Business Law1

Business Law1 Essay The full name of the first company I chose is Entrust Technologies Inc. The state and year of incorporation is Texas in 1996. The company was a spin-off of Nortel Networks. The worldwide headquarters for the corporation is 4975 Preston Park Blvd Suite 400 Plano, Texas 75093. The Chief Executive Officer and President of the company is John Ryan. The number of shareholders is in the 26, 000 range and the stock is traded on the NASDAQ. The ticker symbol for the corporation is ENTU. The CUSIP number is _________. The price range of Entrust Technologies from 1998 1999 was $24 upon opening on January 1, 1998 and its close was $60 on December 31, 1999 (See chart 1.1, attached to back of paper full year price range). The corporation has many subsidiaries that it recognizes: Entrust Technologies Limited, Entrust. net, Entrust Technologies (United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan), Entrust Technologies GmbH (Germany) and CygnaCom Solutions. Entrust Technologies Inc. provides products and services to ensure secure electronic communications and transactions over the Internet, Extranets and Intranets. (http://biz.yahoo.com/p/e/entu. html) The company is ahead of its game in the Internet business. A lawsuit was filed against the company in February of 1999 by Surety technologies, Inc. The lawsuit involved the supposed infringement of patent rights on the part of Entrust Technologies. Surety said they developed a digital timestamping method using hash and sign. They claim it was their method and only theirs. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled for Entrust claiming that the patent covering the special hash -and- sign method used by Surety was not a new thing. Any company could use the technology to better their communication systems by timestamping electronic documents. The lawsuit and verdict proved to the rest of the world that Entrust Technologies is ready to advance all companies with special devices to make their business run a little bit smoother. The verdict was handed down in November 1999 and gave ENTU a very strong third quarter. Their revenue increased from $13.0 million to $22.6 million in one year. The lawsuit benefited, not hampered the business practices of Entrust Technologies. There are literally hundreds of competitors in the computer services business. AutoBytel Com Inc., Agency Com LTD, Publicard Inc, Zapme Inc., Knot Inc. and Paychex Inc. are just some of the companies that compete in the business with Entrust Technologies (See 1.2, attached file regarding the competitors). VectorVest rates the long-range outlook for the stock poorly in most areas. They rate stocks well that are steady and predictable. All the stocks are rated on a 0.00 2. 00 scale, a relative safety greater than 1.00 is safe and below 1.00 is not a safe buy. ENTU was given a relative safety of 0.71, very poor. The relative value is a 0. 82, also poor. When a stock has a relative safety and value greater than 1.00 the earning rate will increase and shares will increase in value. Entrust was given a relative timing rating of 1.04, which is fair in this field. The trend established is fair and might last depending on the stocks dependability. VectorVest also suggests that ENTU is overvalued and having a high-risk dividend because it does not pay a dividend. This also shows that ENTU has not dividend growth and that indicates future outlook and past history. In conclusion, Entrust Technologies has a below average safety with below average upside potential. This reflects the stocks potential and almost ensures below average, inconsistent returns. Reesegroup.com rates ENTU as having no interest at this time. Entrust Technologies Inc. was a good buy. I disagree with the critics on this one. When I bought the stock on January 20th it was at $56 and it rose up and down slowly to 92 .