Tech stocks keep investors guessing

eVentures - which currently runs just two businesses in New Zealand - has been questioned by the NZSE after its shares rose 6 cents to 29 cents since the start of trade on Thursday.

The company says it knows of no reason for the jump although points to recent announcements by epartners and Softbank relating to their international funds and the announcement of the wind down of eVentures Australia.

eVentures Australia, which is a joint venture between News Corp and Softbank, announced this week it was winding operations although its successful email marketing venture MessageMedia will continue.

eVentures New Zealand runs the MessageMedia service here.

The New Zealand company has also told the stock exchange that its board of directors is currently reviewing the investment strategy of the company and a number of strategic and restructuring initiatives are being considered.

In March the company said it had looked at over 30 proposals and had five in technical due diligence.

Meanwhile troubled communications software company CommSoft has lost about half its value in the past few weeks to currently trade around 9 cents. The price is well off last year's listing price of A$1.10.

The fall follows last Friday's resignation of high-profile CommSoft director, Trevor Kennedy, a founder of OzEmail. Mr Kennedy owned around 5% of the company when it listed.

CommSoft has been struggling to convince the market it can cope with debtor woes which pushed the company to a loss of more than A$6 million in the half-year ended December.

It recently appointed former gen-i chairman, Mark Lunt, as group managing director.

New Zealand tech company Strathmore, which holds 16% of CommSoft, has previously stated that it hoped new management can reverse the company's share price slump.

However Strathmore may also be pleased that it sold down a share at the IPO last year. That realisation helped it to a half-year profit of $4.8 million for the six months ended January.

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