Equinix buys Switch and Data

On October 21, Equinix (EQIX) reported solid 3Q 2009 results (see Company’s P/R and Seeking Alpha conference call transcripts), but the real news was the announcement of the acquisition of Switch and Data (SDXC), a move which gives a completely different shape to the industry.

First, let’s go through some of the metrics we usually check every quarter to analyze the Company’s performance:

· Equinix raised 2009 annual revenue guidance to $877.5 million (midpoint) and adjusted EBITDA guidance to $397.5 million (midpoint)

· Cash gross margins for the quarter were 64%, down from 65% the previous quarter but up from 62% the same quarter last year, and despite incurring approximately $5.4 million of expansion costs in the quarter. In the U.S. cash gross margins were 68%

· Both revenues and EBITDA increased 7% over the previous quarter

· Net cabinet additions were 400 in the USA, 200 in Europe, and 100 in Asia Pacific

· 281 10 Gig ports were reported on the Equinix Exchange (26 additions in the quarter), with traffic reaching a peak of 365 gigabit per second, a 7.4% increase over the previous quarter

· A steady increase in MRR (monthly recurring revenue) per cabinet, with US reaching $ 1,910 (a 0.9% Q/Q increase), Europe now at $ 1,116 (10.6% Q/Q increase) and Asia at $ 1,437 (4.9% Q/Q increase). As usual, we point out that results in foreign currency (reported in US$) may be impacted by currency fluctuations. On average, a 4% quarter-over-quarter increase, with the global MRR per cabinet now at about $ 1,552

· MRR and cabinet churn rate was 2.3% and 2.2% respectively, consistent with guidance expectations for the quarter

· Pricing still strong throughout all markets, with new services (interconnection, etc.) being driven in the existing cabinets

· booked half of the cabinets that recently churned in the Silicon Valley, replacing (our speculation) the revenue lost, as these contracts were made at a much higher price (former wholesale contracts)

In a quick visual way, here is what Equinix achieved in what has been one of the most challenging economic environments:

As we noticed at the beginning of this article, the real news was Equinix decision to acquire its strongest competitor in the US market, Switch and Data, a real changer for the industry. Although Equinix did not disclose much information about returns, post-integration strategies or synergies achievable, most of the conference call Q&A section and comments in the press afterwards were centered on the deal.

As a small joke, we may now say that we got an answer to our previous, rhetorical question “Equinix vs. Switch and Data: Which Is the Better Network Neutral Colocation Company?”. What both Companies told us with this move is: the combination of the two.

Our previous Seeking Alpha article probably remains useful for a quick comparison between the two Companies, and may now be read with a different approach.

We can also add some answers to our article: Equinix: Planning Further Expansion? - the Company’s strategy wasn’t obviously limited to just adding new centers, but more ambitious.

Also as a side note, we previously mentioned Equinix and Switch and Data together also in our Seeking Alpha article Insatiable Demand for Colocation Services, which might now be a useful read to examine one of the most interesting synergies achievable by the combination of the Companies, as both are very active in the financial vertical, especially in the New York area.

And lastly thanks to Switch and Data that mentioned a couple of our articles in its “In the news” section.

A quick list of reasons why this deal makes a lot of sense:

• Given the structure of the deal, Equinix is spending only $ 137 million in cash to acquire some strategic data centers (including markets where it would have been quite challenging to build a presence both in terms of time and money) that give a much needed expansion capacity, especially in some locations (Switch and Data occupancy was about 60%)
  
• The new, combined Company becomes overnight a 1 billion player – and given the experience that the Equinix management team has shown also in very difficult times, they will certainly be able to leverage this strength in the capital market
  
• A lot of synergies are possible between the Companies, with savings on the SG&A side and a greater potential for the sales force (including offering a direct presence in Europe and Asia, while Switch and Data had so far just a reseller agreement for Europe)
  
• Equinix succeeded in excluding a competitor from doing the same move (it will now virtually be impossible for a foreign competitor to acquire a decent footprint on the US, or for a domestic Company to consider the acquisition of Switch and Data as a way to get a listing)
  

A look at the two combined Companies:

As underlined in this presentation sheet, Equinix succeeded in getting an immediate presence in some key markets – Toronto (Canada), Seattle, Atlanta, Miami and Denver. We wouldn’t anyway, be surprised if the Company decided, in the longer term, to get rid of some less strategic presences, the same way they did for Honolulu after the Pihana acquisition in the past.

Here is a different approach to the combination of the Companies, from an interconnection point of view (both pictures are taken from the Equinix presentation of the SDXC acquisition):

Additional presences in the US – more color

Equinix needed to expand in Dallas, where the Company has actually missed fulfilling customers potential, and Switch and Data brings inventory in the market, as well as a few others.

It is interesting, however, to notice that Equinix will not stop any planned expansion plan (from the conference call, Seeking Alpha transcripts):

• Ilya Grozovsky - Morgan Joseph
• With the acquisition of Switch and Data, will any of your internal domestic expansion plans get shelved or anything like that? Or does everything continue as planned?
• Stephen M. Smith - CEO
  
• So the specific answer to your question is currently we have no plans to stop any of the announcements that we've made.

Switch and Data owns data centers in the Manhattan area, while Equinix data centers in the New York metro market are all in New Jersey, with just a peering presence at 111 8^th Avenue. This will also mean a strategic advantage for the new combined Company.

The new SDXC North Bergen (New Jersey) data center, as mentioned before, will also strengthen the presence of Equinix in the financial vertical, with SAVVIS and TelX remaining as the main competitors in what is a very important sector - it may be worth adding, in this contest, that, as underlined by Tier 1 Research, pricing is very favorable for data centers Companies with a top quality offering (emphasis added):

• ·July 7, 2009
  
• Tier 1 Research - Telx joins Equinix in winning ISE consortium RFP for low-latency interconnection
• -by Dan Golding
• – the normal interconnection halo effect where cabinet prices may be bumped 20% in highly interconnected carrier-neutral facilities is enhanced significantly when financial low latency interconnection comes into play. T1R believes premiums of 50% or more may be common.

As a further example of the great sense that this acquisition may mean to Equinix, we take the Swith and Data PAIX Palo Alto data center.

This location is the best interconnected exchange in the West Coast, being historically the first commercial one, where the Equinix founders, Al Avery and Jay Adelson, started working a few years ago.

Many network providers from Asia, like Singapore Telecom, do connect here for exchanging traffic with other networks or content providers (you may follow this link to have a look at SingTel public and private peering locations, log in required). Others from Europe, like France Telecom and Telecom Italia, do the same. These networks did also chose Equinix L.A. as a point of presence in California, but are not available in the Equinix Silicon Valley data centers. All of a sudden, Equinix will be able to offer these networks in its mix, without the hard work to convince them to bring their presence into its S. Jose data center.

The same, but for Switch and Data customers, may be said for the Washington DC metro area, where the Equinix Ashburn data center is the best interconnected center in the East Coast.

While the problems of the integration of the two Companies will certainly represent a challenge, the history of Equinix management and their experience with mergers (both domestically and abroad) is a great guarantee that all problems will be properly addressed, and hopefully the potential of this combination will overshadow any road bump that might emerge.

Finally, a few words about Jim Cramer’s comments about Equinix, in his October 23 show.

Here is an abstract of his opinion:

• For Thursday’s “Sell Block” segment, Cramer told viewers they need to sell any data center-related stock while the getting’s still good.
• Cramer said he listened to Intel Corporation’s (INTC) conference call, where the company management said its seeing strong sales for its new family of Nehalem DP processors for serves, which allows companies to replace up to eight of their older servers with just one new Nehalem server. “If companies can now reduce their footprint by 87% that will translate to huge losses for the data centers,” Cramer said. He mentioned that Equinix is about to have eight times more space than normal, and its doubtful the company could lease the extra space given the current troubles in the commercial real estate market. An even worse scenario could happen where companies start hosting their own serves internally, rather than outsource to data centers which are expensive. Cramer said he picked Equinix specifically because of the Switch & Data acquisition. He said the move probably won’t pay off because the future for this business is about to get a lot weaker. He told viewers with an upgrade cycle coming, look for earnings to disappoint at Equinix. “Get out of the data-center stocks,” Cramer said. “I see an industry that’s about to be brought low by new technology, so I think you should sell, sell, sell.”

Luckily, most analysts in the sector have already noticed how poor his analysis of the sector was, so a few quotes will do the job:

· Jim Cramer? C’mon Man! · By- Bob Landström

· Jim Cramer cited the recent Intel earnings call content about the Nehalem processor yielding an 8:1 advantage in server power. Somehow, Cramer did some math to convince himself that every eight servers out there will soon turn into one,… ergo, there is eightfold less demand for data center real estate. If Jim Cramer had any understanding of technology… or even the technology sector in general, he’d have jerked himself back into reality with the recollection of Moore’s Law. Moore’s Law has been in play for decades, is in play today, and will be in play tomorrow. Throughout this time, the demand for data centers has grown to grossly outstrip supply. Is this really the extent of the gray matter behind Cramer’s financial recommendations?

· Perhaps even more fundamental than the point about Moore’s Law is the basic economics underlying the costs of mission critical facilities. Unless Cramer thinks that risk management is also a stale concept, we must acknowledge the demand for secure and highly available computing facilities into the distant future. While in better economic times, there may have been some enterprises with the resources to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in data center construction and operations, but in the current economic times the natural alternative is to buy colocation services. This is one of the fundamental drivers in today’s demand for colocation real estate, and the justification for colocation provider expansions and M&A activity.

· We can excuse the fact that Cramer isn’t able to correctly pronounce Nehalem (or Equinix for that matter). However, if he had spent any time at all in the technology sector this sort of tongue slip would be just about impossible. Furthermore, even if data center space is becoming an unwanted commodity as Cramer led his audience to believe, the shallowness of his analysis is further evidenced by the missed observation that by acquiring Switch and Data, Equinix not only elevates its status as a premier colocation services provider but also strategically defends its turf from any global competitor (by blocking other global providers from gaining a strong US presence).

Tier 1 Research also wrote an interesting comment to Cramer’s opinion:

· T1R Insight: Cramer blows it with call on Equinix

· Cramer's main argument is that there is an Outside Context Problem – some change in the business or operating conditions that no one (except he) can see coming. In this case, he claims that Intel's more powerful processors – up to eight times more powerful than previous processors – will run Equinix and other firms like it out of business. That's because Cramer believes that Equinix customers will simply be able to swap out eight existing servers for one new, Intel-powered server. Well, here's why he's wrong:

• Cramer stated that firms like Equinix are square-footage based. That's wrong – the datacenter's primary metric is power. While Intel's new chips are power efficient, one of its new chips does not take the same or less power than one of its old chips – it takes more. They are more efficient on a per-processer-cycle basis, but we're talking about a much smaller savings, not 8:1. Datacenters are power-limited, not space limited, and they sell based on power.
• Cramer doesn't understand the real issue is virtualization for server consolidation, not processors – processors are simply a supporting technology. And, in the case of enterprise datacenters, there is some significant server consolidation, which has extended the life of those facilities. But colocated servers tend to be far more utilized, so that consolidation of underutilized servers is a lesser factor than in the enterprise.
• Users are demanding more processor power. The folks at Intel are not fools – they aren't putting themselves out of business by allowing customers to purchase one unit instead of eight. Instead, they are doing what they have always done, which is to increase the power of their existing processors in order to meet user demand. That user demand for processor power (and storage and network) has been increasing steadily for years on the desktop and in the server. Cramer's mistake is to think processing demand is static rather than increasing – snapshots in time are dangerous.
• The processors that Cramer is referring to are the very highest end and most expensive bits of silicon that Intel has on offer – they are not general-purpose or mass-market processors. There will be no 'step-function' or wholesale replacement because those chips are just too expensive and will be for some time. By the time they aren't, the customer demand for more processor power will have caught up – and then some, to judge by the 10 or 15 times that this same sort of transition (between processor families) has occurred in the last 30 years. What's different this time? Nothing.
• Cramer sees Equinix as purely a server farm, ignoring the true engine of its business: interconnection. The need to inexpensively interconnect at high speeds with low latencies is what drives customers to Equinix. In addition, a significant portion of Equinix's space is filled by non-server equipment, including routers, switches and, increasingly, storage. Again, Cramer's simplistic analysis fails.

· T1R doesn't do many stock picks, but here's one: take advantage of the sheep following Cramer to make strategic buys. They have a very short memory, so the counter-Cramer trading strategy doesn't have a long life, but if you can strike quickly, it's a good idea.

· T1R's position is that there is a long-term secular trend toward third-party datacenter services, recently accelerated by the capital crunch: enterprises don't have the money to build their own datacenters and are increasingly turning to folks like Equinix. CEOs and boards are increasingly unwilling to fund large-ticket datacenter capital projects. The assertions made by Cramer that datacenters are becoming smaller and easier to run are contradicted by empirical evidence.

Rich Miller, at Data Center Knowledge, also wrote a similar comment, in his article There’s A Village Somewhere Missing an Idiot, which also has a link to Cramer’s video, for those who missed it:

• “Get out of the data-center stocks,” Cramer told viewers. “I think the data center industry is in decline. I see an industry that’s about to be brought low by new technology, so I think you should sell, sell, sell.”
• New technology?
  
• Which new technology? Cloud computing? Believe it or not, he means Nehalem processors. Cramer notes that on Intel’s recent conference call, the company touted strong sales for its new family of Nehalem DP processors for servers, one of which can “take the place of eight to nine older-generation servers.” Cramer did some math, and concluded that data centers will soon be seven-eighths empty.
• “Data centers like Equinix will still have all this extra space on their hands that they’ll have no idea what to do with, thanks to Intel’s revolutionary server technology,” said Cramer. “These new servers go a long way towards making the data center model obsolete.”
• Moore’s Law wasn’t invented yesterday. Processors have been getting faster and more powerful for decades without fundamentally altering the demand for data center space, which is driven by a profound, long-term shift toward the Internet and digital business models. That isn’t likely to change anytime soon. Nehalem processors will allow companies to do more with less, but they’re not going to empty out all the data centers.

A more realist view is given by this article from the Wall Street Journal, which resumes the real trends in the industry:

• Demand for commercial data centers like the ones operated by Equinix is expected to rise 13% in 2009, according to Tier1 Research. But commercial data center capacity is rising only about 5% per year.
• That's because it takes about 18 months to build a data center, says Daniel Golding, an analyst at Tier1, and the facilities can cost more than $100 million each.
• Buying Switch &Data lets Equinix "expand their footprint extremely rapidly," says Mr. Golding. He adds that using stock to make the deal is a smart move because "you can't pay a construction company in stock."

As we have been saying many times in our articles about the sectors, these trends (demand much higher than supply, record occupancy at existing facilities, credit crunch limiting new builds, outsourcing as a trend, etc.) are what an investor should look at, without listening to other superficial comments.

With this move, Equinix has positioned itself to strengthen its leadership and increase market share, while continuing to achieve a higher growth than the sector – one of the few growing ones in this current economy.

Disclosure: Long EQIX

Systems and Methods For Resonance Detection

United States Patent Application	20090243997
Kind Code	A1
Tierling; Kollin M. ; et al.	October 1, 2009

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Systems and Methods For Resonance Detection

Abstract

Systems and methods for resonance detection are disclosed. For example, one method for resonance detection includes the step of transmitting an actuator signal to an actuator coupled to a surface of a device. The actuator signal is configured to cause the actuator to output a force to the surface. The method further includes the steps of receiving a response of the surface to the force; determining a resonant frequency of the surface based at least in part on the response; and outputting a signal indicative of the resonant frequency.

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Inventors:	Tierling; Kollin M.; (Milpitas, CA) ; Grant; Danny A.; (Laval, CA)
Correspondence Name and Address:	PATENT DEPARTMENT (51851);KILPATRICK STOCKTON LLP 1001 WEST FOURTH STREET WINSTON-SALEM NC 27101 US
Assignee Name and Adress:	Immersion Corporation San Jose CA
Serial No.:	057186
Series Code:	12
Filed:	March 27, 2008

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING MULTI-POINT HAPTIC FEEDBACK TEXTURE SYSTEMS

United States Patent Application	20090250267
Kind Code	A1
Heubel; Robert W. ; et al.	October 8, 2009

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METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING MULTI-POINT HAPTIC FEEDBACK TEXTURE SYSTEMS

Abstract

A method and apparatus for generating haptic surface texture with a deformable surface layer are disclosed. The haptic device includes a flexible surface layer, a haptic substrate, and a deforming mechanism. The flexible surface layer is made of elastic materials and is capable of reconfiguring its surface characteristics. The haptic substrate, in one embodiment, provides a first pattern in response to a first activating signal. Alternatively, the haptic substrate is capable of providing a second pattern in accordance with a second activating signal. The deforming mechanism is configured to change the flexible surface from a first surface characteristic to a second surface characteristic in accordance with the first pattern.

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Inventors:	Heubel; Robert W.; (San Leandro, CA) ; Steger; Ryan; (Sunnyvale, CA) ; Lacroix; Robert A.; (Saint-Lambert, CA) ; Bakircioglu; Muge; (San Jose, CA)
Correspondence Name and Address:	WOMBLE CARLYLE SANDRIDGE & RICE, PLLC ATTN: PATENT DOCKETING, P.O. BOX 7037 ATLANTA GA 30357-0037 US
Assignee Name and Adress:	Immersion Corp. San Jose CA
Serial No.:	061463
Series Code:	12
Filed:	April 2, 2008

Systems and Methods for Surgical Simulation and Training

United States Patent Application	20090263775
Kind Code	A1
Ullrich; Christopher J.	October 22, 2009

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Systems and Methods for Surgical Simulation and Training

Abstract

A surgical simulation and training platform can mimic human physiology to the extent possible, while enabling dynamic pathology and complication introduction to facilitate training and evaluation needs. The platform can include a subject body having an outer surface and defining at least one cavity, with a capture mechanism configured to receive an instrument and mounted to a robotic positioning assembly within the cavity. The system can further include one or more sensors configured to determine the position of at least one instrument or provide data for determining the position, and a processor. The processor can receive data indicating a position of at least one instrument relative to the cavity in a subject body and provide a command to the robotic positioning assembly to adjust the position of the capture mechanism to encounter and engage the instrument during surgical simulation.

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Inventors:	Ullrich; Christopher J.; (Ventura, CA)
Correspondence Name and Address:	PATENT DEPARTMENT (51851);KILPATRICK STOCKTON LLP 1001 WEST FOURTH STREET WINSTON-SALEM NC 27101 US
Assignee Name and Adress:	Immersion Medical Gaithersburg MA
Serial No.:	427856
Series Code:	12
Filed:	April 22, 2009

Providing Haptic Effects To Users In A Short Range Wireless System

United States Patent Application	20090270045
Kind Code	A1
Flaherty; Natasha Margaret Minenko	October 29, 2009

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Providing Haptic Effects To Users In A Short Range Wireless System

Abstract

Systems, methods, and associated software for imposing a haptic effect upon a user are disclosed herein. A user device, which is operable within a wireless interaction system according to one implementation, includes a transceiver that is configured to communicate wirelessly with a host device. The user device further includes a processor that is configured to determine whether a specific interaction event occurs. The interaction event, for example, is related to an interaction with the host device. The user device also includes a haptic actuator that is configured to impose a haptic effect upon a user when the processor determines that the specific interaction event has occurred.

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Inventors:	Flaherty; Natasha Margaret Minenko; (Belmont, CA)
Correspondence Name and Address:	WOMBLE CARLYLE SANDRIDGE & RICE, PLLC ATTN: PATENT DOCKETING, P.O. BOX 7037 ATLANTA GA 30357-0037 US
Assignee Name and Adress:	Immersion Corporation San Jose CA

Controlling Haptic Sensations For Vibrotactile Feedback Interface Devices

United States Patent Application	20090278819
Kind Code	A1
Goldenberg; Alex S. ; et al.	November 12, 2009

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Controlling Haptic Sensations For Vibrotactile Feedback Interface Devices

Abstract

An apparatus comprises an actuator that includes an eccentric mass that is coupled to a rotatable shaft of the actuator which defines an axis of rotation. A circuit is coupled to the actuator, the circuit is configured to produce a control signal such that, when the control signal is received by the actuator. The actuator is configured to produce a force effect having a magnitude and a frequency by rotating the mass about the axis of rotation in a first direction. The magnitude of the vibration is based on a duty cycle of the control signal and independent of the frequency. An obstacle member is coupled to the actuator and includes a compliance portion configured to increase energy in the movement of the mass in a second direction opposite to the first direction when the mass comes into contact with the obstacle member.

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Inventors:	Goldenberg; Alex S.; (Mountain View, CA) ; Alarcon; Ramon; (Santa Clara, CA)
Correspondence Name and Address:	PATENT DEPARTMENT (51851);KILPATRICK STOCKTON LLP 1001 WEST FOURTH STREET WINSTON-SALEM NC 27101 US
Assignee Name and Adress:	IMMERSION CORPORATION San Jose CA

Accuray offers an interesting opportunity

Could Accuray (ARAY) offer an interesting defensive play? We think so. It’s reasonably priced and offers good longer-term growth prospectives.

http://shareholdersunite.com/2009/11/08/aray/

Powerball Drawings to Be Available Live on the Internet

PENSACOLA, Fla., Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Powerball, the nation's best-known lotto game, and TinBu, the leading provider of lottery data to online media groups, are pleased to announce an agreement to begin streaming live Powerball drawings on the web.

With lottery drawings taking place every Wednesday and Saturday night, the number of players looking for Powerball results reaches into the tens of millions for each draw. Powerball's jackpots have reached as high as $365 million.

"TinBu is very excited to be adding this dynamic, in-demand feature to our interactive lottery data content. We provide lottery data to most of the major online media groups in the United States, and we look forward to giving our online publishing partners the opportunity to add live Powerball drawings for their online audience to view. When the word lottery comes to mind, Powerball is the king of the hill in the U.S., and we are confident these live online drawings will be viewed regularly by a tremendous amount of people," said John Brier, TinBu's CEO.

TinBu will connect directly with the Powerball studio at Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida and has secured delivery bandwidth through Navisite that will allow hundreds of thousands of simultaneous online viewers of the live Powerball drawings. The system will automatically scale up as needed to handle anticipated audience growth.

"We are pleased to be able to open another channel for our live Powerball drawings," said Rebecca Hargrove, Chair of MUSL's Powerball Game Group. "Even though Powerball drawings are shown on nearly 100 television stations throughout the United States, the technology to add the live draws through the Internet will allow millions of additional players to watch the drawings, live or on demand."

Rocketfish Rapid Fire Wireless Controller for PS3 Review

Specifications
The Rocketfish Rapid Fire Wireless Controller for PS3 has dual rumble motors that bring ruble effects back to compatible game titles. The controller also uses an altered joystick configuration compared to the stock PS3 controllers. Wireless connectivity is via Bluetooth and the controller is SIXAXIS compatible and has a rapid-fire button. Charging is done via an included 9-foot USB cable.

In Use
The Rocketfish Rapid Fire Wireless Controller for PS3 is one of the better aftermarket controllers for the PS3.

....

Perhaps the best feature of the controller is its price. Best Buy sells the Rocketfish Rapid Fire Wireless Controller for PS3 for $47.99 making it cheaper than factory Sony controllers. The rumble effects aren’t that powerful, which is likely to be a battery saving measure. That said the rumble effects are welcome after playing with original PS3 controllers lacking that feature.

Lincoln man donates $1M to NET drive

Lincoln technology entrepreneur Steve Kiene primed a new phase of an NET fundraising drive Thursday with a $1 million donation.

Kiene is vice president of engineering for Internap Network Services Corp., an Atlanta company, but he and his crew operate in Lincoln at the Terminal Building.

Internap manages, delivers and helps makes online content pay for commercial customers. Kiene also teaches at the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

His donation launched the public phase of the Inspire Nebraska fundraising campaign for the NET Foundations for Television and Radio.

Smartphone Landscape to Change Dramatically in Asia

from CNBC stock blog:

>>But how is the smartphone market in Asia right now?

Bertrand Bidaud, managing vice president at Gartner Group shared his view with CNBC Asia.

“The smartphone sector is very concentrated,” he says. "Right now Nokia, Sony and Blackberry own around 70% of the market. But because this market is growing so fast and is resisting quite well in terms of price pressure, it is attracting interest from all the other players like LG, and Samsung."

...

“So this landscape is going to change very dramatically in the next few quarters,” Bidaud says.

“We expect in five years the smartphone segment to grow three times, whereas the overall mobile segment to grow by 50 percent.” Bidaud concludes, “So it’s going to grow much much faster than the rest of the industry.”

LG Goes After Apple In Decision To Invest In Smartphones

LG Electronics CEO Yong Nam said going forward as the third-largest handset maker invests more heavily in smartphones it will no longer see *Nokia* and *Sony Ericsson* as its main competition, but rather Apple , Research In Motion and Palm . The CEO made the statements at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, reports Reuters.

Nam said "we are investing heavily" at the moment in smartphones. "We're not yet there but we'll get there."

Stereotactic radiotherapy stops lung cancer from growing in frail patients

Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) stopped the growth of cancer at its original site in the lung for three years among nearly 98 percent of patients with early non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are unable to have the cancer surgically removed, according to an updated three-year study presented November 2, 2009, at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). The study also shows that more than half (56 percent) of these patients lived for three years after diagnosis, while 48 percent survived for three years after cancer treatment with no sign of the disease returning. Researchers also found that despite the high potency of treatment, less than 20 percent of these extremely frail patients experienced a serious decline in their health status. This finding was better than researchers expected and is similar to the risks for healthier patients to undergo radical surgery.

Stereotactic body radiation therapy is a specialized type of external beam radiation therapy that pinpoints high doses of radiation directly on the cancer in a shorter amount of time than traditional treatments. Cancer centers often call the treatments by the brand names of the manufacturers, including Axesse, CyberKnife, Gamma Knife, Novalis, Primatom, Synergy, X- Knife, TomoTherapy and Trilogy. Treatment in the study was delivered in 1½ to 2 weeks, instead of a typical period of 6 to 8 weeks.

Equinix to speak and exhibit at Asia Pacific Financial Information Conference 2009 in Hong Kong

Equinix to speak and exhibit at Asia Pacific Financial Information Conference 2009 in Hong Kong

November 3-4 2009, booth 9, JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong

Hong Kong. – November 2, 2009 – Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), a provider of global data center services, today announced that it will be speaking and exhibiting at the Asia Pacific Financial Information Conference (APFIC) 2009 in Hong Kong. Taking place between November 3- 4 2009 at the JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong, the two-day conference provides the largest platform in Asia Pacific for senior market data and reference data professionals from leading financial institutions in the region to gather and discuss about key challenges facing the industry.

The rapidly evolving market landscape of Asia Pacific is driving financial participants’ growing demand for improved data availability and accessibility. Coupled with the industry trend of globalization and fragmentation, financial community participants with next generation trading requirements are increasingly looking to advance forward with a global and flexible trading infrastructure capable of supporting rich data feeds with low latency across the globe.

Equinix Financial eXchange provides proximity solutions to the world’s top ten financial centers. Offering ultra-low latency connections directly to exchanges, trading partners, market data sources and matching engines around the world, Equinix Financial eXchange is a leading high-performance, global financial services hub where the financial community can directly interconnect with access to the broadest choice of connectivity options inside any one of our 45 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers around the globe.

David Wilkinson, Equinix’s Senior Director of Business Development for Asia Pacific will be speaking as a panelist on both days of the conference, namely the panel discussion on “Alternative Markets: Choice, Diversity, and Fragmentation” on November 3rd at 4:15pm and the panel discussion on “The Data Demand of Advanced Trading Strategies” on November 4th at 11:00am. Equinix Asia Pacific representatives will also be at booth 9 during the exhibition to discuss how Equinix Financial eXchange is empowering customers in the region to realize and exceed their trading strategies.

Ramius' Stake Increased to 14.6%

IMMERSION CORP
Reported by
RAMIUS ADVISORS LLC

1. Sole power to vote or direct vote: 0
2. Shared power to vote or direct vote: 4,090,000
3. Sole power to dispose or direct the disposition: 0
4. Shared power to dispose or direct the disposition: 4,090,000

percentage: approx 14.6%

World's first heart surgery using radiation

from the Telegraph:

Michael Kilby, 67, was told he may only live until Christmas after doctors found a tumour inside the right chamber of his heart larger than a golf ball. It was so big it was blocking the blood flow and he was dying.

After conventional surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, his last option was to try revolutionary surgery involving highly focused radiation as a 'scalpel' to cut away the tumour inside his beating heart.

Now just 10 days later he is planning a five month trip to Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand and America with his wife, Licette Gus.

The treatment is the first time the radiation scalpel, called the Cyberknife, has been used in heart surgery and doctors are confident that it could lead to new treatments for other heart conditions.

...

But then in a third blow, he began suffering severe breathlessness and a scan found a large tumour had formed inside his heart.

Surgeons at the private Harley Street Clinic in London first carried out emergency open heart surgery to try and take out as much as they could, but the tumour had burrowed into the muscle of the heart and it could not all be safely removed.

Conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy failed and the tumour began to grow again within just six weeks.

When Mr Kilby, a retired businessman from Moreton in Marsh, Glouchestershire, was about to give up and accept his fate, it was suggested he try the Cyberknife.

The technique had never been used on the heart before and because the operation was experimental Mr Kilby's health insurance would not cover it.

...

Nick Plowman, clinical oncologist, said: "This was an absolutely unique case. The tumour was taking up so much of the ventricle that the heart was failing in front of us. There was nowhere else to go with his treatment.

"The tumour has shrunk significantly and I expect it to shrink further in the coming weeks. It is great."

Dr John Coltart, consultant cardiologist at the Harley Street Clinic, in London, said: "Three months ago his prognosis was terrible, now he may live for a good while yet. No one had ever done this before, it was a bit of innovative thinking to give this gentleman a chance.

"All our expectations have been realised."

Dr Coltart said tumours inside the heart are extremely rare and it seems that the Cyberknife may now be the preferable way to treat them because the radiation can be targeted to such a degree that there is minimal damage to the heart muscle.

He said such tumours inside the heart are extremely rare, with probably only 40 or 50 found each year in Britain, with few being operable.

Dr Coltart said as well as opening possibilities for other heart tumours to be treated, the Cyberknife could be used in future to treat arrythymia, where the heart beats erratically or fast.

Normally a fine wire is passed into the heart to destroy the tiny piece of heart muscle that is causing the abnormal electrical pulse, but the Cyberknife could also be used to do this in a less invasive procedure, Dr Coltart said.

Accuray Introduces the CyberKnife(R) VSI(TM) System

C Y B E R K N I F E® - R O B O T I C - R A D I O - S U R G E R Y - S Y S T E M | SYSTEM OVERVIEW

New Video on WHIR tv - Interview with Peter Ferris, President of Equinix.

Today's video features Peter Ferris, President at Equinix.

This was Ferris' first appearance on WHIR tv and let us know a bit about what Equinix does and what makes them unique. Their global platform and capabilities are impressive. Ferris goes on to inform us about the companies new cloud storage platform and what this means to their clients. What would he be doing if the Internet didn't exist? Tune in to see.

New_Video_on_WHIR_tv_Interview_with_Peter_Ferris_President_of_Equinix

Equinix Appoints Frank Van Der Heijden Director of Managed Services in the Netherlands

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – 26 October 2009 - Equinix Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), a provider of global data center services, has announced that Frank van der Heijden has joined Equinix in the Netherlands as Director of Managed Services. Van der Heijden will be responsible for expanding Equinix’s managed hosting services offering to meet growing demand in the Dutch market. He will report to Michiel Eielts, Equinix’s General Manager in the Netherlands.

Van der Heijden brings a wealth of experience to Equinix gained from previous executive and management roles at Transcom WorldWide, CendrisBSC (TNT), KPN, LogicaCMG, as well as his position as founder and CEO of network provider BaByXL BroadBand DSL (Tiscali).

Equinix entered the Dutch market in 2008 and currently operates three data centers in the region – based in Amsterdam, Enschede and Zwolle with a combined gross space of 9,290 m² (100,000 square feet).

“Equinix’s entry into the Dutch market has been well-received by both global and local clients,” said Michiel Eielts, General Manager of Equinix in the Netherlands. “Our team consists of skilled professionals who fully support Equinix’s mission to protect and connect the world’s most important information assets. Frank is a welcome addition to the team.”

Sprint to launch Samsung's latest Android phone

Days after T-Mobile USA announced that it would launch the Android-powered Samsung Behold II, Sprint and Samsung teamed to unveil another Samsung Android phone, the Moment. The news is the latest in a dizzying array of Android announcements this week, including Verizon Wireless' decision to partner with Google on Android phones.

Read more: http://www.fiercewireless.com/ctialive/story/sprint-launch-samsungs-latest-android-phone/2009-10-07#ixzz0VGxKYZP9

Ramius

F.

Ramius

(a)

Ramius, as the sole member of each of RCG Starboard Advisors and Ramius Advisors, may be deemed the beneficial owner of the (i) 1,283,814 Shares owned by Value and Opportunity Master Fund, (ii) 1,034,670 Shares owned by RCG PB and (iii) 411,516 Shares owned by Enterprise Master Fund.

Percentage: Approximately 9.8%.

Terremark Istanbul ?

Common Name	Terremark Istanbul
Facility Management	Terremark
Website	http://www.terremark.com
Address 1	Cobancesme Mah. Kimiz Sk. No 30
Address 2	Yenibosna
City / State / Postal	Istanbul TR 34196
Country Code	TR

Immersion open positions

Careers

SEC Reporting Manager
Location:	San Jose, CA
Requistion #:	IC2009-33
Description
Contract SEC Reporting Manager for short-term reporting project. A minimum of 4 years experience with a Big 4 CPA firm and heavy experience working on SEC clients. This experience should be with technology or manufacturing clients as opposed to banking, insurance, or oil and gas clients. In addition, the candidate must have 2 years experience preparing 10-Q and 10-K SEC filings with a public technology or manufacturing company. The candidate should be willing to provide hands on experience in personally preparing schedules and SEC documents.

Equinix new web site

Steadfast Networks

Equinix Ashburn and PAIX Palo Alto now live.

Any2 California will be turned up in October.

from peeringdb.com

"CEO Show"

Part 1

Part 2

Internap Adds Hibernia Atlantic to Carrier Diversity Model

SUMMIT, N.J. & DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

TransAtlantic submarine transport cable provider, Hibernia Atlantic, today announces it has been added by Internap Network Services Corporation (NASDAQ: INAP) (Internap), to its diverse network of backbone providers. The decision by Internap was designed to further enhance its already robust connectivity between the US, Europe and Canada. Internap is expanding capacity to its international backbone as part of a previously-stated strategy of investing in its core Performance IPâ„¢ services.

Internap's patented routing technology chooses the best path for content delivery - offering their customers reliability and performance guarantees unmatched in the industry, Internap delivers and distributes applications and content for more than 3,000 companies over its managed Internet and Content Delivery Network (CDN). With the addition of Hibernia to the "best-path" options available within this architecture, Internap's private network backbone solution is even less susceptible to failures in the rather unlikely event that more than one of its other providers were to experience simultaneous outages.

"Internap is always looking for ways to build in redundancy and reliability while reducing costs," said Eric Cooney, President and CEO of Internap. "Hibernia Atlantic's security, diversity and flexibility met our requirements for inclusion as part of our network.

"Hibernia's network offers Internap a reliable, yet cost-effective, option between its hubs in the US, Canada and Europe. The addition of Hibernia also reflects Internap's growth on a global level. We are proud to have been chosen by Internap because they pick only the best providers to be a part of their network," says Eric Gutshall, EVP of Sales and Marketing for Hibernia Atlantic.

"Hibernia Atlantic's network of local and regional networks in North America and Europe, coupled with its recent capacity upgrade, leave the carrier well-positioned to meet the rapidly increasing bandwidth demand that will be driven by increasing consumer demand for video services," said Cindy Whelan, principal analyst, Telecom Services for Current Analysis. "Internap's selection of Hibernia Atlantic for its international backbone builds upon Internap's reputation for provisioning the most secure, reliable avenue to serve customers today and demonstrates anticipated growth in the future."

For the complete Hibernia Atlantic TransAtlantic and European network map and service offerings, please visit www.hiberniaatlantic.com.

For Hibernia Atlantic's company information, please visit www.hiberniaatlantic.com.

Ethernet Exchange Has a Long Way to Go: Telx CEO

>>Following the announcement today that data center service provider Equinix and Alcatel-Lucent will develop a program to define enhanced solutions for the exchange of data traffic between carriers providing Ethernet services, I sat down withEric Shepcaro ( News - Alert), CEO of colocation provider Telx, and he shared his insight into how Ethernet exchange will play out over the next 12 months and how it will affect the industry as a whole.

Colocation Solutions Featured Article

Direct Edge Gets More Of An Edge With Exegy

Exegy Incorporated, the ultra-high performance market data appliance company, announced today that Direct Edge, the nation’s third largest stock market, will be using Exegy’s Exchange Connect to give its customers the fastest possible hardware-accelerated view of every stock exchange in America.

Exegy’s Exchange Connect is a variant of the ultra-low latency Exegy Ticker Plant, typically used by High Frequency Trading Firms to get the fastest look at the electronic stock market. Jim O’Donnell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Exegy said, “We are absolutely delighted to be a key technology supplier to Direct Edge. The Exegy Ticker Plant is used by traders at large banks and hedge funds because it gives them the fastest look at financial markets. It makes perfect sense for an exchange focused on extreme low latency to take advantage of the same technology with Exegy Exchange Connect.”

Steven Bonanno, Chief Technology Officer of Direct Edge, said, “This is all about our commitment to speed and to our customers. Customers who send orders to Direct Edge want the best price as fast as possible. That means we must focus not only on being the fastest we can be through our own order matching engine, but also providing the best possible routing solution for customers. One of the keys to good routing is having the best view of the ‘away’ markets—through Exegy, we have that.” The Exegy Exchange Connect appliance feeds the Direct Edge smart order router with prices, constantly providing the best bids and offers from all venues in the lowest possible time frame. This is critical in today’s market, where microseconds matter.

Direct Edge is making this upgrade as it moves into the Equinix NY4 facility in Secaucus, New Jersey. The 340,000 square foot, carrier-neutral Equinix facility is also a major data distribution center for the new CBOE C2 platform, ICE, ISE and BOX.

Equinix GigE Exchange (US)

new record:

CyberKnife a viable treatment option for Atrial fibrillation, behavioural disorders

from pharmabiz.com:

>>CyberKnife, the first and only whole body radio surgery system, is now proving to be a viable treatment option for Atrial fibrillation, behavioural disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, depression, epilepsy obesity, besides Deep Brain Stimulation to treat Parkinson's and epilepsy.

The robotic surgery system, used to treat a variety of cancers, is now preferred for correcting abnormal heart rhythms. It is being recommended to replace the current invasive surgery with painless laser intervention.

Further, CyberKnife's is an alternative to treat Trigeminal Neuralgia or facial nerve pain, Arteriovenous malformations or abnormal blood vessels in the brain and benign tumours such as Acoustic neuromas and meningiomas. These conditions are proving to show good response, said Dr John R Adler, professor, department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University Medical Centre, also the inventor of CyberKnife and founder of Accuray Inc a Nasdaq listed start-up.

AtlantiCare Cancer Care Institute to offer CyberKnife®

AtlantiCare Cancer Care Institute to offer CyberKnife®
Technology targets hard-to-reach tumors non-invasively

The AtlantiCare Cancer Care Institute, a Fox Chase Cancer Center Partner, in Egg
Harbor Township, New Jersey, will begin offering CyberKnife® Robotic Radiosurgery
in November. The CyberKnife® Robotic Radiosurgery System is the world’s only
robotic radiosurgery system designed to treat tumors anywhere in the body noninvasively.
CyberKnife compares X-ray images to the patient’s original CT scan before each
treatment to ensure unparalleled targeting accuracy. It continually tracks, detects and
corrects for any movement of the patient or tumor.
“Through this technology our experienced team delivers high-dose radiation with
pinpoint precision, while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue,” said Lauren
Ochs, executive director, AtlantiCare Oncology Services, AtlantiCare. “We are pleased to
offer patients this advanced technology as a non-invasive alternative to surgery for the
treatment of both cancerous and non-cancerous tumors anywhere in the body.”
“We can now treat previously hard to reach cancers, including those of the lung, brain,
spine, liver, pancreas and kidney – non-invasively,” said Jonathan Law, MS, DABR,
DABMP, director, Medical Physics AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center. “Side effects
are minimal and there is little or no recovery time.”
The AtlantiCare Cancer Care Institute, which opened in June, will offer Cyberknife®
surgery as an outpatient procedure. It also offers radiation therapy,
chemotherapy/infusion treatments, diagnostic services, as well as access to the latest
clinical trials as a Fox Chase Cancer Center Partner. Its technology includes linear
accelerator image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), including Varian RapidArc™ – the
only one in southeastern New Jersey; Elekta Synergy® Platform intensity modulated
(AtlantiCare Cancer Care Institute to offer CyberKnife® Technology targets hard-toreach
tumors non-invasively – add one)
radiation therapy (IMRT); Xoft® electronic brachytherapy; 64-slice GE Discovery
PET/CT 600; GE Wide Bore LightSpeed®16 slice CT. The AtlantiCare Cancer Care
Institute has on-site laboratory, pharmacy, social work, nutrition and lymphedema
therapy services. It also offers Preparing for Chemotherapy and Preparing for Radiation
Therapy classes, Look Good…Feel Better®, and other educational and community
events.
“The CyberKnife’s flexible robotics allows us to treat tumors from nearly any direction
and in nearly any location in the body,” said Law. “At the AtlantiCare Cancer Care
Institute, tumors have nowhere to hide,” said Law.

from USAtoday.com:

>>The camera also makes use of smartphonelike finger gestures with "haptic" vibration feedback that lets you know that your menu selections have been registered. You can flick the back display to move from one picture you're viewing to the next. You can "draw" a circle to rotate an image. And you can also draw an X on the back screen to delete a photo — the gesture I found the most useful. If you have second thoughts, you can resurrect deleted images from a recycle bin (so long as you have enough memory).

Lexus LF-Ch Compact Hybrid To Be At 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show

The LF-Ch also has Lexus’ Remote Touch controller with user-adjustable haptic feedback that allows the driver or front passenger to operate the navigation, audio and climate systems. This system is also currently found on the 2010 HS 250h hybrid and RX luxury utility vehicles,

Logitech G27 Racing Wheel

Reviewed by Terrence Russell • September 24, 2009

Like the G25 before it, Logitech designed the G27 with precision in mind. The 11-inch wheel sports 900 degrees of rotation, simulates tire grip through force feedback, and comes wrapped in buttery smooth leather. When cornering through high-speed, g-heavy turns it felt like we were actually at wheel of a sports car.

Logitech Flight System G940 Review

Features & Specifications
The Logitech Flight System G940 uses I-Force force feedback technology from Immersion Corp. The joystick features precision force feedback and has a 2-stage metal trigger. The stick also features a POV control, 8-way hat, six programmable buttons, a pinkie shift button, and three analog trim controls. The X&Y sensors are contactless and the stick has a rubber base with points for mounting it to a desktop or other flat surface.

Tech 100 - The Most Influential People in Tech: Christophe Ramstein

Tech 100 - The Most Influential People in Tech: Christophe Ramstein

Data Storage Centers Undervalued Relative To Growth Prospects According To Stifel Nicolaus

from yahoo.com:

>>Data Storage Centers Undervalued Relative To Growth Prospects According To Stifel Nicolaus

TWST: How are stock prices holding up now? Do you see these companies being fairly valued?

Mr. Weller: I think there is still upside. I think these stocks got way oversold because of everything I talked about earlier. There was just a lack of appetite for risk, period, and then you add on the high leverage, the negative - those are characteristics that were just not attractive to people. And one thing that is true, too, is that there is still a fresh memory of the past, of the issues this space faced back in 2001. Exodus went bankrupt. These stocks were disastrous. It was a nightmare, and there are a lot of people who still remember that. And so I think that hurts the group, too, but I think what people are starting to feel more comfortable with is that businesses are different today. The customer base is higher quality, the demand is real, and you don't really have the over-capacity situation you did back then or the high-leverage levels. I think those are key differences. In terms of what's going to drive the stocks from here, I think for an Equinix and Switch, they've got to continue to show that they can put up 20% to 25% growth rates and deliver on the EBITDA side, and I think people will get more comfortable with these models. Looking at past multiples, for Equinix we just raised our target to $100, which is still meaningful upside from here. So I think there is more room to grow. Rackspace is a little tougher, you don't have a lot of history. And it's a little bit of a different model, so it's not exactly right to compare it to these vendors. But we think that as the SMB market improves from a macro perspective, that that will drive an improvement in growth in Rackspace. Right now we're modeling a 15% revenue growth forecast, but we think those could ultimately return to 20% to 25%, and so Rackspace has the potential to get on the screens of more growth investors. It's also a name that still has a relatively low institutional ownership. When they did that auction IPO, they ended up having a pretty big retail investor base. And so Rackspace over the last nine months has been really aggressive at getting out in front of institutions, telling the story. One of the things that's a little bit interesting is that there were some clear overhangs or concerns over this group if you go back to the second half of 2008 and early 2009, concerns that you were going to have issues with the businesses, that growth was going to slow significantly, that churn was going to spike. And just over the last quarter, it didn't seem that there were big issues or overhangs out there.

Popular Science's Future of Communications: Haptics, as featured on the Science Channel

Popular Science's Future of Communications: Haptics, as featured on the Science Channel

Clariteam

Clariteam qui utilisait les services d’Equinix en Angleterre a néanmoins fait un appel d’offre avec un cahier des charges bien précis. Il recherchait la location d’espace en état de fonctionnement permanent avec de très hauts niveaux de sécurité, une alimentation sans interruption et des systèmes de refroidissement efficaces. Dans ce contexte après avoir consulté plusieurs prestataires tel que Colt, Redbus et Interxion, l’offre d’Equinix s’est distinguée sur plusieurs critères, d’abord par une réponse précise aux besoins puis par son expertise et son service à la carte et enfin par son coût.
Autre point positif le site d’Equinix est raccordé à de multiples réseaux d’opérateurs télécoms. De plus Equinix est certifiée ISO9001 :2000 pour tous ses Datacentres ce qui est un argument important pour des clients utilisant des services SaaS.
Fin 2005, Clariteam, a donc installé son portail Visibility et ses serveurs de bases de données dans le Datacentre d’Equinix à Roissy. Ce portail intégré dans les infrastructures d’Equinix est relié en permanence à tous les réseaux de ses clients français et internationaux et est totalement administré à distance par les ingénieurs de chez Clariteam qui bénéficient toutefois d’une équipe de technicien chez Equinix qui en cas d’urgence apportent un service de niveau 1.
Cette organisation permet donc à Clariteam de maîtriser totalement ses applications et d’assurer un service de qualité à ses clients comme si l’ensemble du système était dans ses locaux tout en bénéficiant d’une infrastructure surveillée 24/24h, 365j /an. Pour assurer une sécurité maximum, Clariteam a mis en place une double procédure de back up de ses bases de données en effet une sauvegarde est effectuée chaque jour chez Equinix et chaque semaine un back up est transmis chez Clariteam.
La disponibilité des accès opérateurs dans le Datacentre d’Equinix permet une souplesse permanente pour la connexion des sondes réparties sur les réseaux de ses clients.
Les exigences de Clariteam en matière de qualité de service et de disponibilité du système ont pu trouver très largement des réponses auprès des services qu’offre Equinix. Clariteam reconnaît en Equinix un partenaire qui a su s’adapter à ses contraintes métiers.
«Pour une société telle que Clariteam qui offre des services en SaaS avec une garantie de continuité de service très contraignante, il serait extrêmement coûteux et contre productif de vouloir acquérir notre propre datacentre. Le service d’Equinix nous permet de garantir à nos clients la disponibilité permanente de notre portail car ils bénéficient d’une infrastructure et d’une résilience de haut niveau» indique Ludovic LURAND Directeur associé chez Clariteam.

Data centres are actually pretty interesting

from techworld.com:

>>Data centres are actually pretty interesting

I had the opportunity this week to tour a purpose-built data centre this week, thanks to Equinix, which provides network-neutral data centre and interconnection services. The tour provided me with a fascinating insight to the thinking and planning needed for something that is undoubtedly a core element of today's computing infrastructure.

Indeed, despite only opening in October 2007, Equinix's LD4 facility in Slough is expected to reach maximum capacity in a couple of years time, and the company is already building a much larger data centre (LD5) nearby, which will open sometime in the second quarter of 2010.

Cine.Net, Cinenet Systems Pty Ltd

Company Information
Company Name	Cinenet
Also Known As	Cine.Net, Cinenet Systems Pty Ltd
Company Website	http://www.cine.net.au/
Primary ASN	17498
IRR Record
Network Type	Cable/DSL/ISP
Approx Prefixes	8
Traffic Levels	20-100Mbps
Traffic Ratios	Mostly Outbound
Geographic Scope	Regional
Looking Glass URL
Route Server URL
Notes	Cinenet is a Australia's premier broadband supplier for screen media industries.

Public Peering Exchange Points
Exchange Point Name	ASN	IP Address	Mbit/sec
Equinix Sydney	17498	202.167.228.85	1000

Private Peering Facilities
Facility Name	ASN	City	Country	SONET	Ethr	ATM
Equinix Sydney	17498	Mascot (Sydney) NSW	AU

Bids Preps for Datacenter Move

from Dealing with Technology:

>>Bids Preps for Datacenter Move

NEW YORK-By the end of the year, operators of alternative trading system (ATS) Bids Trading expect to relocate their systems to their own datacenter facility within the Equinix NY-4 datacenter located in Jersey City, N.J., according to Bids officials.

Currently, Bids' technology infrastructure is being hosted by Nasdaq OMX in a Secaucus, N.J., facility.

Aussie data centres brace for dust storm barrage

from Nearshore Journal:

>>Aussie data centres brace for dust storm barrage - ITNews

Data centres in Sydney and Brisbane have shut off external ventilation systems, restricted loading dock access and attended false alarms after a major dust storm choked the cities today.

Macquarie Telecom, Equinix, ac3, manageNET and AAPT outlined a number of preventative measures taken in their respective data centres to prevent dust ingress.

....

Equinix Australia managing director Darren Mann said there had been no customer visits to the data centre as a result of the storm.

Mann said the facility had changed the sticking mats at entrances more frequently to catch any dust off pedestrian traffic moving in and out of the suites.

“We also limited the opening times of delivery shutters,” Mann said.

Air conditioning vendors were also on-site to conduct visual checks of the air filters, he said.

Fiber Network Just For Connecting Exchanges and Data Centers in NY, NJ Soon to Launch

from Information Management and SourceMedia:

>>Fiber Network Just For Connecting Exchanges and Data Centers in NY, NJ Soon to Launch

RCN Metro is laying fiber for a low-latency co-location and exchange-only network connecting the major bourses and data centers in the New York and New Jersey financial hubs, according to John Romagnoli, senior manager of product development at RCN Metro.

The firm will deploy services on the network by year end, he said, eventually offering speeds up to 100 gigabytes per interface. The project will be “100 percent complete” in six months, he said.

First described yesterday at the Wall Street Technology Association’s (WSTA’s) Emerging Hot Technologies conference in New York, Romagnoli, said “Project Mercury” will be the first to offer Wall Street “extreme low-latency, fault-tolerant and high-capacity” using “ROADM” provisioning technology.

...

A network map Romagnoli provided at the conference showed the system connecting Bats, Nasdaq, NYSE Euronext; and co-location data centers offered by Equinix, Sungard, Switch and Data, Savvis, the Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure (SFTI) and Telx.

Barchart Expands Data Centers to Equinix and Amazon EC2

CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

Barchart.com, Inc., a leading provider of market data and information, today announced it has completed expansion into two new data center facilities, providing Barchart customers with additional connectivity and hosting options. The first is expansion into the Equinix data center which provides Barchart customers with direct access to major North American financial exchanges. The second is expansion into the Amazon Elastic Computing Cloud (Amazon EC2) which provides Barchart with the technology benefits of elastic cloud computing capacity.

The addition of the two new data centers provides Barchart with additional infrastructure and access points to support its expanding market data feed and web-based businesses. Barchart will support a variety of services from each data center, including institutional and retail market data feeds, as well as clients receiving website content and hosting services. The expansion also coincides with the upcoming launch of the redesigned Barchart.com (www.barchart.com) which has been a leading financial website since 1995.

“Offering our data feed clients additional connectivity options has become increasingly more important, as has the ability to immediately scale up infrastructure for needs like operating Barchart.com and hosting website content for third-party sites,” said Eero Pikat, President of Barchart. “Both Equinix and Amazon EC2 provide ideal solutions for these needs,” said Pikat.

To learn more, visit www.barchart.com/solutions.

Two Exchanges to Move to Secaucus Next Year

from Securities Industry News:

>>The CBOE, aka the Chicago Board Options Exchange , expects to launch its startup all-electronic exchange in the Secaucus data center of Equinix in the first quarter of 2010, according to David Gray, head of its business development in the New York area.

The CBOE’s C2 exchange, as it will be known, will be joined there by the Boston Options Exchange, which expects to move to the Equinix center in Secaucus in the first quarter of 2010, according to Todd Rich, BOX’ vice president of sales and marketing.

The C2 and BOX matching engines will join the International Securities Exchange there, which said it expects to go live at the same facility by November of next year with new core trading technology. The ISE will operate there then with “massive capacity” on its rebuilt technical platform, according to director Jeanine Hightower.

The Hightower, Rich and Gray comments came at an industry update held Tuesday at the Marriott Marquis by the Options Industry Council and the Futures Industry Association.

...

The ISE operation in Secaucus will operate at “extreme low latency,’’ Hightower said, without defining it. The new platform, she said, will succeed technology supplied by Nasdaq OMX, a competing exchange operator.

Also operating at the Equinix hosting center in Secaucus will be the Boston Options Exchange, which recently dropped the “maker-taker” fee model and went back to the “pro rata” model.

“Clearly, we all see a benefit to that particular data center,’’ Rich said of the Equinix facility in Secaucus. He did not elaborate.

Already at Equinix in Secaucus: Electronic exchange pioneer Direct Edge, as well as NYSE Euronext’s Arca largely electronic exchange.

Sabey Addresses Tukwila Flood Concerns

from Data Center Knowledge:

>>Sabey Addresses Tukwila Flood Concerns

Intergate.East is home to data centers for Microsoft and Internap and is separated from the Green River by Highway 599, which is expected to serve as a buffer for any flood waters. Sabey addressed the issue in a letter to tenants (PDF) last month.

Cloud Hosting Provider Virtacore Systems, Inc. Launches Website

Cloud Hosting Provider Virtacore Systems, Inc. Launches Website

Simplifies 'Always-on' Virtualization and Private Cloud Services for businesses of all sizes. ASHBURN, Va., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Virtacore Systems, Inc. launches a new website and community to help solve the complexities of virtualization and cloud computing technologies for businesses of all sizes. Thomas Kiblin, CEO and Founder, believes the complexities of virtualization can be explained and tailored to each individual business. "We view our relationship with our customers as a partnership to leverage the best web technologies to help improve their business. Whether businesses are new to web technology or familiar with hosting concepts, we will educate and explain everything needed in order to maximize their hosting experience." Virtacore Systems, Inc. provides a customized approach to virtualization technologies. Benefits include increased flexibility, reliability, and security as well as reduced infrastructure, footprint, and facility costs. Virtacore's consultative process gives company IT managers peace of mind and a virtual engineering team to assist them with feasibility, day-to-day management, disaster recovery, and capacity planning. "The Virtacore Systems, Inc. difference is choice," said George Naspo, advising board member. "Numerous hosting providers in the market deliver a fixed cloud with no choice of operating system or virtualization vendor. Many customers have switched from expensive fixed clouds, with little or no support, to Virtacore Systems, Inc. who offers customization, flexibility and individual service. Companies looking to reduce overall hosting costs can benefit from Virtacore Systems, Inc." About Virtacore Systems, Inc. Virtacore Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of "always-on" virtualization and cloud hosting solutions for business customers in the U.S. Virtacore Systems, Inc. manages over 10,000 virtual machines deployed inside state-of-the-art Equinix IBX data centers connected to a custom network of top-tier bandwidth providers. The company provides educational resources to help individuals learn the technology and virtualization options they offer. Virtacore Systems, Inc.'s hosting consulting and engineering services meet the complex hosting requirements of businesses.

Immersion (NASDAQ: IMMR) Gets A Catalyst: Ramius Files a 13D

from 52 Wall Street:

Immersion was one of the original stocks selling below cash, although was deleted from this group because (1) it no longer sold below cash, and (2) the company announced an internal accounting review of its medical segment. I suggested in a recent post that Immersion (NASDAQ: IMMR) may be worth looking at again down the road. Now that Ramius has filed a 13D, that time has come far earlier than I expected, and this filing was the featured 13D in Barron’s this weekend.

Immersion is basically a situation where some capital intensive assets (the medical segment and parts of the touch segment) are masking some good assets (the royalties and licensing mainly from the touch segment). Some extra protection is also provided as Immersion has a lot of cash on its balance sheet, although the company has not filed a quarterly report since May 2009 due to the accounting investigation. I think that the main question here is how to value Immersion on a sum-of-parts basis, which fortunately is possible as the company breaks out its segment data. However things get a little more complicated here because the touch segment has a product sales revenue stream and development contracts revenue stream that does not produce as high of margins as the licensing and royalties revenue stream, and both segments report negative operating income. Thus, a better way of thinking about how to value Immersion could be to value the company’s patents using the licensing and royalty revenue streams as a proxy.

Back of the Envelope Valuation

Assuming a 5-year average for the licensing and royalty revenues in our valuation amounts to ~$10M. I use the 5-year average here because although licensing and royalty revenues typically have very high margins and are close to pure profit, there are still some expenses associated with this activity, and this helps to act both as a proxy for the potential expenses here and keep our estimates reasonable but conservative. A median estimate using sensitivity tables for the royalty and licensing revenues amounts to around $99M.

As of the company’s last 10-q filing in May, Immersion has just over $80M in cash and no debt. The medical assets I will assume are worth the stated book value of around $10M, with operating leases worth about $8.8M based on a gross up of 8x 2008 operating lease expense. This puts Immersion’s valuation at ~$180M, or $6.44/share. The risk reward scenario looks attractive here.

Disclosure: I do not own shares in Immersion (NASDAQ: IMMR).