Emblaze Ltd. (LSE: BLZ) subsidiary Orca Interactive Ltd. (AIM: ORCA) announced on Friday, “The board can confirm it has received preliminary approaches expressing an interest in the company. The board would like to highlight that negotiations are at an early stage and that there can be no certainty that any formal approach for the company will be forthcoming.”
Last Thursday, media reports claimed that Comverse Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: CMVT) was interested in acquiring Orca. Many industry sources were skeptical that a company the size of Comverse would be interested in Orca, a company that has yet to prove itself or demonstrate that its products add value.
Investors have apparently concluded that Orca is about to undergo a change in ownership, and its share rose 33% on Friday in unusually heavy trading to ₤0.20, after remaining stuck at ₤0.15 for a month. The current share price gives a company value of $14 million, just 20% of its value at the October 2004 IPO.
Orca is developing IPTV applications software, a sector that has yet to fulfill its promise. The company’s financial results therefore resemble those of a start-up. It posted a net loss of $3.4 million on $914,000 revenue in the first half of 2006, and had $7.4 million in cash at the end of last June.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on January 14, 2007
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