is now recovering well in a rising trend.

The surge in todays SP may have something to do with a news article in the Observer saying that ITV is to increase its prime time programming content will be much greater involved in more interactive reality TV shows such as "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here" as this is proving to earn more income to ITV from IVR telephone call services. ITV strongly see this will enhance their revenue streams as their profits from advertising have been in a declining trend through the increase in the number of TV channels.

The news report didn't mention that Echo Technologies has the IVR contract with ITV, but the smart money would immediately recognise that ECK's income will be significantly enhanced by the growth in Interactive Reality TV shows from ITV and from the competition generated from other TV channels following suit as viewing ratings largely dictate by how much TV companies can charge for their advertising.

Perhaps this may also lead to a train of thought that a company like ITV may want to aquire ECK as they about the only company with the technology and call capacity to handle the surges and rapid voting results response for the demand in call handling volume created by the hugely popular Interative Reality TV shows.

ECK's future earnings seem to be now far more visable and secure. The all chart indicators MACD & RSI etc. are now supporting a strong rising trend for the forseeable near term as the SP is about to break though previous support levels in 2003 @ 11p and IMO soon test resistance @ 14p fairly soon when there may be some profit taking. However, because it is likely the institutions will now be out to buy in and that it also has recently been rumoured on BB's that Pipex may be interested in a bid for ECK, Peter Dubens is the chairman of PXC also UKB UkBetting who already have a share holding in ECK through the aquisition of an Intelliplus subsidiary.

There may be some truth in this rumour particlarly as Peter Dubens has proven to be very aquisitive and has made some very shrewd investments in GX Networks and Pipex. Perhaps this has also had something to do with why the MM's have been walking down PXC's SP as I think most investors will agree that they cannot fathom any other reason why PXC's has been falling when there is a strong growth in broadband.

However, without any speculation of a bid, if ECK's SP breaks through the next resistance @ 14p then we could see it reaching the next resistance and fair value reached last Nov/Dec 10 of about 20p per share! It may just do this if interims on 13th December show a good set of results and a positive trading statement that I think will useful to be announced with them!

Legins - Thanks for a great post. Let's wait and see what the interims have in store for us...

nice tick up at close...bodes well for next week?

L2 remains strong at 3 v 1

PETER WHO!!!

can anyone out there shed any light on this gentleman and why he has amassed a major interest in ECK????
Eckoh Technologies PLC
07 December 2004

SCHEDULE 10

NOTIFICATION OF MAJOR INTERESTS IN SHARES



1. Name of company


ECKOH TECHNOLOGIES PLC



2. Name of shareholder having a major interest


PETER O'REILLY



3. Please state whether notification indicates that it is in respect of holding
of the shareholder named in 2 above or in respect of a non-beneficial interest
or in the case of an individual holder if it is a holding of that person's
spouse or children under the age of 18


AS IN 2 ABOVE



4. Name of the registered holder(s) and, if more than one holder, the number of
shares held by each of them


N/A



5. Number of shares / amount of stock acquired


NOT STATED



6. Percentage of issued class


NOT STATED



7. Number of shares / amount of stock disposed


NIL



8. Percentage of issued class


N/A



9. Class of security


ORDINARY SHARES OF 0.25 P EACH



10. Date of transaction


7 DECEMBER 2004






11. Date company informed


7 dECEMBER 2004



12. Total holding following this notification


8,155,000



13. Total percentage holding of issued class following this notification


3.006



14. Any additional information


NOTIFICATION RECEIVED FROM DOLMEN STOCKBROKERS



15. Name of contact and telephone number for queries


MRS SAM DRIVER 01442 458 389



16. Name and signature of authorised company official responsible for making
this notification


mrs sam driver

company secretary



Date of notification


7 DECEMBER 2004



The FSA does not give any express or implied warranty as to the accuracy of this
document or material and does not accept any liability for error or omission.
The FSA is not liable for any damages (including, without limitation, damages
for loss of business or loss of profits) arising in contract, tort or otherwise
from the use of or inability to use this document, or any material contained in
it, or from any action or decision taken as a result of using this document or
any such material.

What a crap day.

The problem with this share that gets missed is that speech recognitions is only a small part of their T/O so even though its perfroming great it has got to support other low margin facets of the business. I begin to wonder if it will ever deliver the pot of gold i once thought it would

I agree willfagg. The rainbow is certainly starting to lose a little of its sparkle but I'm hanging in there just the same.

is 2,318,422 shares today a buy or sell ?

anyone any info on what is happing at ECKOH...

they seem to be steady at around 9.5p

Nice news today and a slight markup. More on the cards tomorrow.,

For anyone that missed it!
Eckoh Tech - Re Symphony Telecom
Website Fundamentals Share Price




RNS Number:6553Q
Eckoh Technologies PLC
31 August 2005


For Immediate Release 31 August 2005


Eckoh Technologies plc

("Eckoh" or the "Company")


Eckoh's wholly owned subsidiary Symphony Telecom Holdings plc

to seek a separate listing on AIM

Key Points:

*Flotation of Symphony will create long-term value for Eckoh shareholders
*Eckoh to focus on growing Speech Solutions division
*Eckoh's management team delivering on its ongoing strategic review
*Eckoh to hold a minimum of 64.64 per cent. of the issued ordinary share

capital of Symphony
*Symphony proposing to raise 4.51 million, before expenses with an

expected market capitalisation of 12.75 million

The transaction
Eckoh, one of Europe's leading speech application service providers, is pleased
to announce that Symphony Telecom Holdings plc ("Symphony"), a wholly owned
subsidiary, is to seek a separate listing on AIM. The flotation of Symphony,
which forms part of an ongoing strategic review of Eckoh will create long-term
value for Eckoh's shareholders.

As part of the flotation, Symphony is proposing to carry out a placing of
10,997,561 ordinary shares in order to raise 4.51 million, before expenses. As
a result of the flotation of Symphony, Eckoh is expected to hold a minimum of
64.64 per cent. of the issued ordinary share capital of Symphony on admission,
and accordingly, Symphony will continue to be a subsidiary of Eckoh. Symphony's
financial results will therefore continue to be consolidated into the financial
statements of Eckoh and its subsidiary undertakings (the "Eckoh Group") until
such time as Eckoh's shareholding falls below 50 per cent.

Rationale and reasons for the flotation of Symphony
Since July 2004, Eckoh's directors and its advisor have been evaluating a number
of strategic options for Symphony, in order to create long-term value for Eckoh
and to simplify the Eckoh Group. Following Symphony's acquisition of Anglia
Telecom Centres Limited ("Anglia Telecom") on 29 April 2005, the directors are
of the opinion that the flotation of Symphony will achieve these objectives.

Eckoh's continuing operations
Following the flotation of Symphony, the continuing Eckoh Group will operate two
principal trading divisions - Eckoh Speech Solutions and Eckoh IVR.

Eckoh Speech Solutions
Eckoh is a leading European provider of self-service call centre solutions using
advanced speech recognition and related technologies. The Company has a speech
alliance with BT to provide its corporate customers with hosted speech
recognition services. This contract was recently extended to 2010.

Eckoh's current Speech Solutions' clients include TD Waterhouse, Barclays,
William Hill, UGC and Vue Cinemas, ATOC (Association of Train Operating
Companies), Northern Ireland Electricity and O2.

During the year ended 31 March 2005, Speech Solutions increased turnover by 56
per cent. to 5.0 million compared to the prior financial year (2004 - 3.2
million) and generated a gross profit margin of 53 per cent. (2004 - 53 per
cent.).

Eckoh IVR
Eckoh's IVR division operates in two distinct markets, as follows:

Advertised Services
Eckoh provides a range of consumer entertainment products such as dating,
community chat, competitions and content services, which are available to both
fixed line and mobile users.

During the year ended 31 March 2005, turnover from the advertised services
market was 11.6 million (2004 - 11.6 million) with a gross margin of 43 per
cent. (2004 - 34 per cent.).

Client Services
Eckoh delivers end-to-end IVR solutions including creation, design, development,
implementation, deployment, hosting and reporting to a number of prominent media
owners such as ITV, Trinity Mirror, Channel 4, IPC, EMAP and Northcliffe
Newspapers.

During the year ended 31 March 2005, turnover from the client services market
was 39.0 million (2004 - 22.6 million) and generated a gross profit margin of
9 per cent. (2004 - 10 per cent.).

Strategy of Eckoh's continuing operations
It is intended that during the remainder of the current financial year, the
directors will continue their strategic review of the continuing Eckoh Group,
with a view to maximising long-term value for shareholders by focusing on
Eckoh's growing Speech Solutions business. This ongoing strategy is demonstrated
by the announcement today of the flotation of Symphony and also by the recent
announcement on 1 August 2005, relating to the disposal of Freecom.net Limited
("Freecom"), Eckoh's internet services subsidiary, to eDirectory.co.uk plc.
During this review, Martin Turner will remain as CEO of Eckoh, although it is
intended that he will step down from the executive Board following completion of
the strategic review, which is expected by the end of the current financial
year.

Current trading and prospects
On 7 July 2005 Eckoh announced its preliminary results for the year ended 31
March 2005. The Company reported a 28 per cent. increase in turnover to 79.7
million (2004 - 62.5 million), an increase in pre-tax profits to 0.9 million
(excluding intangible asset amortisation and impairment charges) (2004 pre-tax
loss of 0.3 million) and an increase in year end cash balances to 13.3 million
(2004 - 10.2 million) reflecting strong cash generation from operations during
the financial year. Excluding Symphony and the recently disposed of Freecom
subsidiary, Eckoh generated a pre-tax loss for the year ended 31 March 2005 of
0.4 million (excluding intangible asset amortisation and impairment charges) on
turnover of 55.6 million.

Eckoh is currently trading broadly in line with management's expectations,
although Speech Solutions revenues in the first half of the current financial
year are likely to be adversely impacted by lower call volumes to its cinema
ticketing services. Notwithstanding this trend, based on current trading, the
financial performance of the Eckoh Group for the year ended 31 March 2005,
recent commercial contract successes, including the renewal of the BT contract,
the disposal of Freecom and ongoing discussions with a number of potential new
clients, the Directors are confident of the Company's future prospects.

Circular to shareholders and notice of EGM

On admission of Symphony to trading on AIM, Eckoh will hold approximately 64.64
per cent. of the issued share capital of Symphony. However, in anticipation of a
future transaction which could reduce Eckoh's holding in Symphony to below 50
per cent., Eckoh is to seek the necessary approval of its shareholders at the
extraordinary general meeting of the Company to be held at 10.00a.m. on 21
September 2005. Accordingly, the Company has today posted a circular to
shareholders, incorporating the necessary notice of EGM (the "Circular"). Words
and expressions used in this announcement have the same meaning as those set out
in the Circular.

For further enquiries, please contact:
Eckoh Technologies plc Tel: 08701 100 700
Martin Turner, Chief Executive Officer
Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer
Adam Moloney, Group Finance Director

Evolution Securities Tel: 020 7071 4300
Matt Wood / Bobbie Hilliam

Buchanan Communications Tel: 020 7466 5000
Jeremy Garcia

Notes to Editor:

About Symphony Holdings plc ("Symphony")

Symphony comprises two wholly owned subsidiaries, Symphony Telecom Limited
("Symphony Telecom") and Anglia Telecom Centres Limited ("Anglia Telecom")

Symphony Telecom
Symphony Telecom commenced trading in 1997 to exploit opportunities in the UK
telecoms market and established a fixed line operation in the UK targeting the
SME marketplace through PBX equipment dealers.

In February 1999, Symphony Telecom became part of the Eckoh Group. Symphony
Telecom's products and services now include fixed line, mobile, data products
and services, which are sold to the UK SME market.

Symphony Telecom's turnover for the year ended 31 March 2005 was 21.0 million,
generating pre-tax profits of 1.3 million.

Anglia Telecom
Anglia Telecom was founded in 1984 and specialises in mobile distribution for
the major UK mobile network operators (Orange, Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile and 3)
through a network of over 280 dealers. Anglia Telecom also offers fixed line
services to the UK SME market.

Symphony acquired Anglia Telecom on 29 April 2005. Anglia Telecom's turnover for
the year ended 31 March 2005 was 30.5 million generating pre-tax profits of
1.3 million.





This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

LArge buys at 9.75 yesterday and a fall today!!

Eckoh Technologies PLC
14 December 2005


For Immediate Release 14 December 2005

Eckoh Technologies plc

Additional Listing

Eckoh Technologies plc have issued 321,632 ordinary shares of 0.25p each as
follows:

Pursuant to the Eckoh Technologies plc Share Option Scheme (1999) options over
321,632 ordinary shares of 0.25p each have been exercised, at 9.0p per share.
The Shares rank pari passu with the existing issued shares of the Company.

An application for the new ordinary shares to be admitted to trading on the
Alternative Investment Market has been made with the London Stock Exchange.
Dealings in these shares are expected to commence on Monday 19 December 2005.


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

its moving at last. any gossip?

Now that IS interesting news about the bird register, with bird-flu` on the way surely this must sell- see todays RNS!

2 contract wins in two days. Starting to gain momentum. Has anyone any idea what these contracts are worth

It's been an excellent week for ECK. Anyone have any views on the Symphony deal?

Excellent news of a significant contract. Eckoh and BT win 3-year contract to supply ground-breaking parcel tracking service to Parcelforce Worldwide

It is Legins. Onwards and upwards from here I feel!

I understand eckoh have been tipped in Shares Mag

Anyone know the content?


I bought 80k after results and suprised that they have dropped back slightly.

any views?

Today's Times reports rumour of a bid for Eckoh Tech.

Ah, that'll be the reason for the nice move upwards yesterday then. Monday could be interesting :-)

Hope so, I've been holding these too long!!!...........many break-outs but no sustained run up so far. Cash pile could be attractive to someone.

Independent reports bid to be 50m.

Eckoh Technologies PLC
14 August 2006

Eckoh Technologies plc



STATEMENT REGARDING POSSIBLE OFFER




The Board of Eckoh Technologies plc (the 'Company') notes the recent movement in
the Company's share price, and announces that it has received an approach which
may or may not lead to an offer being made for the entire issued and to be
issued share capital of the Company. The approach is of a preliminary nature and
there is no certainty that it will result in an offer actually being made.

In accordance with Rule 2.10 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, the
Company announces that it has 272,406,475 ordinary shares of 1p each in issue.

Further announcements will be made as appropriate.



Contact



Corporate Synergy Plc: Brian Stockbridge 7448 4400



END

I've been holding for about 3 years! What are your thoughts on the 50m canary9? A good starting point or fully factored?

Queen1,I wish I knew! With 25M of cash, the rest of the business would be valued at 25M, which is on the low side imo, but it is a long time since this share traded above 18p. I thought the sell out of SMY was on the low side considering the price to sales, so what do I know? Either way I come out at a nice profit!

Disappointed to see the sp dip back to today's starting point. An indication perhaps that the market doesn't feel the bid has legs?

So what news on the offer then? The sp seems to be slowly drifting southwards again.

Time to relook at this one. Good news today.

Well up again today as it seems that ECK may still be in the market buying shares.

The buying continues.

Eckoh in tender offer to return up to 7 mln stg of surplus cash
AFX


LONDON (AFX) - Eckoh PLC said it plans a tender offer to return up to 7 mln stg of surplus cash to shareholders through a purchase of up to 60.9 mln shares for between 11.5 pence and 13.5 pence each.

The company explained that it has had surplus funds since the sale of its stake in Symphony Telecom Holdings to Redstone PLC in July, which generated about 11 mln stg of cash.

The provider of outsourced automated solutions is also seeking approval to buy its shares on the market if appropriate following the completion of the tender offer.

Eckoh added that the prospects for the company are very positive as growth continued in the second half of the current year.

newsdesk@afxnews.com

Good news:

Eckoh today announced that it has been re-appointed by William Hill to provide its automated horse racing commentary and results service. The new contract, which runs until 2010, follows Eckoh's successful operation of the service since its launch in 2002.

The service provides callers with real-time access to live horse racing commentary and results across leading UK and Irish racecourses, as well as many greyhound tracks and meetings. The service also allows callers wishing to place a bet to be prioritised and connected directly through to a contact centre agent and then to be re-connected to the automated service.

All calls to the service are hosted on Eckoh's highly resilient self-service platform, which is capable of handling over 650,000 calls per hour and 8,000 calls concurrently. The scalability of Eckoh's platform continues to be of crucial importance to William Hill during busy racing periods, when concurrent numbers of callers to the service can reach several thousand.

Mike Grenham, Head of Sports Information at William Hill, said: 'Over the past five years, Eckoh has worked with us to establish the industry's premier commentary and results service. We're confident that by re-appointing them, we will maintain access not only to their exceptionally robust and reliable capability, but also to their continued service innovation, which will ensure that we continue to enhance the betting experience we provide to our customers.'

Jim Hennigan, Executive Director at Eckoh, added: 'This is one of the most prestigious and sought after contracts in this highly competitive marketplace and we're naturally pleased that William Hill has given Eckoh such a vote of confidence in our performance and selected us to be their partner into the next decade.'

Combustable Investor - 22 Jul'07 - 21:25 - 4727 of 4730


dont read the press myself

GB904150 - 23 Jul'07 - 22:14 - 4728 of 4730


Hi all,

I posted this on another site but thought it might be of interest over here. Would be interested to hear people's views:

IMO the two crucial things in understandings ECK's valuation are the current balance sheet and forward cash flow.

I may be labouring the point on this, but bolstering the balance sheet is:

BALANCE SHEET
7.6m cash
2.0m short term investments
4.7m outstanding loan from Symphony
- 1.5m Dec 07
- 0.5m in June 08
- 1.0m in June 09
- 1.7m in June 10

Current market cap less than 18m. It would be foolish to suggest the SP won't go lower, but it is logical that the SP will be underpinned by its strong balance sheet.

At a certain point cash rich companies with profit making businesses become very attractive for takeovers, whether that be by a competitor, private equity or MBO. That isn't my reason for buying ECK, but it does give some downside protection and ensure the price is more likely to double than to halve.

CASHFLOW
Now this is where me and Oracle disagree

Op profit/(loss) before intangible asset amortisation/exceptionals 574
Op (loss)/profit (310)

Provisions for liabilities and charges (516)

Exceptionals are one off costs that cover restructuring (splitting the business takes considerable time/effort), ICSTIS costs and the actual provision for the fine.

After exceptionals the op loss is 310k but total amortisation+exceptionals amout to 884k. Amortisation will likely be lower next year, ICSTIS fine was less than provisioned for and currently no restructuring is necessary.

Eckoh are cashflow positive after allowing for exceptionals. Those exceptionals in this case produced 11m (Symphony) for the group, the majority of which was returned to shareholders.

So the balance sheet lends support to the current SP at this level to those investors who understand it. My view is that the SP is oversold - it may become more so due to the negative publicity. Unfortunately, the public and a lot of investors don't understand the role of broadcasters; productions co's; telecoms providers in the whole 'scandal'. They tar all with the same brush and consider all of them to be affected by each mention of each ruling.

e.g. The recent BBC announcement having a knock on effect. OFCOMs rulings pounced on by the press.

Shares get overbought and oversold. They are primarily a function of supply and demand. PIs have got itchy feet over Eckoh due to negative press. A falling SP undermines confidence further and causes people to worry there are other problems they aren't aware of.

Things may get worse before they get better - but you can only invest when you feel the upside potential significantly outweighs the downside, which with Eckoh I still believe to be the case.

IMO, the current weakness in ECK's SP can be attributed almost entirely to uncertainty over cashflow in 2008, in light of reduced IVR revenues. I wrote a post over on iii which gave some of my projections for 2008 T/O and what effect that might have on operating profits.

Given that the current businesses are valued at only a few m combined it still would seem sensible for Eckoh to sell off Connection makers asap if only to convince the market of their value and in doing so, realise some value for shareholders.

When a company's SP looks as weak and unsupported as ECK's, investors will invariably sit on the sidelines until they see some strength/recovery before committing a large chunk of cash. Realistically, I think we will need to see CMs being sold, director buying or a statement on trading before we see that support.

That said, at these levels Eckoh is very cheap imho, so not a bad time to accumulate.

Good investing :)

Thanks moneyman

Starting to take a serious look here. Credit Agri have bought in and maybe that overhang was cleared today. Level 2 is strong at 5 v 2

Is this the turn ?

National Rail Enquiries, Eckoh and BT win "Best Use of Technology Partnership" at CCA awards 2007 07/11/07
TrainTracker, the automated telephone enquiry service which uses advanced speech recognition to provide real time travel information to UK rail travellers, is continuing its run of award success. National Rail Enquiries, along with TrainTrackers creators, BT and Eckoh, were awarded Best Use of Technology Partnership in the Customer Contact Associations Excellence Awards ceremony in Edinburgh for the delivery and ongoing enhancement of TrainTracker, which now handles more than 400,000 passenger calls per month.

TrainTracker (0871 200 4950) was first launched in 2005, to provide information about direct train services for travel on the day of the call. In 2006 it was significantly enhanced, allowing callers to access real-time information for any UK mainland train journey up to three months in advance and to plan complex journeys involving multiple changes and transfers to and via other modes of public transport.

TrainTracker is a vital part of the multi-channel service strategy were pursuing to improve passenger access to information, says National Rail Enquiries CEO, Chris Scoggins. It succeeds largely because of its ability to scale to demand; during times of severe rail service disruption TrainTracker has handled up to 50,000 calls a day without faltering. That means our customers can always count on immediate, around the clock access to real-time information, regardless of when they call.

TrainTracker was developed by BT & Eckoh who, since 2003, have worked in a strategic alliance to address the growing demand for speech based self service contact centre solutions in business and government. Since then the alliance has delivered a series of ground breaking services to over 25 leading organisations, generating more than 55 million minutes of self service transactions.

The creation of TrainTracker for National Rail Enquiries is one of our most innovative projects to date, says Eckohs Executive Director Jim Hennigan. Our clients determination to revolutionise the way in which information is disseminated to travellers gave us the freedom to deliver automated speech on a scale never before seen in the UK.

National Rail Enquiries has one of the UKs busiest customer information services receiving more than 23 million telephone enquiries a year; TrainTracker now handles 17% of those enquiries. TrainTracker was also one of the first automated services to feature personalisation. Its built in intelligence allows it to recognise callers and anticipate their requests. If a customer calls in the morning to request departure times from London to Edinburgh, it will remember their request and offer them the return leg of that journey if they call back later that same day. Customers can also save planned journeys and retrieve them on the day of travel to check the real-time running information.

Ian Cunningham, general manager, transport and logistics, BT Global Services UK, commented: TrainTracker is a great example of how the automated information services can work in a way that benefits both the customer and the information provider. Consumers are increasingly happy to self-serve for requests such as transport information where the advice they need is generally not too complex. And for businesses, this can reduce pressure on their call centres and allow employees to focus on customers that need more tailored advice. BT's focus is on understanding and addressing the key issues within the industry and working with customers such as ATOC to develop solutions to address them. The challenge here was to always ensure that customers can access the information they need quickly and easily and TrainTracker does just that.

TrainTracker has enjoyed a run of award success. Shortly after its launch in 2005 it was named Product of the Year in the European Contact Centre Awards and, earlier this year, won the Innovation of the Year award at the Transport Innovations event in Birmingham for its advanced journey planning capability.

Credit Agricole again buying and today it seems as though someone is buying 250K chunks.

This could be interesting:

Eckoh said it has received preliminary approaches from more than one party regarding 'various proposed corporate transactions', adding that certain of these may lead to an offer being made for the company.

The telecoms service provider said discussions are ongoing and at an early stage, highlighting there is no certainty an offer will be made.

Well it's been a quiet 18 months but perhaps things are on the turn:

Speech recognition services specialist Eckoh will post a full year profit after a strong improvement in performance. The firm said it had also clinched a three year contract with Capita Group Plc and Intelecom UK to provide an automated speech service for recording the hours and expenses of up to 35,000 temporary Census staff.

The firm said the good operational progress stated in the interim results of 10th November continued into the second half of the year. For the full year 2008-09, the adjusted loss suffered in 2007-08 of 1.6m has been converted into an adjusted profit that will be in line with market expectations.

This strong improvement in performance is primarily as a result of growth within the Speech Solutions division, an improvement in margins and a reduction of around 25% in administrative expenses following the reorganisation programme instigated at the beginning of 2008. Exceptional costs of around 1m will be reported which largely relate to the settlement of a legal issue with Channel 4, but cash balances in the Group remain in excess of 5m.

The trading statement today was very positive.

As well as the 5.0m in cash ECK are still to receive 2.7m from the sale of Symphony Telecom in June 2009 and June 2010, plus 1,2m from the sale of connections by the end of this year. Which would be 9.0m cash against a market value of only 12.0m.

I was a bit slow off the mark this morning, but hoping these will stay under the rador a bit longer, so I can build a worthwhile holding.

Any more thoughts out there on this one, thinking of getting in at the minute?