Wave Systems Expands Carmaker Contract

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- Wave System (WAVX) shares were poised to trade higher Thursday after the hardware-based PC security company announced an expansion of a contract.

Wave Systems said it has received $5.2 million in additional license and maintenance orders through its PC OEM partners on behalf of a U.S.-based automotive company.

In January, Wave Systems received $5.7 million in orders for software licenses and maintenance from the automaker. The expansion brings the total value of the software orders to $10.9 million.

The contract expansion also hastens the deployment of the software. Wave Systems has recorded $1.9 million in contracts as revenue in 2010. The company said another $6.7 million will be recorded as revenue over the next 12 months, with the remaining $2.3 million to be recognized as revenue in 2012 through 2014.

The stock rose nearly 8% on Wednesday to $4.17 and was trading higher in Thursday's premarket session.

Wave Systems said the automaker selected the company's EMBASSY Remote Administration Server (ERAS) to manage its global fleet of employee laptops equipped with self-encrypting drives. The drives safeguard sensitive data such as customer information, financial data and intellectual property.

The hardware-based security offers several benefits over software encryption, Wave Systems says, including the ability to encrypt all the contents of the drive without impacting performance.

Wave Systems shares have languished below the $5 mark, partly due to the company's frequent need to issue stock in order to fund research and development of its security technology. In the first few months of 2009, Wave Systems launched four separate stock offerings totaling nearly $6.3 million.

In a March interview with TheStreet, Wave Systems CEO Steven Sprague said the aggressive capital raising was "the old story of getting to where we are now."

"The need for data-protection and network access and the performance of solutions have become very clearly understood," Sprague said in March. "Security is now something you can buy that's built-in, and it is emerging as an interesting solution."

-- Written by Robert Holmes in Boston.



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