Best High Tech Companies To Watch In Right Now

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Top 5 International Companies To Own In Right Now: Howard Hughes Corp (HHC)

The Howard Hughes Corporation, incorporated on July 1, 2010, is a developer and operator of master planned communities and mixed use properties. The Company operates three segments: master planned communities, operating assets and strategic developments. The Company specializes in the development of master planned communities and ownership, management and the redevelopment or repositioning of real estate assets generating revenues, also called operating assets, as well as other strategic real estate opportunities in the form of entitled and unentitled land and other development rights, also called strategic developments. In August 2012, the Company purchased 70 Corporate Center office building, located in downtown Columbia, MD.

Master Planned Communities

The Company�� master planned communities segment consists of the development and sale of residential and commercial land, primarily in projects in and around Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston, Texas; and Columbia, Maryland. Revenues are derived primarily from the sale of finished lots and undeveloped pads to both residential and commercial developers. Additional revenues are earned through participations with builders in their sales of finished homes to homebuyers. The Company�� master planned community in Maryland includes four separate communities that are collectively referred to as the Maryland Communities. Its master planned communities include over 12,500 acres of land remaining to be sold.

Residential sales, which are made primarily to home builders, include standard and custom parcels, as well as parcels designated for detached and attached single- and multi- family homes, ranging from entry-level to luxury homes. Commercial sales include land parcels designated for retail, office, resort, services and other for-profit activities, as well as those parcels designated for use by government, schools and other not-for-profit entities. Spanning the western rim of the Las Vegas Valley and located approximately ni! ne miles from downtown Las Vegas, its 22,500 acre Summerlin master planned community is consists of planned and developed villages and offers suburban living with accessibility to the Las Vegas Strip. With 26 public and private schools, five institutions of higher learning, nine golf courses, and cultural facilities, Summerlin was an integrated community, as of December 31, 2011. As of December 31, 2012, there were approximately 40,000 homes occupied by approximately 100,000 residents.

As of December 31, 2012, Summerlin is consisted of hundreds of neighborhoods located in 19 developed villages with nearly 150 neighborhood and village parks, all connected by a 150-mile long trail system. As of December 31, 2012, Summerlin included approximately 2.1 million square feet of developed retail space, 3.2 million square feet of developed office space and three hotel properties containing approximately 1,400 hotel rooms, as well as health and medical centers, including Summerlin Hospital and the Nevada Cancer Institute. Summerlin is divided into three regions or projects: Summerlin North, Summerlin West and Summerlin South. As of December 31, 2012, Summerlin had approximately 5,184 residential acres and 890 commercial acres remaining to be sold. Bridgeland is a master planned community near Houston, Texas consisted of approximately 11,400 acres, as of December 31, 2011. There were approximately 1,800 homes occupied by approximately 6,250 residents as of December 31, 2012.

Bridgeland�� plan includes four villages, which include Lakeland Village, Parkland Village, Prairieland Village and Creekland Village. Bridgeland�� first five neighborhoods are located in Lakeland Village. The Lakeland Activity Center is anchored by a 6,000 square foot community center and features a water park with three swimming pools, two lighted tennis courts and a fitness room. As of December 31, 2012, Bridgeland had approximately 3,635 residential acres and 1,226 commercial acres remaining to be sold. The C! ompany�� s Maryland communities consist of four distinct projects: Columbia, Gateway, Emerson and Fairwood. Columbia, located in Howard County, Maryland. As of December 31, 2012, Columbia was home to approximately 100,000 people. Columbia�� full range of housing options is located in 10 distinct, self-contained villages. Each village is consists of several neighborhoods, a shopping center and community and recreational facilities.

As of December 31, 2012, the Company owned approximately 35 net acres of land in Columbia. The land consists of raw land and subdivided land parcels readily available for new development. Gateway is a 630-acre master planned corporate community located in Howard County, Maryland. Gateway offers office space in a campus setting with approximately 63 commercial acres. Emerson is a master planned community located in Howard County, Maryland and consisted of approximately 520 acres, as of December 31, 2011. There were approximately 1,210 homes occupied by approximately 3,407 residents, as of December 31, 2012. Emerson offers a range of single-family and townhome housing, which is located in Maryland�� public school districts.

As of May, 2012, the residential component of this project has been completely sold out. In addition, 28 of its townhouse lots were under contract, as of December 31, 2012. As of December 31, 2012, it had sold 28 townhouse lots. Fairwood is a developed master planned community located in Prince George�� County, Maryland, consists of approximately 1,100 acres. As of December 31, 2012, 11 commercial acres were available for sale. There were approximately 1,200 homes occupied by approximately 2,600 residents on December 31, 2012. As of December 31, 2012, Fairwood consisted of single-family and townhouse lots, as well as undedicated open space and two historic houses. In addition to the commercial acres remaining to be sold, it owns a few undedicated open space parcels, and 24 acres of unsubdivided land. The Woodlands is a mixed-use master ! planned c! ommunity situated 27 miles north of Houston and consists of 28,400 acres. The Woodlands is a community that integrates recreational amenities, residential neighborhoods, commercial office space, retail shops and entertainment venues.

As of December 31, 2012, approximately 28% of The Woodlands land consisted of green space, including parks, pathways, open spaces, golf courses and forest preserves. As of December 31, 2012, the Woodlands has full or partial ownership interests in commercial properties totaling 436,042 square feet of office space, 201,280 square feet of retail and service space and 393 rental apartment units. It also own and operated a 440 room resort and conference center facility and a 36-hole golf and country club, as of December 31, 2012. As of December 31, 2012, The Woodlands had approximately 857 acres of unsold residential land, representing approximately 2,750 lots, and approximately 961 acres of unsold land for commercial use. The Woodlands includes a waterway, outdoor art and an open-air performance pavilion, a resort and conference center, a luxury hotel and convention center, educational opportunities for all ages, hospitals and health care facilities and office space.

Operating Assets

The Company�� operating assets segment contains 26 properties and investments, consists of commercial mixed-use, retail and office properties. As of December 31, 2012, these assets included nine mixed use and retail properties, seven office properties, a resort and conference center, a 36-hole golf and country club, a multi-family apartment building, two equity investments and five other assets. Ward Centers is consists of approximately 60 acres situated along Ala Moana Beach Park. As of December 31, 2011, Ward Centers included a 665,000 square foot shopping district, which consisted of six specialty centers and over 140 shops, a variety of restaurants and an entertainment center, which included a 16 screen movie theater.

South Street Seaport! is compr! ised of three mid-rise buildings and the Pier 17 pavilion shopping mall located in a historic waterfront district on the East River in Manhattan. The Company also leases 24,000 square feet for sublet to retailers at the base of an adjacent 1.1 million square foot office tower. All of the property except the office tower retail space is subject to a lease with the City of New York. As of December 31, 2012, the total property controlled by us approximates 300,551 square feet of leasable space, substantially all of which is retail. As of December 31, 2011, anchored by Macy�� and Sears, Landmark Mall was an 879,294 square foot shopping mall located in affluent Alexandria, Virginia. This mall is located nine miles west of Washington, D.C. and the Pentagon. Park West is a 249,168 square foot open-air shopping, dining and entertainment destination in Peoria, Arizona.

Park West is approximately one mile northwest of the Arizona Cardinals��football stadium and the Phoenix Coyote�� hockey arena. Park West has an additional 100,000 square feet of available development rights as permitted for retail, restaurant and hotel uses. Rio West Mall is located in Gallup, New Mexico, which is 521,194 square foot shopping center. Riverwalk Marketplace is located along the Mississippi River in downtown New Orleans. The 193,874 square foot shopping center is consists of more than 100 local and national retail shops, restaurants and entertainment venues. Cottonwood Square is a 77,079 square foot community center located in Salt Lake City, Utah. 20 & 25 Waterway Avenue are two retail properties located in The Waterway Square commercial district in The Woodlands Town Center. The properties total 49,972 square feet. Waterway Garage Retail is attached to The Waterway Square Garage located within The Woodlands Town Center.

The Company owns a 99% joint venture interest in an entity that has a ground leasehold interest in the land underlying a 226,000 square foot office building located at 110 N. Wacke! r Drive i! n downtown Chicago. It owns five office buildings and is a master tenant of a sixth office building. The buildings consists of approximately 491,000 square feet in the heart of downtown Columbia including American City Building (master tenant), the Columbia Association Building, the Columbia Exhibit Building, the Ridgley Building, the newly acquired building known as 70 Columbia Corporate Center, and the Columbia Regional Building. This group also consists of the Merriweather Post Pavilion, an outdoor amphitheater and concert venue. 4 Waterway Square is a nine-story office building located within The Woodlands Town Center, which totals 218,551 square feet. 9303 New Trails is a four-story office building located within the Research Forest district of The Woodlands. The property totals 97,705 square feet.

1400 Woodloch Forest Drive is a five-story office building located at the entrance to The Woodlands Town Center, which totals 95,667 square feet. 2201 Lake Woodlands Drive is a two-story office building located in the East Shore commercial district of The Woodlands. The property totals 24,119 square feet. The Woodlands Resort and Conference Center is located approximately two miles south of The Woodlands Town Center. As of December 31, 2012, the property operated 440 hotel rooms, has 90,000 square feet of meeting space. The Club at Carlton Woods is located within the communities in The Woodlands. As of December 31, 2012, the Club at Carlton Woods included an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course and an 18-hole Tom Fazio Championship Course, in addition to two clubhouses, spa, tennis, and fitness facilities. The wholly owned Waterway Square Garage, located within The Woodlands Town Center, is a five-story parking garage, which includes1,933 parking spaces and 21,513 square foot of retail space.

As of December 31, 2012, the Company had an 83.55% interest in a 393-unit apartment building located within The Woodlands Town Center. Forest View apartments are a 216 unit, multi-f! amily ren! tal community. Timbermill apartments are a 256 unit multi-family rental community. The Company owns 100% interests in Hexalon Real Estate, LLC (Hexalon). Hexalon owns a 1.42% interest in Head Acquisition, LP, a joint venture between GGP, Inc. (GGP), Simon Property Group, L.P. and Westfield Group. The partnership owns certain retail mall interests. It owns a 20% interest in three office/industrial buildings located in The Woodlands Research Forest district within The Woodlands. The portfolio consists of 132,050 square feet. The Company has an indirect ownership interest of approximately 6.8% in the Summerlin Hospital Medical Center. This property is a 450-bed hospital located on a 32-acre medical campus near Las Vegas. It owns a 50% interest in Stewart Title, a company located in The Woodlands, which handles the residential and commercial land sale closings for The Woodlands.

Strategic Developments

The Company�� strategic developments segment is made up of near, medium and long-term development projects for 21 of the Company�� real estate properties. As of December 31, 2012, its development projects included Ala Moana Condo Project, Bridges at Mint Hill, Columbia Parcel Done, 3 Waterway Square, Alameda Plaza, AllenTowne, Century Plaza, Circle T Ranch and Power Center, Cottonwood Mall, Elk Grove Promenade, Fashion Show Air Rights, Kendall Town Center, Lakemoor (Volo) Land, Maui Ranch Land, Nouvelle at Natick, Redlands Promenade, The Shops at Summerlin Centre, Village at Redlands and West Windsor. It owns the rights to develop a residential condominium tower over a parking structure at Ala Moana Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Bridges at Mint Hill property consists of vacant land located southeast of Charlotte, North Carolina. The parcel is approximately 210 acres and consists of 120 developable acres and is zoned for approximately 1.3 million square feet of retail, hotel and commercial development.

Alameda Plaza is located in Pocatello, Idaho at the intersection of ! Yellowsto! ne Park Highway and Alameda Road. The 22-acre site contains 190,341 square feet of mostly vacant retail space. AllenTowne consists of 238 acres. Century Plaza is located on the eastern side of Birmingham, Alabama. Circle T Ranch is 20 miles north of downtown Fort Worth, in Westlake, Texas. The property is approximately 279 total acres on two parcels. The Circle T Ranch parcel contains 128 acres while the Circle T Power Center parcel contains 151 acres.

Cottonwood Mall is located 7.5 miles from downtown Salt Lake City, in the city of Holladay, Utah. Kendall Town Center is a mixed-used site located at the intersection of North Kendall Drive. It owns the 70 acres, which are entitled for 621,300 square feet of retail, 60,000 square feet of office space, and a 50,000 square foot community center. Lakemoor (Volo) Land is 40-acre vacant land parcel is located 50 miles north of Chicago in a growing suburb. Maui Ranch Land consists of two, non-adjacent, 10 acre undeveloped land-locked parcels located near the Kula Forest Preserve on the island of Maui, Hawaii. The land is zoned for native vegetation.

Nouvelle at Natick is a luxury condominium community consists of 215 residences located in the Natick Collection in the Boston suburb of Natick, Massachusetts. Nouvelle at Natick�� amenities include a 4,000 square foot private club, a 2,800 square foot fitness center and a 1.2-acre rooftop garden with winding boardwalks, native grasses, flowers and trees. As of December 31, 2012 the condominium units were sold out. Redlands Promenade is a 10 acre site located at Eureka, which is entitled for 125,000 square feet of retail development.The Redlands Mall is a single-level, 174,787 square foot enclosed shopping center at the intersection of Redlands Boulevard and Orange Street. As of December 31, 2012, anchored by CVS, Denny�� and Union Bank, the site is located in downtown Redlands two blocks south of the Redlands Promenade site. West Windsor is a former Wyeth Agricultural Research & Deve! lopment C! ampus on Quakerbridge Road. The land consists of 658 total acres.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By George Putnam]

  With a new CEO and board of directors it emerged from court protection in November, 2010 as two companies, General Growth, a REIT, and Howard Hughes Corp. (HHC), which focuses on master planned communities.

Best High Tech Companies To Watch In Right Now: SG Spirit Gold Inc (SG&A)

SG Spirit Gold Inc. (SG Spirit Gold) is an exploration-stage company. As of December 31, 2011, SG Spirit Gold is focused on the acquisition and subsequent development of the Buchans Property and Bobby's Pond property located in Central Newfoundland. As of December 31, 2011, the Company has 100% interest in approximately 46,000 hectares of mineral tenure in southern BC. PJX Resources Inc. The Buchans area properties contain 512 claims totaling 13,433 hectares, including the former producing Buchans Mine - one of Canada's base metal mines, which produced 16.2 million tons between 1928 and 1984, grading 14.51% zinc, 1.33% copper, 7.56% lead, 126 gram/ton silver and 1.37 gram/ton gold. The Daniel's Pond is located within the Tulks North property, in the same mineral belt as Messina Minerals' Boomerang deposit. Bobby's Pond is located 20 kilometers west by road from Teck's Duck Pond mine. It has several properties within the Hughes Range of the western Rocky Mountains. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Magic Diligence]

  Kraft inserts the valuation effects of its pension plans directly into its income statement, embedded within the cost of sales and selling, general and administrative (SG&A) line items. This has a significant effect on operating earnings and earnings per share, effects which most screeners do not (and can not) take into account.

Best High Tech Companies To Watch In Right Now: Dot Hill Systems Corporation(HILL)

Dot Hill Systems Corp. designs, manufactures, and markets a range of software and hardware storage systems for the entry and midrange storage markets worldwide. Its storage solutions consist of integrated hardware, firmware, and software products employing a modular system that allows end-users to add various protocol, performance, capacity, or data protection schemes. The company offers AssuredSAN products, a flexible line of networked data storage solutions for open systems environments, including fiber channel, Internet small computer systems interface, and serial attached small computer systems interface, or SAS storage markets. Its AssuredSAN product lines range from approximately 146 gigabyte to 192 terabyte storage systems. The company also provides RAID software for industry standard Windows and Linux servers, as well as storage management applications, which manage its storage system configurations. In addition, it sells DMS software products comprising AssuredSna p, AssuredCopy, AssuredRemote, and RAIDar. Further, the company offers standalone storage software products, such as AssuredUVS, a unified virtual storage appliance product; and AssuredVRA. It sells its products through original equipment manufacturers, systems integrators, distributors, and value added resellers. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Longmont, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  On Monday, small cap storage stock Violin Memory Inc (NYSE: VMEM) surged 21.56% after booting out its CEO in the wake of disappointing earnings and IPO, meaning its time to take a closer look at the stock along with the performance of potential or better known storage peers like large caps SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) and Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ: WDC) plus small cap Dot Hill Systems Corp (NASDAQ: HILL).

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap storage stock Dot Hill Systems Corp (NASDAQ: HILL) is up 193.4% since the start of the year for a much better performance than its larger cap peers Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ: WDC) and SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), which are 55.5% and 35.3%, respectively, since the start of the year. So why has this relatively unknown small cap storage stock been a better performer than its better known storage stock peers?

Best High Tech Companies To Watch In Right Now: MICROS Systems Inc (MCRS)

MICROS Systems, Inc. (MICROS), incorporated on September 8, 1977, is a global designer, manufacturer, marketer, and servicer of enterprise information solutions for the global hospitality and retail industries. The Company operates in two segments: the United States/Canada and International. The retail industry consists of retail operations selling directly to consumers, including retailers of clothing, shoes, food, hardware, jewelry, and other specialty items. Its enterprise information solutions consists three areas: hotel information systems, restaurant information systems and retail information systems. In addition to its software enterprise solutions and hardware products, it offers a range of services and other products for its hotel, restaurant and retail information systems. The hotel information systems consist of software, encompassing property based management systems (PMS), related property-specific modules and applications, and central systems, including central reservation systems (CRS). The restaurant information systems consist of hardware and software for point-of-sale (POS) and operational applications, a range of back office applications, including inventory, labor and financial management, and centrally hosted enterprise applications. The retail information systems consist of hardware and software encompassing POS, loss prevention, Web commerce applications, business analytics, customer gift cards, electronic payments and enterprise applications. Its retail solutions are provided through its MICROS-Retail group of subsidiaries, which includes Datavantage, CommercialWare, Advance Retail Systems (Mexico), MICROS Retail and Manufacturing Ltd. (United Kingdom), eOne, Fry, Fortech (Italy), MICROS eCommerce EAME (London), and MICROS Retail Austria GmbH. On May 31, 2012, MICROS acquired Torex Retail Holdings, Ltd. of Dunstable, England (Torex).

Hotel Information Systems

For the hotel and resort industry, the Company develops, distributes, and supports a range of ! hotel software products and services under the OPERA brand name. Its OPERA suite includes PMS, sales and catering, CRS, customer information system, revenue management, sales support, data mining, financial statements, condominium reservations and accounting, golf reservations, spa management, and quality management. It also offers a range for OPERA, which enables guest check-in and check-out, and other interactive features, through a kiosk.

The PMS software provides for hotel room check-in and checkout, reservations, guest accounting, travel agent accounting, and engineering management. The PMS software also interfaces to central reservation systems, to on-line travel services, and to global distribution systems. The OPERA sales and catering software enables hotel sales staff to evaluate, reserve and invoice meetings, banquets and related events for a property. The OPERA CRS software enables hotels to coordinate, process, track, and analyze hotel room reservations at a central facility for electronic distribution to the appropriate lodging site. The OPERA revenue management software enables hotels to manage room rates, occupancy, and the mix of business between corporate and transient customers. It also offers an Internet-based hotel reservation service through its myfidelio.net service. This service enables corporations, tourist representation services, and consumers to reserve rooms and manage reservations directly with designated hotels. This service also enables those hotel properties without internal reservation capabilities to outsource to us the maintenance of their connectivity to the global distribution systems and certain alternative distribution systems. The Company offers limited versions of the OPERA property management system called OPERA Xpress, OPERA Lite, and Operetta. As of June 30, 2012, approximately 20,200 hotel sites have installed either OPERA, OPERA Xpress PMS, OPERA Lite, or Operetta.

OPERA runs on two operating systems: Microsoft Windows (Server and X! P) and IB! M AIX, and uses an Oracle database. It offers hosting services for hotel customers in various data centers globally (including Ashburn and Manassas, Virginia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Frankfurt, Germany, and Singapore) with the OPERA applications accessed through Internet or high speed connections. In addition to OPERA, it supports a range of hotel software products (PMS and other modules) under the Fidelio Version 7.0 brand name. Fidelio Version 7.0 uses the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface and runs on an Oracle database. As of June 30, 2012, approximately 2,875 hotels were using Fidelio Version 7.0. The Company also markets a PMS product in Europe under the brand name Fidelio Version 8. This product uses the Windows operating system with an Oracle database. As of June 30, 2012, the product was installed in over 3,750 hotel sites.

Through the Company�� subsidiary Fidelio Cruise, it markets the Ships Property Management System (SPMS) suite of applications, which includes a PMS product designed for use by the cruise industry. The SPMS application enables cruise operators to manage passenger, visitor, group, and crew information at various stages from check-in to check-out, invoicing, credit card handling with online functionality, safety and security, and automated check-in with picture taking for passengers, crew, and visitors. The software maintains the count of passengers and staff on-board, as required by international industry regulations. In addition SPMS modules support the operation of on-board health spas, on-board MICROS point-of-sale systems, on-board business centers, on-board medical centers, and on-board casinos, as well as shore excursions. It also markets Fidelio Cruise Crew Management System, which supports the shore side and shipboard crew resource operations for a cruise ship, and the Fidelio Cruise Fleet Management System, which enables fleet-wide data analysis for cruise ship operators. Fidelio Cruise software is installed on approximately 220 cruise ships.

Restaurant Information Systems

The Company�� restaurant systems include POS applications, kitchen product applications, mobile applications, marketing applications, and hardware. Its front-of-house restaurant products operate on either industry standard personal computers (PCs) or terminals that have additional functionality and design appropriate for food service environments. The workstations the Company has designed, and which it markets and sells, are the Workstation 5A and 2015 PC Workstation. It also integrates other hardware devices into its complete product offerings.

Workstation 5A is a PC based POS terminal using Microsoft�� Embedded CE 6.0 and POSReady 2009 operating systems. The MICROS 2015 PC Workstation is a POS terminal designed to operate its restaurant applications and other third party PC-based software applications. The product uses Intel chip architecture. It can be configured to accommodate memory and storage requirements. The product supports Microsoft operating systems and Linux.

The Protege Customer Display System and MICROS Order Confirmation Systems are designed for the quick service restaurant market, and provide information to a restaurant�� customers regarding their order. The Protege Customer Display System is connected to a MICROS Workstation. It is a Microsoft Windows CE client equipped with a touchscreen allowing for interactive use. The MICROS Order Confirmation System is also a Microsoft Windows CE client, and provides order detail through a remote 15 inches daylight viewable display. It also markets a product named the Keyboard Workstation 270. This product enables orders to be entered through the MICROS Simphony and 9700 HMS through a workstation with a keyboard interface in lieu of a touchscreen. The Keyboard Workstation is used in institutional food service environments, convention centers, and sports complexes. Through its JTECH subsidiary, it offers pagers, wireless systems, alert software, and related products for! use in r! estaurants, retail, medical, and other environments.

The Company resells various other hardware products, including personal computers, servers, printers, network cards, and other related computer equipment. The Company�� restaurant POS software systems are Simphony, the MICROS Restaurant Enterprise Series (3700 POS) system, the MICROS 9700 Hospitality Management System (HMS), Hospitality Solution�� Profit Series, and the MICROS e7 Series. These systems provide transaction control for table service, quick service and food service and entertainment venues. Its design architecture enables existing users of MICROS POS products to access third party software applications in conjunction with their existing MICROS POS systems. In addition, MICROS restaurant information system products interface with back office accounting and property management systems, including its hotel PMS products.

The Simphony software solution is designed to be an all-inclusive software application for use by table service restaurants, quick service restaurants, and enterprise operations. It is capable of operating at single site venues, such as airport and other travel-related food service concessions, casinos, theme parks, and resorts as well multi-unit quick service and table service restaurant operations. The enterprise Simphony database is supported either by Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle. As of June 30, 2012, MICROS has installed over 9,300 sites with Simphony, and hosts approximately 800 of those sites.

The MICROS 9700 HMS is designed for leisure and entertainment venues, which include resorts, casinos, airport and other travel-related food service concessions, stadiums/arenas, theme parks, table service and quick service restaurants in hotels, and restaurants. The MICROS 3700 POS is designed for table service and quick service restaurants. It has an open systems architecture using the Microsoft�� Windows operating system and a Sybase relational database, and can run on standard PCs! or works! tations. It uses a color touch screen with a Microsoft Windows based graphical user interface.

The Company markets a range of back office and operation focused software solutions, which extend beyond point-of-sale. The suite is called the MICROS Restaurant Enterprise Series (RES). The MICROS RES software solutions include point-of-sale transaction control, restaurant operations, data analysis, and communications. The POS software comprises the front-end application for the RES system. The restaurant operations modules include inventory, product forecasting, labor management, financial management, gift cards, customer loyalty and enterprise data management. Other components include Mobile MICROS and MICROS RES Kiosk, which enables customer information and self-ordering on third-party kiosks or directly through the use of smart phones and tablets.

For management of multiple restaurants, MICROS RES includes a range of software products called Enterprise Management. This suite enables data to be transmitted to a remote site for data collection and analysis. In addition, pricing and menu changes can be made from a remote site and downloaded to specified restaurant locations. It also markets a POS system called MICROS e7. This product runs on the MICROS Workstation 5 and 5A series and uses the Microsoft Windows CE Operating system. The Company markets an Internet-based portal product called mymicros.net. The mymicros.net product posts restaurant transaction POS detail to a centralized data warehouse in near real time. This product enables the customer to view reports and charts for a single site, a group of restaurants, or the entire enterprise from any location that has an Internet connection. In addition, mymicros.net incorporates additional products for inventory management, labor scheduling and control, gift cards, loyalty cards and other marketing programs. The mymicros.net software product can either be purchased through a perpetual use license or by an annual or multi-year so! ftware-as! -a-service (SaaS) subscription contract. It hosts mymicros.net, Simphony, and other hosted POS-related applications in the same data centers where it offers hosting services for its OPERA PMS. As of June 30, 2012, it hosted applications supporting over 29,000 restaurants.

Retail Information Systems

Through the Company�� MICROS-Retail group of subsidiaries (MICROS-Retail), it markets retail store software systems, direct commerce solutions and business intelligence applications. The retail store software systems are called Store21 Store Management System (Store21), Tradewind Store Management System (Tradewind) and Xstore Store Management System (Xstore). Store21 is a POS product designed for specialty retailers. The products operate on Microsoft�� Windows NT and 2000 and 2003 operating systems and use a Sybase database. Both products can be integrated with the retailer�� back office systems, and it also offers additional back office, communications, and reporting modules for use with Tradewind and Store21.

Xstore is the Company�� retail POS software system. It is a full service oriented architecture (SOA) compliant architecture. It runs on the Sun Microsystems Java operating system, and its architecture enables it to be integrated to both Windows and Linux-based back office systems. It can operate on any Java compatible operating system and database. Like Store21 and Tradewind, its predecessor products, Xstore is a front-end POS software system. Xstore is designed to run in a Windows or a Linux environment, while Store21 and Tradewind, as designed, can operate only in a Windows environment.

The Company offers the MICROS-Retail Home Office Business Intelligence Suite for retail stores, which includes loss prevention (marketed under the trade name XBR), customer relationship management, gift cards (marketed under the trade name Relate), and audit control (marketed under the trade name Balance). It also offers XBR to its restaurant customers throug! h MICROS ! provided centrally hosted or self-hosted environment. MICROS-Retail also offers in-store mobile solutions with Apple Corporation�� iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad systems. These solutions enable the store associate to ring up sales, handle inventory and service customers using the mobile devices. MICROS-Retail offers an eCommerce platform with features, marketed under the trade name Open Commerce Platform, as well as creative and design services to help customers create custom Websites.

MICROS-Retail offers order management and order broker software and services (marketed under the trade names CW Serenade and Locate, respectively), which enable a retailer to manage customer purchase transactions through multiple sources, including a store, the Internet, catalog phone-in orders, call centers, kiosks, and wireless devices. MICROS-Retail develops, supports, and distributes software solutions, which provides for collaborative end-to-end product and supplier lifecycle management and ingredient legal compliance tracking under the names Creations and myCreations. Creations and myCreations customers include accounts, such as Tesco, Sainsbury��, Wm Morrison, Sobeys, H.E. Butt, Metro, Kodak, Bodyshop and Booker.

The Company provides a range of services to its customers, including system installation, operator and manager training, on-site hardware maintenance, customized software development, application software support and credit card software support. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012 (fiscal 2012), service revenue constituted approximately 65.6% of its total revenue. Maintenance service contracts include on-site and depot hardware maintenance, application software support, credit card software support, and software hosting. The Company provides on-site hardware maintenance and software support through a combination of direct and indirect channels. The on-site hardware maintenance is provided to customers using MICROS POS hardware and software systems. It also operates other! more lim! ited help desk operations, including Fidelio Cruise support desks in Hamburg, Germany and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the JTECH help desk in Boca Raton, Florida, and a help desk in Scottsdale, Arizona for certain legacy POS products. Its corporate customer support center in Columbia, Maryland provides back-up support for its regional centers in Buenos Aires, Singapore, and Galway, and its research and development operation in Naples, Florida, provides support for its hotel software products. The regional support centers also provide back-up support and guidance for local and in-country support providers.

The Company operates data centers in Ashburn and Manassas, Virginia, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Frankfurt, Nottingham, England, and Singapore in conjunction with third-party vendors to serve as hosting centers for customers deploying its hosted and application service products. It offers Website design and portal management services, for the retail industry. These include the development and management a customer�� Website for ordering, sales promotion, and marketing. It also offers Web based marketing services to hotels, restaurants and retail companies.

The Company competes with NCR, Panasonic, Par Technology, Sharp, Agilysys, Positouch, Xpient Solutions, Casio, Dell, HP, IBM, Toshiba, Multi-Systems, Newmarket, Northwind, Par Technology, Protel, Softbrands, Pegasus, Trust International/TravelPort, Vantis, Sabre, TravelClick, Epicor, Escalate Retail, JDA Software, Oracle, SAP, DemandWare and eBay.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) announced its plans to buy Micros Systems (NASDAQ: MCRS) in a $5.3 billion deal.

  The offer price of $68 per share represents a 3.4% premium over Micros' closing price on Friday.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  MICROS Systems (Nasdaq: MCRS  ) is expected to report Q3 earnings on April 25. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

  The 10-second takeaway
  Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict MICROS Systems's revenues will expand 18.9% and EPS will grow 8.9%.