The Star 25/3/00 - Pica explained that it is still involved into long term e-venture, even though such image suffered some setback recently after Pica aborted the deal to buy a 10% stake in US-based Kalan Gold, which is involved in the production of multimedia content,manufacture and glocal distribution of wireless broadband netwok services, for RM11.4mil. It also denied selling of shares by major shareholder. Analyst Vincent Khoo from SG Research said the venture capital concept promoted by the company was very appropriate in today's business trends and Pica, which is the only such company listed on the KLSE, has attracted a lot of interest from foreign funds. Pica was involved in potential upstart business and not incubator projects that may take quite some time to develop, said the analyst.

The Star 18/3/00 - Pica (M) Corp Bhd and Leova Investments Ltd have mutually agreed to terminate further negotiations related to Pica's proposed acquisition of a 10% stake in Kalan Gold Corp. Pica however remained stead-fast in its strategy to invest in the Internet-realted industry which is seen by its derectors as high growth areas which would ensure long-term appreciation of the value of Pica's shareholders, it said. Through its wholly owned Pica dotCom Sdn Bhd would contine to evaluate numerious Internet proposals and had recently invested in Oxford Media Sdn Bhd (operator of Cybank 2000, an e-commerce service provider) and GloMatrix dotCom Sdn Bhd (a producer of cordless computer peripherals).

The Star 4/3/00 - GloMatrix dotCom Sdn Bhd which has come up with the first Malaysian-made cordless mouse, is expected to secure RM11mil in annual exports of the computer peripheral to the United States this year. Its MD Peter Kow said GloMatrix had spent about RM2mil on research and development and that the company was producing 45,000 mouse units a mouth from its factory in Subang. GloMatrix developed its own design, electronic circuitry and software on standard microprocessors. The other cordless peripherals to be launched this year ae the keyboard, presentation pointer and trackball. GloMatrix is also in the process of designing and manufacturing thum-print biometric verification into its mouse for use in banking and e-commerce sectors. These range of products are expected to generate turnovers of over RM16mil in 2001 and RM22mil in 2002. The company had already set up a branch office in Shenzhen, China to tap the computer giants' demand for Blue Tooth technology. GloMatrix was also looking at original equipment manufacturer contracts from major computer manufacturers in China.

(word of mouth) Feb 00 - *

The Star 2/3/00 - Pica Dotcom Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pica (M) Corporation Bhd, has acquired 20% or 250,000 ordinary shares of GloMatrix dotCom Sdn Bhd in November last year. This is part of Pica's strategic business plan to allocate 20% to 40% of its fund into IT or Internet related business ventures, the company said in a statement. To achieve a global presence for its current and future product lines, GloMatrix has formed a strategic market alliance with System Pro's Inc, an American computer marketing firm.