Written by: Zack Miller | January 31, 2008
ClickSoftware (Nasdaq: CKSW) announced disappointing quarterly earnings yesterday. The company’s EPS and revenues were below what we and the rest of the Street were expecting. We think expectations got a
little bit ahead of themselves. While we’re disappointed, the company is continuing to perform and still expects 20-25% revenue growth in 2008. The backlog was strong, over $25 million at the end of 2007.
We think the miss was due to slipped closings of a couple deals that we believe the company ultimately will close in subsequent quarters. At current valuations and subtracting the cash, the company is trading almost at trailing revenues. Check out why we like the firm’s workforce management and service optimization.
We’re sticking with CKSW and would be buyers here.
Written by: Aaron Katsman | January 28, 2008
Aaron Katsman
www.IsraelNewsletter.com
In what is a pure act of Chutzpa, former Comverse Technology CEO(CMVT.pk) Kobi Alexander is suing his former company for $72 million for unpaid severance and other un-fulfilled contractual obligations. The suit claims that the company “has also refused to honor its other contractual obligations to Alexander, including, but not limited to his right to severance pay, indemnification and advancement of his legal fees, bonuses and fringe benefits .”
So Mr. Alexander, shareholders are supposed to support your lifestyle in Namibia, as you do whatever possible to pay off local authorities to help delay your extradition back to the US. Alexander was charged by US authorities in the option back-dating scandal, and proceeded to skip the country and hide out in Namibia.
He has maintained his innocence, blaming poor advice from his financial and legal advisers. Of course for the cynics among us, why run away to Namibia if you are in the clear? If you have a good defense, why not use it. Why become a fugitive?
If for some reason he actually were to win this case, he will have succeeded in milking Comverse shareholders once again. This better not happen.
Disclosure: Author’s has a position in CMVT.pk and is long the stock as of 1/28/08.
Please see our Disclaimer HERE.
NEW! Introducing Israel Opportunity Investor, our monthly subscription-only newsletter. Stay ahead of the game and make smart decisions in Israel stocks. Go here to learn more.
Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.
Written by: Aaron Katsman | January 28, 2008
Aaron Katsman
www.IsraelNewsletter.com
While we still are awaiting a pick-up of M&A with publicly traded Israeli stocks, another hot Israeli start-up was acquired today. eBay’s(EBAY) subsidiary PayPal, the leader in on-line payments, has agreed to pay $169 million for FraudSciences, a company which develops fraud detection and protection products.
According to the press release, “Fraud Sciences’risk tools and analytics are expected to enhance eBay and PayPal’s proprietary fraud management systems and accelerate the development of next generation fraud detection tools.
The acquisition of Fraud Sciences fits into eBay’s recently announced plans to significantly improve trust and safety across its sites in 2008. “Integrating Fraud Sciences’risk tools with PayPal’s sophisticated fraud management system should allow us to be even more effective in protecting eBay and PayPal’s hundreds of millions of customers around the world,” said Scott Thompson, President of PayPal.
This acquisition highlights Israel’s technologicalsuperiority in the security and fraud sector, and that big global firms are turning to Israel to provide technological solutions, instead of developing the solutions internally. Israeli firms should continue to benefit from this move to R&D outsourcing, and as soon as we get some stability in the public markets, I would expect to see some very big deals concerning Israeli companies.
Disclosure: Author’s has no position in any stock mentioned as of 1/28/08.
Please see our Disclaimer HERE.
NEW! Introducing Israel Opportunity Investor, our monthly subscription-only newsletter. Stay ahead of the game and make smart decisions in Israel stocks. Go here to learn more.
Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.
Written by: Zack Miller | January 28, 2008
Choosing to continue to try and rein in inflation, the Bank of Israel left interest rates unchanged for February at 4.25%.
According to Marketwatch, the Bank of Israel’s target inflation rate is 1% to 3%, while the country’s consumer-price index rose
3.4% for 2007. The CPI added 0.6% in December.
Weaker growth prospects in the United States also may help restrain inflation in Israel, by reducing Israel’s exports and domestic demand and by moderating the rise in prices of imports, including energy and food, according to the central bank, reported the same Marketwatch article.
The dollar continues its downward slide versus the shekel and has dropped 5% more since the last time the Bank met in late December. We’ll see the strong shekel start to really hurt earnings for those Israeli companies listed on US exchanges that do R&D in Israel. We’re hearing this already from CEOs and investors should keep an eye out for this trend during earnings season.
NEW! Introducing Israel Opportunity Investor, our monthly subscription-only newsletter. Stay ahead of the game and make smart decisions in Israel stocks. Go here to learn more.
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