NL Short Takes

Bell Canada to become income trustCanada’s largest incumbent telephone company announced on October 11 that it will eliminate the BCE Inc. holding firm and turn Bell Canada into an income trust. In announcing the conversion, Michael Sabia, CEO of BCE, said the move is about focusing on the core communications business of the company and an attempt to "return to our roots and to stay there, to intensify our focus on Bell and to finish the job of repositioning the company as a pure communications business, providing integrated services across the breadth of our platforms to all of our customers." The decision to convert to an income trust is also about minimizing the significant cash tax hit of about $800 million the company would have to take in 2008. Before the decision was made to convert to an income trust Sabia said the trust structure had to meet to crucial tests: "Within a trust could we have the flexibility to invest in growth so that we could continue to build the business and at the same time have the resources to fund the higher level of distributions normally associated with a trust?" Converting to a trust structure meets both of the objectives, he added. But Sabia also noted that the income trust structure allows the company to capitalize on the financial flexibility gained through the cost-cutting and operating efficiency measures Bell has been implementing over the past couple of years. There are potential problems with an income trust structure, however. With a large chunk of earnings being returned to investors in the form of distributions, there could be less money for the capital expenditures required to build the business. Bell Canada currently spends between 16% and 17% of revenue on capex, but it is unclear at this point whether this level will remain the same, increase or decrease as a result of the income trust conversion. Sabia noted that an update on guidance, including capex intensity, will be provided to the investment community in December, but he doesn’t anticipate a change in capital expenditures going forward. "We do not see the announcement that we made today as something that changes our thinking with respect to our ongoing capex program," he said. SPM chooses IP network from SaskTelSaskTel has implemented its Centrex IP at the head office of Saskatchewan Property Management (SPM), located in Century Plaza, a renewed downtown Regina office space. The incumbent telco designed and installed a complete data network and ensured it met network performance requirements. "SaskTel has successfully delivered an end-to-end solution including the infrastructure, business consulting, data network services and a robust voice application," said SPM’s assistant deputy minister and CIO Phil Lambert in a news release. "They host service and provide ongoing upgrades and enhancements, which reduces the need for internal customer support and keeps the service at the cutting edge of technology." The deployment, which is the first commercial launch of Centrex IP into the Government of Saskatchewan, is based on Nortel Network’s Communication Server 2000. YPG, MTS complete Manitoba directory business transactionAs part of a transaction with MTS Allstream Inc., Yellow Pages Group (YPG) will now publish the 11 different residential Yellow Pages directories across Manitoba, which were previously issued by MTS. YPG will also operate the www.mtsyellowpages.com directory advertising portal. The acquisition of the MTS assets means YPG now publishes more than 340 directories with a total circulation of 30 million copies and is the number one publisher in Canada’s top 10 largest markets. Open Text announces ECM strategyThe completed acquisition of Hummingbird Ltd. solidifies Open Text Corp.’s position as the world’s largest independent provider of enterprise content management (ECM) software, according to the Waterloo ON-based company. "We are now positioned for long-term success," said Open Text’s president and CEO John Shackleton in a press release. "With the market consolidating, customers want an independent alternative. Our strategy is to be the ECM market’s go-to independent leader." Although Open Text has announced that it will release details of its integration plan in the near future, it has already announced that Hummingbird’s RedDot Solutions will be maintained as part of a stand-alone Web content management strategy. The two companies have been combined under the Open Text name. M5T, Global IP Sound team up on VoIP solutionsSherbrooke QC-based M5T, a wholly owned entity of Media5 Corp., has partnered with Global IP Sound of San Francisco to develop a portable secure VoIP SIP client software development kit. "GIPS and M5T both have a very successful history in developing best-in-class technologies for the VoIP marketplace, and this is an opportunity to take it to a new level that will benefit the customers we serve," said Alan Waltrip, VP of eastern region sales at GIPS, in a press release. The software development kit will be based on open standards and will intetegrate the GIPS VoiceEngine, which handles voice components for VoIP. And M5T’s SIP-based secure software solutions will be used to develop the set of routines, protocols and tools to be incorporated in the solution. Next generation IP surveillance solutions from March NetworksInternet Protocol-based digital video surveillance solutions provider March Networks Corp. has launched R5 VOS (Video Operating System), the next evolution of its R5 Visual Intelligence software. March also launched the new 6316 Powered IP Encoder to allow customers to integrate analog cameras into an IP-video infrastructure. "The launch of our R5 VOS software and IP Encoder represents an important migration solution for enterprises and keeps pace with the latest market innovations," said Tony Jenkins, March’s VP of global marketing, in a news release. "March Networks can now address the specific needs of customers who are looking to migrate efficiently into an IP-video surveillance and application environment, where they can leverage true convergence between physical and IT security systems." Sand expands to Asian marketWestmount QC-headquartered Sand Technology Inc., a provider of enterprise information management solutions, has announced that DBDSynergy will resell the Sand/DNA product suite in Japan, as well as work closely with Sand’s major distributor in Korea. The Sand/DNA Access solution is designed to help organizations handle the challenges of data explosion, and provides data storage in typically less than 15% of the space required by an equivalent standard data warehouse. "This expansion of the demand for Sand’s products confirms that data growth is an important challenge for businesses worldwide," said Jerry Shattner, Sand’s executive VP, in a press release. Sand/DNA Access complements Oracle, IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQL Server

NL Short Takes

News | October 13, 2006

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