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

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.