FAST - Fast Search & Transfer

[Zoonic]

DnBNOR nedgraderer FAST

[Bushwhacker]

Opticom er i ferd med å ødelegge Fast

 

– Det som skjer i Opticom er i ferd med å rasere selskapet, sier investor Torstein Tvenge.

 

Artikkel av: Stian Jacobsen (30.11.05 14:40)

 

Kjendisinvestor Torstein Tvenge sier til TV 2 Nettavisen at Orkla og investeringsdirektør Anders Berggren bidrar til å rasere teknologiselskapet Fast Search & Transfer med sin opptreden i Opticom.

 

– At Anders Berggren som normalt er en meget dyktig og sindig mann, kan gjøre seg til en våpendrager for en meget spekulativ og kortsiktig investor som Spetalen er tragisk, sier Tvenge til TV 2 Nettavisen.

 

– Fast er et internasjonalt IT-lokomotiv og et norsk it-eventyr. Det som skjer i Opticom er i ferd med å rasere selskapet, avslutter Tvenge.

[Zoonic]

First om Fast idag

 

Key issues: FAST

 

 

Buying OPC shares - the share price drop justified

The share price of FAST lost NOK 1.30 after the transaction was disclosed yesterday, and is further down today. While the value loss due to the implicit overpricing equals NOK 0.30 per share, the remaining drop can be attributed to questionable corporate governance.

 

The situation is a lose-lose for FAST

Regardless of the outcome of the battle for OPC control, we believe FAST is losing. FAST management have deliberately taken side in the dispute going on. On the one hand, a change in management will have a major impact on FAST’s ability to execute and to become a large international software vendor. On the other, with the existing management, question is asked regarding corporate governance issues and the dilution of shareholders over time.

 

Yesterday’s transaction increases the embedded risk

Our valuation of FAST depended on years of high performance, doubling of market shares and increased margins. The value span ranges from NOK 8 per share to NOK 120 per share. With the recent happenings, we believe there is more risk embedded with the performance going forward. We are currently evaluating our recommendation and share price target.

 

 

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[Dellamorte]

OPPKJØPSRYKTER

 

Bransjeinnsider snakker om oppkjøpsrykter i FAST. Her er de heteste

ryktene:

 

- Yahoo! wanted to acquire FAST Search. (Yahoo! owns 3721.com, Inktomi, and

Stata Labs search technologies, along with the former FAST Search Web index

AllTheWeb.com.)

- Unknown investors from the Pacific Rim want to get control of FAST Search

in order to accelerate its growth outside of North America and Europe

- An American buy-out firm seeks to gain control of FAST Search, boost

marketing, and accelerate the company's growth.

- FAST Search's management is engineering the deal to increase the firm's

reputation as the "Google of Scandinavia."

 

Samme bransjeinnsider kan fortelle at FAST har fått en kontrakt med Dow

Jones. Les alt her

[Zoonic]

- F I R S T L O O K -

 

 

Title: Another mSearch contract

 

 

 

Company: FAST Search & Transfer

 

Recommendation: Under review

 

Share price: NOK 25

 

Target: NOK Under review

 

 

 

 

 

FAST today announced that Turkcell has signed an agreement with FAST to deploy FAST mSearch for its mobile services. With 27.6 million subscribers, Turkcell is the leading provider of mobile communications services in Turkey, and among Europe`s top ten biggest GSM operators in terms of subscribers. Turkcell also provides GSM services internationally.

 

The agreement with Turkcell is based on software license, maintenance fees and professional services. However, we expect this contract to initially be of smaller size, but as data traffic over wireless access networks increase, search will become more important, and one could see an expansion of the initial contract to comprise better performance and larger data quantities.

 

Conclusion: We believe internet provided on smaller mobile devices will be one of the key drivers for search technology going forward. As the displays are smaller, and the bandwidth poorer, users will need to access the information they are looking for faster. Search is a key enabler in this regard. FAST has already an agreement with Vodafone and 3 Italia for their mSearch SDA. As we move over to richer media content, search will become even more important.

 

We expect we will see FAST closing several agreements during December as 4Q is a seasonally strong quarter.

 

We will await the outcome of the turmoil going on in OPC before taking any further stance on the share, but we are more positive biased after the MQU and the OPC challenger's press conference. The operational momentum in the company is as strong as ever.

 

 

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[Bushwhacker]

FAST - UPDATE - FAST OFFERS TO ACQUIRE OPTICOM

12.12.2005 14:18

 

Oslo - December 12, 2005 - Fast Search &

Transfer (FAST) will put forward an offer for

all outstanding shares in Opticom ASA (OPC) with

settlement in FAST shares. The transaction will

be valued based on market value of OPC`s

shareholding in FAST and OPC`s cash balance. In

addition existing shareholders in OPC will

receive shares in Thin Film Electronics (TFE)

reflecting their current shareholding in OPC.

 

The offer will be subject to a number of

customary conditions. The offer will be launched

as soon as possible. The offer will be

contingent on shareholder approval at an

Extraordinary General Meeting in FAST.

 

An update on the offer will be provided before

the market opens on Tuesday, December 13, 2005.

[RoRu]

Det er KUN et tidsspørsmål før det kommer et bud på FAST. De vokser rett og slett for raskt og inngår for mange store og lukrative ordrer til at de virkelig store innen den bransjen velger å sitte å se på også i tiden fremover.

 

Det vil overraske meg om ikke FAST er utsatt for flere enn 1 bud i løpet av 2006.

 

Og prisen tror jeg blir høy.

 

(Har ikke FAST-aksjer selv. Ennå...)

[Bushwhacker]

Keith: Mulig emisjon i Fast

 

Opticom-topp Robert Keith snakker om mulig aksjesalg til strategisk investor.

 

Artikkel av: Stian Jacobsen (20.12.05 11:27)

 

Aftenposten.no skriver at Fast Search & Transfer vurderer å legge egne aksjer ut for salg etter sammenslåingen med Opticom. Fast får en beholdning på om lag 23 prosent egne aksjer, og norsk lov sier at Fast ikke kan eie mer enn ti prosent av seg selv. Dermed må 47,4 millioner aksjer enten selges, eller slettes.

 

– Det er ikke definitivt at det blir en emisjon, vi undersøker fortsatt grundig om vi skal slette aksjene eller plassere dem. Vi kan muligens søke en strategisk partner eller strategisk investor, sier Opticom-topp Robert Keith til Aftenposten.no.

[Bushwhacker]

FAST - FAST SIGNS DEAL WITH UOL

21.12.2005 09:23

 

Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) today announced

that Universo OnLine (UOL), the leading portal

in Latin America, has signed an agreement with

FAST to deploy FAST ESP.

 

Headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, UOL (

http://www.uol.com.br ) is the undisputed leader

on the Brazilian Internet in areas such as real-

time news delivery, multimedia, music, chat and

internet access services. According to Ibope

NetRatings UOL has 60% reach in the Brazilian

market (http://sobre.uol.com.br/index en.jhtm).

Launched in April 1996, UOL has over 1.4 million

paying subscribers and provides Internet access

in more than 3,000 localities in Brazil and also

offers local connection numbers in more than

14,000 cities around the world.

 

The agreement with UOL is based on software

license, maintenance fees, and professional

services.

[Zoonic]

Key Issues: FAST

 

 

Time to focus on execution again!

 

Note that only 73% of the OPC shareholders have pre-accepted the bid. Please see appendix for conditions

 

 

The effect for existing FAST shareholders should in total be a minor dilution and a loss of NOK 320m.

 

We cannot see any reason why the company now should sell the shares to get cash, or an any industrial ownership. Management should focus on execution

 

Our concerns regarding corporate governance are somewhat reduced, but most importantly is the retained focus of management to secure the growth story

 

CHANGE IN RECOMMENDATION/ESTIMATES/TARGET 12m share price target to NOK 33 from NOK 34

 

We reiterate our BUY recommendation

 

INVESTMENT CASE

 

The rapidly increasing amount of digital information generated and stored creates an information environment where search could become as common to enterprises as on the Internet. We believe today’s search technology could more than outpace current database technology. We expect FAST to capitalize on this this mega-trend.

 

 

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[Bushwhacker]

FAST - FAST SIGNS CONTRACT WITH GETTY IMAGES

22.12.2005 09:28

 

Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) today announced

that Getty Images, the world`s leading creator

and distributor of visual content, has signed an

agreement with FAST to deploy FAST AdVisor.

 

Getty Images (NYSE: GYI) is the world`s leading

creator and distributor of visual content and

the first place creative professionals turn to

discover, purchase and manage imagery. The

company`s award-winning photographers and

imagery help customers create inspiring work

which appears every day in the world`s most

influential newspapers, magazines, advertising

campaigns, films, television programs, books and

Web sites. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington

and serving customers in more than 100

countries, Getty Images believes in the power of

imagery to drive positive change, educate,

inform, and entertain. More information

regarding Getty Images can be found at

http://gettyimages.com.

 

The agreement with Getty Images is based on

software license, maintenance fees, and

professional services.

[Zoonic]

- F I R S T L O O K -

 

Title: eCommerce agreement with Getty Images

 

 

Company: FAST Search & Transfer

 

Recommendation: Buy

 

Share price: NOK 23.80

 

Target: NOK 33.00

 

FAST today announced that Getty Images, the world`s leading creator and distributor of visual content, has signed an agreement with FAST to deploy FAST AdVisor. Getty Images (NYSE: GYI) is the world’s leading creator and distributor of visual content and the first place creative professionals turn to discover, purchase and manage imagery. The company’s award-winning photographers and imagery help customers create inspiring work which appears every day in the world’s most influential newspapers, magazines, advertising campaigns, films, television programs, books and Web sites. The agreement with Getty Images is based on software license, maintenance fees, and professional services.

 

Conclusion: As Getty Images is a multimedia provider, we believe their eCommerce solution will also be enriched with sophisticated multimedia search capabilities. We see search in rich media as a very important driver in the search market, and the contract with Getty Images underlines that FAST technologically provides a sound solution. Again, we expect more contracts to emerge in the next two weeks. In previous quarter, FAST announced a total of 13 contracts, including press releases. So far this quarter, we count 11 in total.

 

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[Bushwhacker]

FAST - FAST SIGNS CONTRACT WITH CITYSEARCH

23.12.2005 09:29

 

Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) today announced

that Citysearch, an operating business of

IAC/InterActiveCorp has signed an agreement to

deploy FAST AdVisor to power its search and

navigation on www.citysearch.com.

 

Citysearch is a leading local search service,

providing the most up-to-date information to

over ten million people a month on businesses,

from restaurants and retail, to travel and

professional services. Citysearch empowers users

to make informed decisions about where to spend

their time and money by delivering more than two

million editorial and user reviews and ratings

of local businesses. Through its unique Local

Pay For Performance (PFP) service, Citysearch

enables businesses to capture their most

relevant customers online while paying only for

the leads received. Citysearch is part of IAC

Local and Media Services, an operating business

of IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI).

 

The agreement with Citysearch is based on

software license, maintenance fees and

professional services.

[hallu]

Fast har hanket inn 88 nye kontrakter i Q4 og kursen er lavere nå enn ved inngang av Q4.

3 oktober i 2005 år sto kursen i 25,50. 88 kontrakter og 1 kvartal senere. er kursen 24,3.

 

 

 

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Det beste kvartalet for Fast – noensinne

 

Fast-sjef John M. Lervik har signert 88 avtaler fra oktober frem til jul. Nå snakker han om rekordkvartal.

 

 

Ifølge VG har Fast-sjef John M. Lervik signert 88 avtaler fra oktober til jul. Søkeplattformen ESP takler nesten 80 språk og finner stadig nye områder for søk. – Det ligger an til å bli det beste kvartalet vårt noen gang, sier Lervik.

Fast-sjefens mest spennende prosjekt for tiden finnes i Japan, hvor de har inngått mobiltelefonavtale med giganten Softbank. – I Japan er kapasiteten på mobiler 13 megabit pr. sekund, avslutter Lervik

 

Link til VG artikkkel.

 

 

 

 

 

[hallu]

Spår Fast-rally

 

First Securities venter seg et nyttårsrally i Fast-aksjen.

 

 

Artikkel av: Odd Steinar Parr (2.1.06 15:00)

 

 

First Securities skriver i sin ukerapport at de venter seg "et lite nyttårsrally" i Fast-aksjen. Dette etter at uroen i Opticom ser ut til å ha lagt seg.

- Aksjen har vist en svak utvikling mot sammenlignbare selskaper over den siste tiden. Det operasjonelle momentet er sterkere enn noen gang, og vi tror noe av årsaken til at aksjen har vært svak er alt oppstyret knyttet til aksjonærstriden i Fast/Opticom, går det ifølge Reuters frem av rapporten.

 

Link

[Bushwhacker]

FAST - FAST SIGNS CONTRACT WITH MCGRAW-HILL CONSTRUCTION

03.01.2006 08:25

 

Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) today announced

that McGraw-Hill Construction has signed an

agreement to deploy FAST technology to power

searches in its Construction Network.

 

McGraw-Hill Construction, a division of The

McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) a leading

global information services provider, connects

people, projects and products across the design

and construction industry. From project and

product information to industry news, trends and

forecasts, the Company provides industry players

the tools, resources and applications that help

them save time, money, and energy, especially

through the McGraw-Hill Construction Network.

Backed by the power of Engineering News-Record

(ENR), Dodge, Sweets, Architectural Record,

MyHouse, and 12 regional publications, McGraw-

Hill Construction, serves more than one million

customers within the $4 trillion global

construction community.

 

The agreement with McGraw-Hill Construction is

based on software license, maintenance fees and

professional services.

[Bushwhacker]

FAST - FAST SIGNS OEM AGREEMENT WITH ARCHIVAS

04.01.2006 08:35

 

Fast Search & Transfer ASA (FAST) today

announced that Archivas, Inc., a provider of

digital archiving solutions, signed an OEM

agreement to deploy FAST InStream across its

portfolio of products and services.

 

Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Archivas

software lets companies store, protect and

manage fixed-content data in an open and

operationally efficient online environment, in

order to meet both internal governance, as well

as external compliance regulations. The Archivas

Cluster (ArC) simultaneously addresses the need

for immediate access to archive data while

lowering the total cost of ownership. It is

aimed at enterprise customers who require fast

and reliable access to archived data, and the

assurance that the data is always authentic and

safe.

 

The FAST agreement with Archivas is based on

software license, maintenance fees, and

professional services

[berntoo]

Noen som vet hva som skjer i Fast? Noen meldinger, siden den stiger så kraftig? Eller er det bare at Opticomsjauen har gitt seg og det nå kommer en korreksjon. Kan Fast ha brutt motstanden rundt 25 for godt nå?

[RiskyTrader]

Sånn..

 

Da er vel roen noenlunde tilbake i Fast etter et par turbulente måneder med litt rå maktkamp og Opticom-oppgang.

 

Vi spenner FAST-beltene og gearer med derivater :D

 

 

Lykke til !

[Bushwhacker]

Kontraktene ruller inn for Fast for tiden...

 

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FAST - FAST SIGNS CONTRACT WITH THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY

09.01.2006 08:28

 

Fast Search & Transfer ASA (FAST) today

announced that The New York Times Company, a

leading media company, signed an agreement to

deploy FAST Enterprise Search Platform

technology (FAST ESP) across its organization

and public Web sites.

 

The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) publishes

The New York Times, The International Herald

Tribune, The Boston Globe, and 15 other daily

newspapers; nine network-affiliated television

stations and two New York radio stations; and

has approximately 35 Web sites, including

NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com. In 2005,

the Company was ranked No. 1 in the publishing

industry in Fortune`s list of `America`s Most

Admired Companies,` for the fifth consecutive

year. Over the years, The Times Company`s

properties have been awarded many journalism

awards, including a total of 113 Pulitzer

Prizes, more than any other news organization.

The New York Times Company had revenues of $3.3

billion in 2004, and is listed on the New York

Stock Exchange under the symbol NYT.

 

The FAST agreement with The New York Times

Company is based on software license,

maintenance fees, and professional services.

[Zoonic]

Key Issues: FAST

 

No news might be good news

 

Note that only 73% of the OPC shareholders have pre-accepted the bid. Please see appendix for conditions

 

The share price has lagged peers lately. As the operational momentum has remained strong, we believe the cause has been the turmoil amongst shareholders in FAST/OPC

 

Operationally, we expect to see a record-strong quarterly report, and there might be upside to our 4Q estimates

 

Valuation is not particularly cheap on current levels, but we underline the potential in a couple of large customer contracts

 

 

 

CHANGE IN RECOMMENDATION/ESTIMATES/TARGET

No changes

 

INVESTMENT CASE

 

The rapidly increasing amount of digital information generated and stored creates an information environment where search will become essential. FAST has a strong technology platform and an execution focused management capable of capitalizing on this this mega-trend. We expect the company to show a steady high growth and improved

 

 

first/09/01/06

 

=====================

 

Mer fra First:

 

- F I R S T L O O K -

 

 

Title: Contract with NY Times

 

 

Company: FAST Search & Transfer

 

Recommendation: Buy

 

Share price: NOK 26

 

Target: NOK 33

 

 

FAST today announced that The New York Times Company, a leading media company, signed an agreement to deploy FAST ESP across its organization and public Web sites.

 

The New York Times Company comprises The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, and 15 other daily newspapers; nine network-affiliated television stations and two New York radio stations; and has approximately 35 Web sites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com. The agreement is based on software license, maintenance fees, and professional services.

 

Conclusion: The contract comprises both search in internal archive systems and front end search on NY Times many web sites. The contract is a re-win from Endeca, and was won in competition with another archive system, Merlin. This contract is a good example of how FAST can leverage on the NextPage acquisition, and FAST now has now a strong footprint in the publishing segment.

 

We believe the size of this contract is rather large, but the implementation of this system will take place over a longer period of time, and it will not affect our short term estimates. However, the strong order income in the previous quarter and into this quarter underlines the operational momenmtum in the company and increases our confidence in the estimates.

 

 

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[Zoonic]

DnBNOR OPPDATERER FAST

 

http://www16.dnb.no/markets/rapporter/pdf/afast%20090106.pdf

[Bushwhacker]

- Kjøp Fast

 

Fast stiger til all time high i dag, men kan gå enda mer, tror meglerhus

 

Artikkel av: Øystein Byberg (9.1.06 14:43)

 

Norse Securities hever kursmålet på Fast Search and Transfer-aksjen til 34 kroner, skriver iMarkedet.

 

Meglerhuset slår fast at Fast-ledelsen har bekreftet at de fleste eksisterende kundene har forlenget kontrakter, og at dette gjør inntektene lettere å forutse.

 

Ifølge Norse er Fast attraktivt priset til tross for høye multipler og stor risiko.

 

Fast stiger 3,1 prosent til 27 kroner. Dagens høyeste notering var 27,30 kroner, som også er ny all time high.

[Zoonic]

- F I R S T L O O K -

 

 

Title: Little merit in AU press thrust

 

 

 

Company: FAST Search & Transfer

 

Recommendation: Buy

 

Share price: NOK 26.80

 

Target: NOK 33.00

 

Autonomy, FAST's major competitor, today announced offering of a secure transition route for FAST customers and partners who may be concerned about FAST's "publicly-known accounting questions, software security issues and corporate concerns". Autonomy has compiled a "lifeline replacement technology" offering of Autonomy's Ultraseek product line.

 

The press release focuses on news articles covering the OPC/FAST turmoil in addition to the security issues on the National Instruments implementation. It is important to recognize that the product line offerings that Autonomy now offers FAST customers, Ultraseek, is low-end freeware from the Verity acquisition. According to FAST, National Instruments will be a reference customer on the FAST Forward conference, and the security breach was caused by National Instruments and not FAST. The corporate governance issues we have thoroughly commented on previously.

 

Conclusion: We see little news in the press release, but notice that media has increasingly become an competitive arena. Such a move was not unexpected given that FAST already on 14 November launched their "Safe passage" for Verity customers. The CEO of FAST, Dr. Lervik, also rather contemptuous expressed his opinion on his two competitors merging. Both companies expresses a head-to-head win rate of above 90%, and the truth is probably somewhere in between. Autonomy will neither comment nor name drop customers.

 

Increased competition could lead to a price pressure going forward. However, none of the players expresses any concerns regarding price pressure yet, and the market growth could leave enough for all. Operationally, FAST seems to be the one with the strongest operational momentum with 14 contract announcements this quarter. Autonomy seldom announces contract wins, but the two companies experiences a different growth story; FAST is also growing +50% y-o-y while Autonomy experiences a growth rate in the low 20s. We reiterate our 12m share price target of NOK 33 and Buy recommendation.

 

 

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[Megler1]

FAST (og IGE ) er nå ute av min portefølje, men jeg har økt min eksponering i DNO, BLO,TOM og beholdt SFM.