Written by: Zack Miller | July 1, 2008
This interview was published in its entirety for subscribers of our premium newsletter, Israel Opportunity Investor, the only investment newsletter focused on uncovering opportunities in Israeli stocks traded in the U.S.
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Can you tell us a bit about AudioCodes?
Nachum Falek, CFO: AudioCodes (Nasdaq: AUDC) is a telecommunications firm focused entirely on Voice-over Internet Protocol, or VoIP. We create hardware and systems to connect and secure networks. We are leaders in feature richness and voice quality and have been in VoIP for 15 years, an extremely long time for this nascent market. We are a pureplayer in VoIP unlike some of our competitors who still maintain legacy businesses.
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Written by: Zack Miller | February 14, 2008
Using a similar framework to O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 definition, let’s first define what Mobile 2.0 is all about. Once we define what is is, we can discuss applications for social network over mobile.
Mobile 1.0 vs. Mobile 2.0
ringtones, ringbacks <—> Vringo (video caller ID)
reading <—> publishing/participating
pull <–> push
connected to PC enivonment <–> connected to my web environment
411 <–> Google411
GPS <–> Google Maps
p2p <–> p2community
Dodgeball <–> facebook, android
casual gaming <–> networked gaming
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Written by: Zack Miller | February 10, 2008
Not wanting to be remiss in giving an update on Israel Opportunity Investor portfolio member, Alvarion (Nasdaq: ALVR), we want to chime in with our two cents. We’ve been positive on the stock and have seen our thesis — that of further global uptake of fixed mobile services — came to fruition and even surpass what we were expecting. This is a critical lesson for investors: while stocks may perform financially as planned, how they trade is another matter.
We’ve seen the stock essentially pulverized by fear of weak global markets. Telecom spending typically gets pushed out during turbulent times.
That said, Alvarion’s not seeing that yet. In fact, while we continue to think the stock has a lot going for it, we are sensing a rising sense of negativity on the stock, driving it down off of what was ultimately a good reporting season and not too bad guidance in the headwinds of a weak dollar.
An article ran in SmallCapInvestor last week after Alvarion announced earnings and looked at how analysts were sizing up ALVR’s results. The way I read the results and how Susquehanna addressed them?
- Alvarion had a Q4 ahead of estimates and saw WiMAX revenues up over 50% from 2006.
- Higher operating expenses are certainly a negative for the company but the company attributed this to a weak US dollar.
What many investors and even analysts don’t appreciate is that the dollar has fallen like a rock versus the Israeli shekel. Israeli firms like Alvarion that trade in the US and are priced in dollars but conduct R&D/production in Israel are all feeling a squeeze. We’ve heard this from numerous Israeli CEOs. When the time comes that the dollar ultimately strengthens against the shekel, we’ll see a natural reversal in these numbers. My point here is that when numbers like this are clearly attributed to fluctuations in the dollar, earnings gains/misses are not organic changes in the business model.
This same analyst report that SmallCapInvestor disparaged actually comes out pretty positive on Alvarion. Susquehanna likes the Q4 surprise, likes the WiMAX opportunity, and Alvarion’s stable of international customers. Long term investors in Israeli stocks trading in the US will find it somewhat funny to think that a particularly strong shekel is weighing on earnings.
Disclosure: Author’s fund holds a position in ALVR and is long the stock as of 2/8/08.
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.
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Written by: Aaron Katsman | December 18, 2007
Aaron Katsman
www.IsraelNewsletter.com
Verint Systems(VRNT.pk) surged today on much heavier than normal volume. The stocked moved up over 16%, on no news. What was interesting was that at a little bit after noon ET, a huge block of over 400,000 shares was purchased. That’s more volume in one trade than we have seen over many of the last trading days combined. It seems to me that an institution wanted in. We have seen JP Morgan upgrade the stock recently. Most institutional investors have been unable to buy the stock due to the aforementioned volume issues, but it seems that one of them bit the bullet, and couldn’t resist buying the stock at these levels, even though it meant raising the price.
Disclosure: Author’s fund holds a position in VRNT.pk and is long the stock as of 12/18/07.
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.
