Cell-Loc-bashing has become a popular sport of cranky shareholders who have been waiting since the last millennium for the cell- location tracking technology company to find the missing link – itself.

And now the bash gang on the chatboards is loaded for bear with Cell-Loc finally pinpointing its identity – as an oil and gas company backed by an investment group spearheaded by Grant Billing (it plans to spin off the technology assets into a separate company and use the shell as an energy play).

But let’s not forget that this one-time Bay Street squeeze that captured the hearts (and wallets) of tech speculators was good at something.

As an example, they led the league in sunny press releases.

Those suffering from a dot-com hangover could call up a rosy Cell-Loc release and feel as warm and fuzzy as a Wall Street tech analyst – even if you did buy Cell-Loc at $80 (CLQ-TSX was last seen toying with 70 cents).

Stockholders have blamed Cell-Loc’s revolving-door management for virtually everything, including the price of pork bellies, but this Calgary crew still stayed positive in the face of six-year net losses of $61.7 million and total revenues of $6.2 million.

Nope, you’d never know they were bleeding red ink with some of the cheery news Cell-Loc churned out. These releases were written, presumably, by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, which seems to suit the Toronto Stock Exchange fine. You can write just about anything in a press release, as Goldcorp (G-TSX) recently proved by wrapping a release with an unabashed plug:

“Gold is better than money – Goldcorp is gold.” Back in April of 1999, with Cell-Loc trading at $2, founder and CEO Michel Fattouche pronounced in a release that “we have been bombarded by international customers from every continent in the world.”

Couldn’t you just picture the Japanese kicking down the door at Cell-Loc?

Later that year, Cell-Loc wowed investors by trumpeting ‘an annual $12-billion wireless location services industry.’ And that was in the first paragraph.

As the stock roared to $80 in early 2000 and a market cap of $1.6 billion, Cell-Loc executive VP Lew Turnquist stated “market research indicates the demand for wireless traffic navigation services is set to explode.”

In mid-2000, Turnquist noted “analysts have pegged this emerging industry at more than $7 billion by 2003 in the U.S . . . Times Three (a division of Cell-Loc) will claim a significant piece of that pie.” (Turnquist was curiously mum in a later release announcing his departure to ‘pursue other interests.’)

One of the red flags in Cell-Loc’s history may have been the resignation from its board of Frank King, one of Canada’s most revered business leaders (King remains a director of Cell-Loc’s wireless twin, Wi-Lan).

King’s departure was buried in a December 15, 2000, release that led John Krpan’s promotion to COO.

In March, 2001, Acumen Capital Finance Partners analyst Dean Kim rained on Cell-Loc’s parade, telling the Edge: “They don’t even know what their market is . . . it’s kind of frightening.”

In response, Krpan said the market Cell-Loc was targeting was a “no-brainer . . . we have a long list of people prepared to sign up . . .”

As the stock crashed, some tech analysts forgot to read between the lines. CIBC analyst Barry Richards explained a speculative buy rating by dubbing Cell-Loc “a great technology story.”

News of the overhaul was rife with facts and sadly lacking in imagination, which may explain the market’s initial cool response.

Yet, the emergence of a blue-eyed sheikh with Billing’s impressive resume provides shareholders a lifejacket in a leaky boat.

It wasn’t earth-shattering news. The surprise was that Cell-Loc didn’t reinvent itself as PomPomNews.com.

* STREET TALK: Respected Vancouver currency and commodities guru Martin Murenbeeld, keynote speaker at the recent Denver Gold Conference, forecast a dismal economic outlook. “The world is in a classic post-bubble phase where excess supply conditions have led to negative price pressures,” said the president of M. Murenbeeld & Associates.

“Ongoing massive investment in China aggravates the problem. If demand can not be sustained with policy initiatives, higher unemployment and production cutbacks could turn into a vicious downward spiral – a mini-depression, in other words.”

* SAGE WORDS: “I think the (U.S. Federal Reserve) should be abolished and the central bankers should get an honest job somewhere in a McDonald’s or a laundry or something.”

* Jim Dines, editor of the Jim Dines Letters on the Corus Radio program Money Talks.




HOT ALBERTA STOCK: ANTRIM ENERGY
AEN-TSX $1.11
Up 26 cents (+30.6%) on 1,436,200 shares (for week ending Sept. 26).
Waltzin’ CEO Stephen Greer, commenting on Antrim’s exploration play on the world stage, once told Oil Week: “We dance around the world.” Well, shareholders were also swinging their partners as the shares skipped on brisk volume as they await exploration results.



COLD ALBERTA STOCK: RESIN SYSTEMS INC.
RS-TSXV $1.00.
Down 18 cents (-15.3%) on 546,100 shares (for week ending Sept. 26).
Resin ushered in Paul Giannelia as chairman and CEO of the Edmonton company’s operating arm, RS Technologies, but shareholders somehow forgot to roll out the red carpet.
“Shareholders should see this as an extremely strong vote of confidence in our technology,” said Resin CEO Greg Pendura. The shares promptly took a three-day, 12.3-per-cent nosedive.