3D move to lift DDD earnings

Having spent 12 years and $US45 million developing its software, technology company DDD Group plc may be on the brink of finally turning a profit for its patient shareholders.

Chief executive Chris Yewdall will be visiting Perth next week to brief shareholders on the latest developments, including DDD Mobile, its software package that delivers glasses-free three-dimen-sional images on mobile phones.

DDD last month signed a development and licensing agreement for DDD Mobile with one of the world’s top five mobile telephone handset makers, expected to deliver revenue of £500,000 ($A1.2 million).

This single deal will deliver more revenue than the company earned in all of 2004 ($770,000).

DDD also has signed an agreement with content developer Jamster to provide images from its content library and act as DDD’s content aggregator for converted 3D images in selected markets.

Mr Yewdall said the company’s prospects were being aided by the increasingly wide, mass market applications of its 3D software.

“Originally it was a small, niche market in advertising and public displays,” he said. “Then it became a notebook PC market for professional users. We’re now starting to see some of the large consumer markets become available.”

DDD’s main clients to date include Japanese company Sharp, with which it signed its first licensing agreement in 2003.

Sharp has since launched two 3D notebook PCs, which incorporate software that is able to covert content from 2D to 3D in real time.

As a software company that is targeting a global market, DDD has a suitably multinational history and structure.

It was founded in 1993 in Perth as TrueVision, changed its name to Xenotech and then DDD, which derives from dynamic digital vision.

It was listed on the Canadian Venture Exchange for eight years before completing a $13 million initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market in 2002.

The IPO was priced at 65 pence but the shares have since traded at much lower levels, and are currently around 12.5 pence.

Japanese company Arisawa Manufacturing Co took a 20 per cent shareholding last year after investing $2.7 million. Arisawa is a global supplier of optical materials to the rear projection television market and of flexible circuit boards to the mobile telephone market, which are two of DDD’s key markets.

The company maintains a strong Perth connection through its chairman, venture capital investor Paul Kristensen, and its 12-strong R&D team at Technology Park, led by director of content Nick Beames.

Mr Yewdall, who joined the company in 1998 and was promoted to his current position in 2001, is based in the company’s head office is in California, which he said was positioned to be close to the ‘content’ industry in Hollywood.

He said that while the market opportunities had grown, the company’s core capability continued to be image processing.

He said early applications, such as large displays at theme parks and trade shows, had been ad hoc and expensive to develop. These applications also involved DDD having to convert content from 2D to 3D.

The company is now packaging and licensing its core technology to manufacturers, who are integrating 3D software at the time of manufacture.

Mr Yewdall said another positive was that the company expected to meet growing demand with its current staffing, which dropped from 27 in 2003 to 18.