With the coronavirus disrupting business as usual, the world is seeing a massive increase in demand for remote work tools, including video conferencing, live streaming and remote training. All, as the outbreak forces many companies to rely solely on business conferencing tools, as many employees now work from home. In fact, some of the top companies demanding such tools include Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Apple, and Amazon, which have all rolled out mandatory work-from-home policies.
From here, demand is only likely to push even higher with the coronavirus keeping many of us at home. As of mid-March 2020, there was a “major spike in remote work across the world. Now, the majority of employees in North America (85%), Europe (79%), China and Hong Kong (64%), APAC (59%), and the Middle East and Africa (53%) are working from home,” as highlighted by Tech Republic. Some of the top companies leading the microgrid charge include NexTech AR Solutions (OTCQB: NEXCF)(CSE: NTAR), Zoom Video Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:ZM), Slack Technologies Inc. (NYSE:WORK), Dropbox Inc. (NASDAQ:DBX), and RingCentral Inc. (NYSE:RNG).
NexTech AR Solutions (OTCQB: NEXCF)(CSE: NTAR) BREAKING NEWS: NexTech AR Solutions, a leader in augmented reality for eCommerce and AR learning applications, is pleased to announce that it has acquired virtual events, remote video training, live streaming software company Jolokia; whose customers include, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, Viacom, Polycom and others. The Jolokia platform generated $1mill USD in SaaS revenue for 2019.
The transaction was an all-stock purchase with an initial payment to Jolokia shareholders of 1 million common shares of Nextech AR Solutions in restricted stock at a deemed price of $1.00 USD ($1.38 CAD) per share. The terms included a 12 month earn out if the platform generates up to $4million in additional revenue an additional $4mill in restricted stock can be issued.
Pete Mastin, CEO of Jolokia comments, “With the integration of NexTech’s augmented reality holograms, our Inferno platform is well positioned as the most advanced Event Management and Digital Video Learning Platform in market today. Combining live broadcasting with Interactive Video, Artificial Intelligence and Holograms, corporations are now able to rapidly deliver immersive, engaging learning experiences anywhere” He continues, “We are very excited to merge with NexTech AR as we believe the combination of our Inferno Platform with NexTech’s formidable tech stack will create a new generation of Learning & Development products that will gamify the learning experience in a way that has not been seen before.”
Mark Pace CTO/Co-Founder of Jolokia comments “I am extremely enthusiastic about participating in the melding of Augmented reality with our Inferno advanced learning platform. It has always been a vision of ours to build a platform that allowed learners to rapidly move from maximal engagement via interactive video and gamification of video learning content - to experiential learning through Augmented reality and ultimately virtual reality. With Apple, Google (and others) releasing VR glasses in the next 12 months - we know that the next generation of learning platforms has to include these technologies - and the combination our technology stack with NextechAR’s puts us in the position to be a dominant player in the space.
Evan Gappelberg, CEO of NexTech commented “We are thrilled to close on this acquisition and welcome the Jolokia team of 10 to Nextech. Jolokia has built an impressive SaaS platform for education and product training which when combined with AR creates a truly unique and industry leading virtual events product offering” Gappelberg continues “Imagine watching a training video, or going to a virtual conference or webinar and being able to take what you are seeing on screen and put it in the room with you as a 3D/AR volumetric experience. The integration of AR in video training, virtual conferences or webinars provide us with a competitive differentiation and a very timely addition to our AR omni-channel offerings. With the spread of the Cronovirus all governments, Learning Institutions and Corporations are forcing a huge paradigm shift in society to remote work, training and learning creating what we believe will be strong demand for this type of product offering”.
With corporate meetings and events going virtual through online collaboration and web conferencing tools, NexTech has developed a method to seamlessly integrate 3D photo realistic holograms of people and products to these virtual events through it’s ARitize App. Whether you need to host a full-featured conference, a keynote for a major product announcement, a virtual booth to welcome your partners, investors, and advocates, or remote training sessions, NexTech is able to help you reach the heart of your audience, with our unique AR touch.
Try our demonstration video - https://vimeo.com/398866849
The global coronavirus pandemic has disrupted all large gatherings. Demand for remote training is surging which will undoubtedly drive awareness and adoption of the company’s video conferencing, live streaming and remote training platform with integrated AR features. Many global companies including Google, Microsoft, Twitter. Hitachi, Apple, Amazon, Chevron, Salesforce and Spotify have rolled out mandatory work-from-home policies amid the spread of Covid-19. The fast-spreading Covid-19, has increased demand for Jolokia’s software as schools close, business travel, conferences and leisure travel are all cancelled and more employees work from home. The work-from-home trend had already started with ZOOM’s (ZM) popularity before the Coronavirus. Now that the Coronavirus has emerged demand has surged which should drive demand for the merged company’s remote-work AR tools which include: AR-virtual conferences, AR-live streaming, AR-webcasting, AR-remote training.
Other related developments from around the markets include:
Zoom Video Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:ZM) announced robust security enhancements with the upcoming general availability of Zoom 5.0, a key milestone in the company’s 90-day plan to proactively identify, address, and enhance the security and privacy capabilities of its platform. By adding support for AES 256-bit GCM encryption, Zoom will provide increased protection for meeting data and resistance against tampering. “I am proud to reach this step in our 90-day plan, but this is just the beginning. We built our business by delivering happiness to our customers. We will earn our customers’ trust and deliver them happiness with our unwavering focus on providing the most secure platform,” said Eric S. Yuan, CEO of Zoom. "When faced with questions over security and privacy, Zoom reacted quickly and very publicly to the challenges, including their CEO holding weekly public security briefings," notes Wayne Kurtzman, IDC Research Director for Social, Communities, and Collaboration. "Zoom was also quick to take actions on changing the defaults that helped address meeting privacy concerns, as well as setting a 90-day plan for deeper actions, and communicating it publicly."
Slack Technologies Inc. (NYSE:WORK) reported financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended January 31, 2020. “We continue to see significant momentum in our enterprise business and finished the year with 70 customers spending more than $1 million annually on Slack, up 79% year-over-year,” said Stewart Butterfield, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Slack. “As the shift from email to channel-based messaging platforms continues, the largest companies around the world are choosing to standardize on Slack because of our enterprise-grade scalability, security, open platform, ease-of-use and innovative roadmap.”
Dropbox Inc. (NASDAQ:DBX) announced that it will report financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020 after market close on Thursday, May 7, 2020. The company will also hold a conference call on the same day at 2:00 PM PT / 5:00 PM ET to discuss its financial results with the investment community. The conference call can be accessed by dialing (877) 300-7844 from the United States or (786) 815-8440 internationally with reference to the company name and conference title, and a live webcast and replay of the conference call can be accessed from the Dropbox investor relations website at http://investors.dropbox.com.
RingCentral Inc. (NYSE:RNG), a leading provider of global enterprise cloud communications, collaboration, and contact center solutions, announced that the San Francisco Business Times and the Silicon Valley Business Journal recognized RingCentral as a 2020 Bay Area Best Places to Work and as a Bay Area Workplace Wellness Award recipient. The awards are based on the results of an independent survey conducted by Quantum Workplace. Bay Area award applicants were evaluated and ranked across five categories based on the number of employees. The ranking found companies in the region whose employees rate them as the highest on such values as fun, collaborative culture, solid compensation, benefits offerings, and other amenities as well as management practices.
Legal Disclaimer / Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in this article contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Winning Media which has a partnership with www.wallstreetnation.com is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority and does not provide nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release. For making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own advice. Winning Media, which has a partnership with www.wallstreetnation.com, is only compensated for its services in the form of cash-based compensation. Pursuant to an agreement between Winning Media (partners of www.wallstreetnation.com) and NexTech AR Solutions, Winning Media has been paid three thousand five hundred dollars for advertising and marketing services for NexTech AR Solutions We own ZERO shares of NexTech AR Solutions. Please click here for full disclaimer.
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