Forum Archive Index - April 2000

[frank fernandez <frank.fernandez@xtra.co.nz>]

Hi all,
Kiwi eCommerce holding company, Qixel has set itself an ambitious target
- to rapidly become a leading Business-to-Business (B2B) eCommerce
developer in the Pacific Rim and Asia.  

So you haven't heard of Qixel? Well, you mightn't know it but you have!
Last November, ADV principal shareholders Eric Watson, Evan Christian
and Nick Gordon (who between them own just under half of ADV) decided to
pool their shares in a new company called ePac. Since then, ePac has
been renamed 'The Qixel Capital Group', set itself up in Concord,
Massachusetts, USA with the expressed aim of being a regional local
partner in assisting US internet companies take advantage of the
explosion in business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce in the Asia/Pacific
markets. 

In marketing itself, Qixel has been promoting its
expertise/partnerships/associations in the following areas:-

eWeb: Businesses focused on web application development (Partner
companies: Advantage Group, Wang Internet Integration and Auldhouse)
 
eTech: Businesses focused on e-enabling technologies and electronic
markets such as transaction applications (e4Retail & International
Payment)

eMarket: Businesses or "market makers" focused on establishing and
facilitating vertical and horizontal electronic marketplaces
(Associations: Flying Pig, Venice and eBustech).

So why am I interested in Qixel?  For the simple reason that in order to
successfully pursue international e-commerce opportunities on a
competitive basis, Qixel will need to have a huge capital base. Watson,
Christian and Gordon are very capable, astute businessmen who know only
too well the risks and uncertainty of tech investments. It would thus be
very doubtful if the trio would be investing too much of their own money
into such ventures when the opportunity of using investor funding is a
more attractive and appealing proposition.

So what then? Well, floating or listing Qixel is obviously a sensible
way to obtain the required funding as well as potentially achieving huge
capital gain for the principal shareholders. Indeed Qixel has indicated
that it will consider an IPO on NASDAQ sometime in the future - although
gaining a listing on NASDAQ may not be as simple as it seems. Only
recently, Chris Jones of Telemedia intimated that he was only seeking a
NASDAQ listing in two years time as such listings are normally obtained
when revenues have reached the US$40m to $50m level. 

While I could be wrong, somehow I believe that Qixel still has some way
to go before it can achieve this target. However if it wishes to
accelerate this process, there is another route - through listing on the
ASX - which is having discussions with NASDAQ on co-listing
arrangements. 

There has not been any news on Qixel in the New Zealand media except for
a line in this month's edition of "Unlimited" which said that ePac is
soon to be renamed Qixel.  However, this has already been done in the US
but has not been indicated to "Unlimited" or officially announced in New
Zealand yet - which begs the question.....why?  Investors can draw their
own conclusions but I strongly believe that we will be hearing more of
Qixel in the weeks to come. 

Cheers, 

Frank Fernandez

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sharechat.co.nz/          New Zealand's home for market investors
To remove yourself from this list, please us the form at
http://www.sharechat.co.nz/forum.html.