Tech Profits From 3-D & Cinema Expansion Initiatives (AIXD, DIS, GE, NWS, VIA, DWA)

A small company called Access Integrated Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AIXD) made an announcement this morning that it received commitments from four major movie studios to provide movies to up to 10,000 digital cinemas in the U.S. and in Canada that will be in conformance with the DCI specifications.  The four studios are as follows:

• Disney (NYSE: DIS),
• News Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) 20th Century Fox,
• Viacom Inc.’s (NYSE: VIA) Paramount,
• and General Electric’s (NYSE: GE) Universal Pictures.

This will take three years to complete, but the studios have agreed to pay virtual print fees for a limited time (it does not only a limited time) for movies projected on its systems.  This will help in the commitment for 3-D delivery on select features, and we’d note that Dreamworks (NYSE: DWA) just signaled this morning that the animation studio would be releasing a 3-D film that has been under works called "Monsters vs. Aliens" in 3-D next year.

Access Integrated Technologies is seeing shares up more than 25% to $3.21 today and its market cap is a mere $84 million after this pop.  Its 52-week trading range is $2.05 to $9.68.  We may be looking farther into the financial terms there for our weekly "Stocks Under $10" letter, so stay tuned on this one.  This would be up far more than this amount of the company didn’t have this one listed as for "a limited time only."

Jon C. Ogg
March 11, 2008