Sign Up NowThis Month's Tiny Gems - July 2013

Alaska Communications Systems Group, Inc. (ALSK)
Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (INO)
OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (OCZ)

 

 

 

Alaska Communications Systems Group, Inc. (ALSK)

 

Alaska Communications Systems Group, Inc. (ALSK) is a communications services provider to consumers in and out of Alaska, targeting both populated and rural and remote areas. Its offerings include broadband, Internet access, local and long distance voice, and other communications products. The company’s communications network extends across Alaska and connects to the contiguous states via tow undersea fiber optic cable systems.

 

Alaska Communications in May reported that following the launch of Voice over Internet for small businesses last year, it will now focus on expanding the service to large businesses and multi-location enterprises in Southcentral Alaska. The Voice over Internet includes business-class applications for mobile management and is supported by the only broadband data service in Alaska to receive the Carrier Ethernet 2.0 Certification from the Metro Ethernet Forum.

 

In March, Alaska Communications partnered Kodiak Area Native Association (KANA) to provide enhanced telehealth services to the association's six village healthcare clinics on Kodiak Island in Southwest Alaska. Telehealth services enable health care providers to consult remotely with patients and other providers and help KANA's healthcare clinics expand access to specialist services, such as mental health, cardiology, and critical care experts.

 

For the first quarter ended March 31, 2013, Alaska Communications grew its revenue to $91.1 million, up 5.9% vs. revenue of $85.9 million reported in the comparable quarter of 2012. The company attributes the growth to strength in its overall business and wholesale revenues, combined with growth in every broadband revenue category. The company will report its second-quarter financial results August 1.

 

 

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (INO)

 

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (INO) is developing synthetic vaccines for the prevention and treatment of cancers and infectious diseases. The company’s SynCon® vaccines are designed to help the body’s immune system identify and fight cancer cells or multiple unmatched strains of a mutating virus. In human studies, these proprietary synthetic vaccines, in combination with Inovio's electroporation vaccine delivery technology, have generated best-in-class immune responses with a favorable safety profile.

 

SynCon® vaccines are being developed to treat a variety of cancers, including cervical dysplasia/cancer and prostate cancer. The company is also collaborating on DNA vaccine programs to treat acute and chronic myeloid leukemia (AML and CML) and multiple cancers that express the antigen called hTERT.

 

The company’s research and preclinical program assesses new vaccine candidates and has advanced multiple vaccines into clinical studies. Inovio's lead vaccine is a therapeutic against HPV-caused diseases, and is currently in phase II clinical study. Other phase I and preclinical programs focus on infectious diseases such as HIV, influenza, malaria, and hepatitis C virus.

 

The company has established a network of partners and collaborators that includes the University of Pennsylvania, Merck, National Cancer Institute, U.S. Military HIV Research Program, NIH, HIV Vaccines Trial Network, University of Southampton, U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, University of Manitoba, and PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative.

 

 

 

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (OCZ)

 

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (OCZ) designs, manufactures, and distributes flash hardware and software solutions and computer components designed to transform how digital data is captured, stored, accessed, analyzed, and leveraged by customers. The company sells its products primarily in the United States, Canada, Germany, the Middle East, Africa, and other European countries.

 

OCZ provides solid-state drives (SSDs), including MLC-based drives, SLC-based drives, portable SSD and USB drives for personal computers, servers, data storage systems, and industrial equipment. OCZ in the first quarter of 2013 added three new products to its portfolio, beginning with Version 1.3 of its VXL Cache and Virtualization Software, which works in conjunction with the company’s Z-Drive R4 PCle SSD Series to provide synchronous data mirroring capabilities.

 

The company’s line of offerings is available in a variety of form factors and interfaces to ensure a wide range of client and enterprise applications such as database, virtualization, cloud computing, and more. OCZ’s products can be seamlessly integrated into existing platforms, which creates a wider path of marketability among enterprises and OEMs looking to adopt SSD technology.

 

As reported in its first-quarter fiscal 2014 earnings report for the three months ended May 31, 2013, OCZ achieved record enterprise sales during the quarter and continues to shift the focus of its revenue stream toward mainstream and higher-end client markets as well as enterprise and OEM solutions. The company’s goal is to break even in this fiscal year 2014.