It was a brave move by Brian Long and his colleagues to go ahead with the flotation of Parthus in London and Nasdaq last week given the state the markets were in. But that bravery has been well rewarded with the shares jumping 66 per cent from the placing price and holding most of those gains despite some mild profit-taking.
Current Account doesn't pretend to fully understand what most of the Irish technology companies actually do. But the markets apparently believe that Parthus's business - developing semiconductor intellectual property software for e-commerce on mobile phones and then licensing that intellectual property to manufacturers - is a better bet than the product of the plethora of other technology companies, whose shares have gone down the sinkhole.
The trials and tribulations of other Irish tech companies have been well documented by now, but one can't help feeling that just as Baltimore was grossly overvalued when it was pushed up to £15 sterling (€24.5), it has also been oversold at current prices below £4.
Sure, the megabuck share sales by Fran Rooney and Henry Beker were badly mistimed and failed to gauge the effect in the market (who advised Messrs Rooney and Beker?) and, sure, Baltimore is going to be ignominiously dumped from the Footsie next month. But at current levels, the shares do look a good long-term investment.
It won't be much consolation to Fran Rooney, but he's going to be in good company when Baltimore exits London's most exclusive share club. Almost certain to join Baltimore as the shortest-lived Footsie members are Psion, which makes those natty little hand-held computers, Internet operation Thus and Kingston Communications.
