Centura Software Corp will today announce a strategic partnership with Nocom AB, a Swedish mobile and internet systems integrator which has agreed to work with Centura to build WAP compliant services around Centura’s internet appliance database, tools and communications infrastructure products. The deal is the latest in a spate of Centura announcements which has seen the Redwood Shores, California company’s Nasdaq stock price skyrocket from $0.68 10 days ago, to close at $8.56 on Tuesday.
Centura’s stock renaissance kicked in last week on news of the port of its small footprint Raima Database Manager (RDM) to Palm Computing’s Palm OS. Three days later Centura followed this with the launch of eSNAPP, an open interface appliance connectivity server which acts as an information router connecting handheld and embedded internet appliances to any kind of back-end database. Then, yesterday, Centura announced that it will partner with SAP Labs Tokyo, a subsidiary of the German ERP vendor, to build a mobile access infrastructure for mySAP.com. The deal has the potential to put Centura products in front of an estimated SAP installed base of 10 million users.
The latest agreement with Uppsala-based Nocom, an established Centura reseller, adds what CEO Scott Broomfield said is one of the final pieces of the jigsaw Centura needs to make sure that we can be the market leader in internet appliance computing. Nocom’s wirless application protocol skills will enable Centura to better address the emerging market for transaction systems aimed at smartphones, complementing the company’s existing strengths in the handheld and embedded platform space.
Earlier this week Centura posted lacklustre third quarter figures (CI No 3,791) as the company folded in the costs of its April acquisition of Raima Corp. But Broomfield told Computerwire yesterday that the flat growth and weak earnings, which have bedevilled the company for several years, will soon be a thing of the past. Assuming the Y2K bug phenomena doesn’t have a final twist in the tail, Broomfield said that he expects to see a strong return to growth, and growth in double digits for the rest of the year.
Broomfield said the recent strong stock movements showed that the markets have just started to recognize the positioning of Centura as a potential leader in the mobile e-commerce market. The only question now is whether the growth in what he calls fifth wave computing will be a Tsunami or a rising tide.
