By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
June 11, 2007

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Fibre-optics technology isn’t just for the telecom industry anymore, and Ottawa’s photonics companies are capitalizing on that fact with innovative new products for telecom and beyond.

Six-year-old BTI Photonics is one such company. It caters to the boom of high-bandwidth sites like video uploading phenomenon YouTube with its system-level photonics product that dramatically increases the capacity of networks “at the edge.” These networks are used by small business parks and suburbs, and are smaller than the core infrastructures for central offices provided by companies such as Nortel and Cisco.

“With the onslaught of video-streaming on the Internet, sites like Joost and Google are increasing their requirements for video capacity and there are huge demands on bandwidth and service providers’ infrastructure,” says BTI’s chief executive officer Lance Laking. “It’s a challenge for cable and telephone companies to deliver this bandwidth competitively.”

Mr. Laking says the video-streaming trend has changed all requirements for infrastructure, with what is currently available for networks at the edge unable to accommodate the huge bandwidth needed.

However, BTI’s product is able to fit on top of existing systems to increase capacity, thereby saving the huge cost of having to build an entirely new infrastructure.

“Photonics has advanced and is now optimized for lower-cost applications,” adds Mr. Laking.

Meanwhile OZ Optics, which started out in 1985 as a sensors business but focused on telecom during the boom in the ’90s, has returned to its first love. It is developing a photonics-based sensor which helps detect information such as structural strain, temperature and damage, on a distributed basis. Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal.
May 28, 2007

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Satellite services company RAMTelecom Inc. has ended takeover negotiations with Texas-based SkyPort Global Communications Inc., with SkyPort walking away from the deal just a few weeks after appointing a new CEO.

Ottawa-based RAMTelecom last week announced that it has a reached a mutual agreement with SkyPort to “terminate the proposed acquisition of RAMTelecom to SkyPort and, alternatively, strengthen their alliance moving forward.”

“We recognize the common synergies between the two companies and strengthening the existing business-to-business relationship will help us expand our satellite-based business communications services,” said RAMTelecom chief executive Ralph Misener in a statement.

Mr. Misener added that the company has started Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
May 14, 2007 (May 16 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

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It’s no secret that the wireless consumer market is heating up. One needs only to look around to see how Bluetooth headsets for mobile phones have become the accessory for gadget junkies and the average urbanite alike.

Now Kleer Semiconductor – a California-based startup with its roots and research and development firmly planted on Ottawa soil – is looking to break into the market with its high-fidelity wireless headphone technology, although it faces a tough fight against the industry leaders.

Kleer’s product is a chip that allows headphone manufacturers to make wireless headsets which produce crisp, CD-quality audio, use less battery life and are less bulky than other headsets.

The company says its product uses 10 times less power than Continue reading →

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)

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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 →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
March 5, 2007

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Innovation is just “going and going” in the wireless handheld device market, and Jim Balsillie believes Research in Motion is poised to take the lead in growing the industry.

Mr. Balsillie, who will be the opening speaker for the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation’s Technology Showcase on March 7, says there are incredible opportunities in having information and data “on your belt,” with obvious implications for companies like RIM.

“The outlook is incredibly bullish, and it’s undoubtedly Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
Feb. 26, 2007

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At a recent intellectual property trade show for the microelectronics industry, Mosaid’s Michael Kaskowitz told the joke about the guy who calls a repairman to fix a broken radiator. The repairman pushed one button, the rad started working, and he charged the customer $100.

“But all you did was push a button!” said the customer, to which the repairman replied, “Yes, but I knew which button to push.”

Mr. Kaskowitz said the third-party intellectual property (IP) market was similar, with vendors charging clients for expertise in making a product, rather than for a material product.

Third-party IP use is making waves in the tech sector, especially in Continue reading →