Convergence is here!

Top of the heap this week is USA Video (US - CDNX) with the largest one week increase we've seen since we started these weekly updates - an astounding 264.34%. The impetus behind the surge in this full motion video developer was an announcement that the company had signed a six figure contract with Inetcable.com "to serve as a technology partner in broadcasting network television signals over the Internet". Networks from Canada, Mexico and the U.S. will be participating and the system will be unveiled Feb. 24th and 25th at the North American Broadcasters Association convention at Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida.

Live television signals will be compressed using USA Video's Wavelet compression technology and distributed through Inetcable's broadband satellite distribution. It will be the world's first international broadband netcasts at 30 frames a second. Convergence has truly arrived.

This comes hot on the heels of an announcement on January 18th that the company has an agreement with Urbana.ca Enterprises and Eagle Wireless for Eagle Wireless to produce the world's first Linux-Wavelet set-top box by the Spring of 2000.

Whether USA Video is a "Canadian" company (for RRSPs) is iffy. It trades on the Canadian Venture Exchange (US) and the OTC BB (USVO). Its Chief Financial Officer is a Canadian. The company is incorporated in the U.S. and headquartered in Mystic, Connecticut with offices in Santa Monica, California and Vancouver, B.C.. But I include it anyway. It is the subject of this week's profile.

Second this week is previously profiled Sideware Systems (SYD.U - CDNX), the creator of the Dr. Bean Customer Relationship Management software that lets businesses interact with customers online in real time. A partnership agreement with NEXGEN Solutions Inc. of Silver Springs, Maryland spurred a 104.23% jump in price. NEXGEN is a top Lotus Premium Partner and an IBM Business Partner. It's in its second consecutive week of double digit gains.

Three additional stocks gained over 80% for the week. EcomPark Inc. (EKP - CDNX) is sort of a mini-CMGI, investing in upstart Internet companies. It has an interest in Petopia, among other things. (You may have seen Petopia's banner ads here at About.com.) There was no news sparking the increase of 86.36%, though the Bullboards at Stockhouse.com mention that Yorkton Securities' Mark Pavan recommended the stock with a target price of $5.

Book4golf.com (BFG - CDNX) jumped 83.70% on release of Version 5.0 of its state-of-the-art Tee Sheet Calendar software.

And Montreal's Surefire Commerce, formerly Micro Tempus (MTP - TSE), soared 81.82% as it continues to inspire investors with its re-focus on e-commerce solutions. The company entered a strategic alliance with SKG Interactive in mid-December which will have Surefire become the preferred payment transaction processing partner of SKG's online shopping mall - NorstarMall.ca.

A week later Surefire announced the completion of the acquisition of the Sports and Entertainment Division of BCE Emergis Inc.. Taken a look at BCE Emergis's performance recently? The stock's on a tear and investors see positive synergies for Surefire as a result of its relationship with BCE Emergis.

Other Movers & Shakers - Infowave (IW - CDNX) is in its fourth week of double digit gains. Into a third week are Cyberplex (CX - TSE) and Eiger Technology (AXA - TSE).

Informission (IFN - TSE), which led the pack last week, is on its second consecutive week of double digit gains as are BCE Emergis (IFM - TSE), Big Picture Technologies (BPI - TSE), Softcare Electronic Commerce (SCE - CDNX), Burntsand Inc. (BRT - TSE), Net Nanny Software (NNS - CDNX) and Stox.com (URL - CDNX).

On the negative side, Diversinet (DVNT - CDN) took a big hit dropping a third from $30.00 to $20.00 in spite of a number of positive announcements. This is a volatile sector. Be careful out there!