By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
April 30, 2007

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Don Gibbs, chief executive officer of Tarquin Group, says the industrial technology company picked its name because Tarquin – one of the last kings of Rome – was a builder, and the company is looking to follow in his footsteps by building value bit by bit.

Tarquin Group, which began its life as capital pool company Growthgen Equity Inc., recently began making its mark on the local manufacturing technology scene when it bought two Ottawa companies and announced plans to raise about $5 million through a private placement.

The company bought laser applications technology startup Process Photonics in March, then turned its attentions to food inspection systems maker DIPIX Technologies Inc. earlier this month.

“Process Photonics epitomized the type of company we were looking for, having sold a $400,000 laser drilling machine despite competing against $3-billion companies,” says Mr. Gibbs. “And DIPIX is a market leader … with a customer base that reads like Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
April 23, 2007 (April 25 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

Entrepreneur Suhayya Abu-Hakima successfully raised more than US$4 million in angel financing with her first startup, and is currently aiming to raise $1 million to $2 million with her second company.

She says she took her e-mail risk management server products company AmikaNow! Corp. to Bay Street venture capitalists in 2000. Finding the terms unsuitable for her company, she turned to angel investors for financing and managed to raise about US$4 million, as well as another $575,000 in federal government financing.

“In 2002, we were aggressively pursued by venture capitalists in Boston because compliance was hot at the time, but we were asked to relocate and I said no,” Ms. Abu-Hakima adds.

She has since moved on to start her second company, Amika Mobile, following the successful sale of AmikaNow!’s compliance business to Entrust in 2004.

However, Ms. Abu-Hakima is one of a rare breed of women entrepreneurs who are willing and able to apply for equity financing of any kind, be it angel financing, venture capital, or equity invested by the business owners themselves.

A recent study co-authored by University of Ottawa professors Barbara Orser and Allan Riding shows that Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published on the Ottawa Business Journal website.
Apr. 16, 2007

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TPG Technology Consulting is crying foul against Public Works over a $400-million contract awarded to a larger rival.

The local engineering services company alleged Monday that Public Works deliberately altered its technical evaluation of a competitive bid from Montreal-based CGI Group to favour that company.

“We know there were irregularities in the evaluation and process, and in line with the government’s new accountability act we would like to have some transparency and see the documents on the table,” says TPG’s president Don Powell.

“There’s a lot of money involved here, and we know about several conflicts of interest which have been documented in public information.”

The company is calling for an inquiry into the ethics and process Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published on the Ottawa Business Journal website.
Apr. 9, 2007

Mosaid Technologies Inc. president and chief executive George Cwynar is passing the torch along to senior vice-president of patent licensing John Lindgren after more than 12 years at the helm of the intellectual property licensing company.

Mr. Cwynar said in an interview that the move “makes sense” considering the company’s new focus on its patent licensing business, as Mr. Lindgren has previously worked in patent licensing for 20 years at Texas Instruments. He added that the position now better matches Mr. Lindgren’s skill set.

Mr. Lindgren has served as senior vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Mosaid since November of last year.

“George added value for a business with different moving parts and helped to maximize the value for a diverse company,” said Mr. Lindgren about the switch, adding that the move was made easier since all the businesses that the company is focusing on are already reporting to him.

Mosaid also hinted in today’s announcement that it was considering a sale of its semiconductor intellectual property (IP) product business, which mostly designs and licenses semiconductor IP circuit blocks for fabless semiconductor companies.

Mr. Lindgren explained that the semiconductor IP business was still a “hard” form of intellectual property, and that the company would be concentrating on intellectual property rights and patent licences rather than the sort of technology licensing dealt with in its semiconductor IP segment. Continue reading →