This little company took a hammering . . .



But right now, after the market reaction to the latest interim results, the co is trading with a mkt cap of only 7 million, just above its NAV of 5.5 mil. This figure includes over 4.9 mil of cash and over 0.5 mil of debtors.

The company, an "international developer and provider of mobile device management and synchronisation solutions" has signed a number of contracts in recent months:



o Significant customer and partner sales contracts signed, e.g. IXI Inc,
Netcom, Red Bend, Orange UK, T-Mobile.


I'm posting this for your information and eventual comment - not a recommendation without further research being done, but one I've been watching for several months just out of interest. Any comments?

diydave

I am now

Nice price action and look at the director buying straight after the update. If there is a time to ever buy this stock it appears to be now

Confi, DIY, thanks for these updates. I haven't looked at SYNC for ages, so thanks for bringing it back to my attention. I need to DMOR a bit more, but this looks like a change in fortunes. Even so, it has been a rough ride since the Sun deal was announced. Could still be quite risky...

PDYOR, etc.

The thing that bothers me most is the claim by the CEO that this technology is going to "make mobile phones the primary method of accessing the internet".

I have tried using the internet on my mobile(s) and have come to the conclusion that it is too fiddly, time-consuming and, above all, expensive to be worth the effort.

Is there going to be sufficient take-up of the product? It seems it is going to be packaged with mobile phones in such a way that you get it whether you want it or not (rather like the fact that almost all mobiles these days have built-in cameras). However, SYNC's product is clearly intended to be a Blackberry-killer, aimed at the people who use this kind of stuff. And at $2.40 per user, per annum, there are potentially a lot of dollars involved.

Just playing devil's advocate/thinking out loud. Opinions welcomed....

i think its about push-mail

i.e like blackberry's the mail will go striaght to your index box u don't have to look for it. Blackberry and I think Nokia have the tech for this but keep it in-house. Presumaby SYNC will not. The directors seem to like it although i almost followed the FD in at 42p!! a few years back

plenty more shares around now. Presumably waiting for some sun deals

i like it when directors b uy immediately after an announcement. They either think the mkt does not understand the significance of the statement. Or there is more going on and have only small window to buy before some more news. That's the theory, let's see if it works in practice

Well, the directors have to get in at some point!

Good explanation of how it works. In addition to the Sun deal they have a nice little earner in Africa. At the moment it's not big money, but will help with the housekeeping and could offer good proof of concept to other customers.

And are results not due shortly? That could be interesting....

Nice, very nice deal. Begin to look tasty

Tasty indeed, Confidant!

Synchronica PLC - Synch signs global deal
RNS Number:3794N
Synchronica PLC
06 February 2008


6 February 2008
Synchronica plc
('Synchronica' or 'the Company')

Synchronica signs global distribution deal with Brightstar for Mobile Gateway

Agreement with global mobile solutions leader enables Synchronica to reach over
50 countries across six continents

Synchronica plc, the mobile email and synchronisation company, is pleased to
announce a worldwide agreement with Brightstar Corp, a global leader in
distribution and supply chain solutions for the mobile industry, for the
distribution of its award-winning mobile push email and synchronization
technology, Mobile Gateway.

As part of the agreement, the two companies will create a dedicated sales and
marketing team that will draw on Brightstar's vast customer base to promote
Mobile Gateway in over 50 countries across six continents. Initial marketing
undertaken by the teams has generated positive responses from potential
customers. Over 15 opportunities with mobile operators are now in active
discussion and / or under trial. The Company has hired a dedicated sales
representative in Miami, where Brightstar is headquartered, to handle this
alliance and ensure its success.

Brightstar, with estimated annual gross revenues of $4.8 billion in 2007, serves
many of the world's leading mobile network operators. In addition, Brightstar
has a strong presence in the fast growing emerging markets in Asia Pacific,
Africa, India and throughout Latin America. The company also serves customers
throughout North America, Europe and Australia. Brightstar delivered one of
every 20 mobile devices in the world in 2007.

Commenting on the agreement, Synchronica CEO Carsten Brinkschulte said: 'We are
very excited to team with Brightstar. This is an outstanding validation of
Mobile Gateway which provides an easy-to-use and affordable way for accessing
email on mass-market mobile phones. Brightstar's marketing flair, as well as its
far-reaching and established supply chain extends our global reach, in
particular in the booming emerging markets of Latin America and Asia, where we
see a tremendous opportunity for growth.'

Brightstar vice president of data centric and enterprise Michael Tate, said: 'We
are delighted to partner with Synchronica, as Mobile Gateway is an outstanding
product. As a global leader we seek value added solutions for the global
wireless market and Mobile Gateway is best in class. We see a huge opportunity
for push email and synchronisation solutions and Mobile Gateway is sure to
generate tremendous interest across the world.'

One question I have: is there any competition & if so, who?
Quite difficult to research this as it is a bit of a niche market.

"Brightstar delivered one of every 20 mobile devices in the world in 2007."

That is one huge market.

Time for a recap, I think. Current deals add up to:

1.) Middle East and Africa: "licence fee of US$ 400,000 for
200,000 user licences for Synchronica Mobile Gateway 3.0, which offers
subscribers push e-mail and contacts, calendar, task and notes synchronisation,
as well as 100,000 licences for Synchronica Mobile Manager Backup & Restore
product, which provides back-up and restore capability. Synchronica will also
receive US$ 100,000 for professional services, customisation and implementation."

This is the small-beer contract, but obviously it has the potential to grow. The deal currently offers SYNC access to some 32 million users.

2.) "acceptance from Sun Microsystems Inc, the leading global supplier of network computing solutions, servers, storage, software and services, for the software components of its Mobile Gateway product agreed in the contract signed in August.

Synchronica delivered the software components to Sun on schedule in November
2007. Having accepted the software, Sun will pay, in three equal instalments in
February, July and October 2008, an initial licence fee of US $1.8m for the
first major version of the software and where applicable further licence fees on
a per user per annum basis." The Sun deal offers SYNC access to a pool of some 240 million mailbox users.

3.) This week's deal: "Brightstar Corp, a global leader in distribution and supply chain solutions for the mobile industry, for the distribution of its award-winning mobile push email and synchronization technology, Mobile Gateway.... Brightstar, with estimated annual gross revenues of $4.8 billion in 2007, serves
many of the world's leading mobile network operators. In addition, Brightstar
has a strong presence in the fast growing emerging markets in Asia Pacific,
Africa, India and throughout Latin America. The company also serves customers
throughout North America, Europe and Australia. Brightstar delivered one of
every 20 mobile devices in the world in 2007." That is obviously another huge pool of users.

The signs are encouraging...

DYOR, etc!

Hi Harry! Sorry, I didn't see you there initially!

There must be other companies offering rival products, but Brightstar claims that Mobile Gateway is best in class. And I'd expect SYNC to have to share the market with at least one or two competitors as that's in the nature of things.

I'm afraid those are all the pearls of wisdom I have to offer. Am tempted to have a punt, though, but will have to think about how to raise the readies...

Quite difficult to evaluate this as, if I understand correctly, this technology is not really targeted at Europe or the U.S. as most of us have P.C.s or laptops which we use to access our e-mail. This is really for mobile phones where the user does not have access to conventional e-mail.
It's amazing to think that Microsoft or Sun haven't developed this themselves.
Thanks for the above summary, soult. Have put it on my watch list.

Harry, I think that Mobile Gateway is actually conceived as a Blackberry-killer. Businesspeople on the go will use it to read their email (using Push technology - Confidant talked about this on the previous page) and synchronise their calender between their PC and their mobile device. It's not just targeted at the Third World - see the articles previously posted or check the company's own website for full stories regarding the marketing in Europe and America.

Yes, I have read it:
" Support for all phones: Even very basic phones can receive email - via
an SMS notification showing header and body text in a text message;
Mobile signup: Users can register from their handset via WAP, removing
the need to sign up via a PC in countries where PC penetration is low;
New business backends: Support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and Sun
Communications Suite 5.0;
Easy billing integration: New billing API for integration with billing
systems (post- and pre-paid)."
But, in Europe, the mass mobile phone market is not the business user, but the teen/twenties user who bangs out texts & voice at a phenominal rate.
However, I suppose it deosn't really matter though, 'cos if the OEM's/Operators are going to install the software as standard, SYNC will get the royalties anyway.

Harry, I wonder whether SYNC actually gets the royalites per user who registers to use the service - that is to say, the software will be installed on the hardware as standard, but SYNC gets paid when the user registers (paying a subscription, presumably, or getting it as part of a package), effectively unlocking the software at that point.

Don't take my word for it either way - I might drop SYNC a line next week and try to clear this up.

Have just read on CNN that RIM (Research In Motion) has 12 million users in the U.S. (they had a mention because of an outage of their e-mail service for a couple of hours). This seems a very small number which is why, imo, SYNC are looking to expand the service to developing nations.

hi guys

probably for all phones -- high end to start with I guess. iphone doesn't have push mail and apple does not have the technology. Nokia I think bought it somewhere but does not really publicise it. Sync presumably then is effectively open source -- it does not matter what phone you have you can put Sync's software onto it. That's how I read it -- from hattycat's note 3 above

Presumably then plenty of iphone owners to sign up via internet?
No idea of details of royalties etc but will have to find out

More director buying

see comment on company website re latest iphone move.

Now not sure which way this will fall for this co. Obviulsy Sync has been big beneficiary of no access via iphone to Microsoft Exchange. -- hence the trading update was v good -- as we had guessed earlier.

So presumably that means sales wiill disappear. However the iphone allowing software developers in for its phone may mean SYNC access to iphone via the front door ?

Still more meaningful is recent brightstar link up. The fact that iphone mentioned that it wants software developers to develop stuff for its phone means SYNC is currently filling that gap

For lower profile phone makers therefore may be very benficial just to sign up with SYNC immediately

Given these developments and questions like
1. If Sync was that good why did not Apple just buy it
2. Will those Apple subscribers to SYNC keep subscribing or go to the new lesser Apple offering
3. What is the timing we can expect for first contracts??
4, What was the reasoning behind recent institutional interest in share placing?

So too many questions for me to get further involved at moment but wait and see. Had been hoping SYNc would sign a deal with Apple but just dreamong as usual

looks to have done a big deal today, finally dipped a toe in today after having it on my radar a long time.

a few stale bulls will be leaving but it looks like it has turned a corner now.

Synchronica buys Axis Mobile, raises new funding ,placing at 3p