Adept Technology secures $10 million from stock sale; iLinc raises $2 million in PIPE

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, June 12 - Adept Technology, Inc. headed up PIPE action on Monday by announcing a $10 million stock offering with Crosslink Capital as stocks in the broader market continued to tank. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 99.34 to close at 10,792.58; the Nasdaq composite index lost 43.74 to end at 2,091.32; and the Standard & Poor's 500 composite index slipped 15.90 to settle at 1,236.40.

One New York-based market source said technology seems to be the one bright spot in PIPEs as stocks continue to slide.

"Tech stocks were a bit stronger at the end of last week," he said. "Now's the time to get in, if these [tech] companies are going to do something. Pricing in general has been a strike-while-the-iron's-hot kind of a game for the past week or so."

And tech company Adept was at the head of offerings on Monday with news that Crosslink will buy 731,251 of its shares at $13.6752 each by July 10.

Adept had 6,851,980 outstanding shares as of May 12.

The placement represents 11% of Adept's outstanding share capital.

The offering was announced Monday morning and the stock slipped 9 cents on the day to close at $13.52 (Nasdaq: ADEP).

The proceeds will be used for growth initiatives.

"We are pleased that Crosslink has chosen Adept as one of its investment partners and welcome them as shareholders as we expand our current shareholder base," said Michael Kelly, Adept's chairman, in a news release.

"During this financing process, Charles Finnie and Crosslink have demonstrated a real knowledge of our business, including validating the business model of growth with sustainable profit," said Robert Bucher, Adept's chief executive officer, in the statement.

Bucher did not immediately return calls for comment on the offering Monday.

"We believe Adept Technology is the preeminent software and services company in a large and growing industry, intelligent robotics," said Finnie, in a statement. "Rob Bucher and his team have positioned the company for strong growth over the next several years."

Adept recently reported net revenues of $15.07 million for the quarter ended April 1, compared with net revenues of $13.03 million for the same period of 2005. The company reported a net loss of $1.30 million for the quarter ended April 1. For the same quarter, the company reported a net loss of $292,000.

Based in Livermore, Calif., Adept designs robotic systems, motion control and machine vision technology for automobiles, consumer electronics and medical applications, among other things.

iLinc raises $2 million

In other tech news, iLinc Communications, Inc. wrapped up a $2 million stock deal, selling 5.4 million shares to two institutional investors.

The exact price per share could not be determined by press time Monday.

Canaccord Adams Inc. was the placement agent.

Proceeds will be used for working capital as well as for research and development.

On Monday, the stock remained unchanged at $0.47 (Amex: ILC).

"We believe investors are recognizing the strengths of our product offerings and our sustainable competitive advantages in the high-growth market of web conferencing and web collaboration," said chief executive officer James Power, in a statement. "Our ability to compete effectively and gain market share against WebEx and Microsoft LiveMeeting is attracting attention from both customers and investors alike."

"The offering provides to iLinc general working capital that will facilitate continued investment in [research and development] and capital expansion," said James Dunn, the company's chief financial officer, in the news release. "With the continued improvement of our top-line revenue, earnings from operations and net income, we do not see a need for additional working capital during fiscal year 2007."

iLinc, based in Phoenix, develops integrated web- and audio-conferencing products and services.

TAG Oil leads energy deals

Looking to Canada, a slip in oil prices and a drop in commodity prices almost across the board led to a dip in action there.

"We're seeing a few [energy] offerings here and there," said one Vancouver, B.C.-based market source familiar with resources. "But if you look at the big picture, oil's down, copper's down, gold is down, silver's off today. It's not looking good."

Oil prices fell $1.27, losing almost as much as it gained on Friday, to end the day at $70.36 per barrel. On Friday, oil gained $1.28 to end at $71.63 per barrel.

Looking to particular offerings, TAG Oil Ltd. led the pack, closing a C$30 million stock deal.

The company sold 40 million shares at C$0.75 each.

Canaccord Capital Corp. was the placement agent.

On Monday, the stock lost 7 cents, or 7.78%, to close at C$0.83 (TSX Venture: TAO).

Proceeds will be used for the acquisition of Cheal Petroleum Ltd., PEP 38757 Ltd. and PEP 38758 Ltd. The rest will be used for exploration and drilling in New Zealand and for working capital.

Calgary, Alta.-based TAG is an oil and natural gas exploration company.

In other oil news, Contact Exploration Inc. priced a C$5 million offering of flow-through shares and units.

The non-brokered offering includes 3.2 million units at C$1.25 each and 800,000 flow-through shares at C$1.25 each. The units are comprised of one share and one half-share warrant. The whole warrants are exercisable at C$1.75 each.

At the end of the day, Contact's stock had fallen 4 cents, or 2.96%, to settle at C$1.31 (TSX Venture: CEX).

Proceeds will be used for exploration and development on the company's East Coast onshore oil and gas properties.

Contact, based in Calgary, is an oil and natural gas exploration company.

Westport's C$22.1 million offering

Looking to the alternative fuel sector, Westport Innovations Inc. is gearing up to close a C$22.1 million private placement of convertible notes in two tranches.

Perseus, LLC will buy the 8% notes due in 2011. So far, C$5.5 million has been received and another C$8.3 million will be funded on July 15 for the first tranche.

The first tranche of notes is convertible into common shares at C$1.30 each.

The second tranche, for C$8.3 million, is convertible into common shares at C$1.40 each.

In the first tranche, the investors will receive warrants for 2.7 million shares, exercisable at C$1.30 each for four years. In the second, the investors will receive warrants for 1.5 million shares, exercisable at C$1.40 each for four years.

The second tranche of the offering is expected to close within 180 days of the company's annual and special general meeting.

"Perseus's investment and long-term support will deliver a great strategic lift to our global business expansion plans," said David Demers, Westport's CEO, in a news release. "We have worked together with Perseus on the board of directors of Clean Energy Fuels, and it is clear we share the same vision of the opportunities and challenges of moving the world's commercial vehicle sector to natural gas.

"This strategic investment is timely as we launch new products into markets struggling to cope with reduced availability and increased price volatility of conventional fuels and the higher cost of compliance with new emissions regulations. High oil prices have delivered solid economic arguments in favor of natural gas vehicles as a viable transportation alternative. In addition, the environmental benefits provided by natural gas vehicles are indisputable."

Westport's stock gained 2 cents to end the day at C$1.00 (Toronto: WPT).

Westport, based in Vancouver, B.C., develops technologies used to make clean-burning fuels using natural gas, hydrogen and hydrogen-enriched natural gas.

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