Appiphany Technologies Holdings Corp (OTCMKTS:APHD) Making A Comeback

We covered Appiphany Technologies Holdings Corp (OTCMKTS:APHD) last time in May 2017. We mentioned that the company had delivered outstanding returns, but the price had collapsed later on. In our opinion, OTC Markets placed the "Caveat Emptor" as a result of this event. We researched again the company's profile on the OTC Markets website and saw that it had been removed. As this is a good news, we decided to have a look at APHD.We found a lot information including a letter from the CEO, a Letter of Intent to acquire ARALOC.com, new functionalities announced, and new contracts won by APHD. In this article, we will discuss all these news, but first have a look at the most recent share price action. 1 year chart for APHD 1 month chart for APHDBusinessLet's review the background of Appiphany Technologies for those who are reading about the company for the first time here. Its business objective is providing “global brand-protection” services; the protection of intellectual property of clients using risk management tools, technology innovation and strategic supply chain strategies. The two main products that are used to fulfill this goal are called “Watchdog Protect” and “Watchdog Locate”. There is plenty of information about these services in our previous articles called "Appiphany Technologies Holdings Corp (OTCMKTS:APHD) Gets Another Look" and "Appiphany Technologies Holdings Corp (OTCMKTS:APHD) Explodes Then Implodes". We highly recommend these articles for understanding the business of APHD.Recent DevelopmentsOn May 18, 2017, the market received a letter from CEO Rob Sargent wherein the executive explained many of the recent developments of the company. First of all, he attached a fact sheet issued by redchip.com, wherein there is an interesting assessment of the company's strategy and financial situation. We believe that the company's value proposition is best explained in this text:

"APHD is a global brand protection company operating in a $1.7 trillion counterfeit industry. It works on a business model that encompasses all areas of protecting intellectual property of global brand owners through risk management, technology innovation and strategic supply chain. Operating on a web-based platform, the company’s core focus is to identify, search and take action against illicit counterfeit products on web based platforms. It also operates in a limited competition market with highly fragmented and significant barriers to entry." Source

Additionally, the CEO gave some clarification for the 14C filing that appeared in May. The most relevant developments that he highlighted are the following:

• Changing the name of the Company from “Appiphany Technologies Holding Corp.” to “IP Risk Control Inc.”
• Increasing the number of authorized shares of common stock from one billion shares to five billion: Mr. Sargent explained that it will be necessary to pay for the acquisitions that the company may sign in the near future. We will provide information about the last one announced later on.

Regarding the increase in the number of authorized shares, the CEO noted that it will not increase dilution. The following were his words regarding these matters:

"What everyone should remember is this is a filing to increase the number of shares available to the corporation this does not mean an immediate dilution of same. As with all our financial activities, we tend to be conservative in this fashion converting/raising only as we see fit and when it is needed." Source

Furthermore, we could read that the company is being assisted by other parties in this regard. We believe that this fact is quite relevant, as the company can focus on its business objective, while other professionals look for other complementary businesses. The following part of the letter explains it very well. It is a good news, have a look:

"General and Acquisition financing we have been working hard with our partners and brokers to come up with a viable, long term model to facilitate one of our growth patterns namely grow via acquisition. To that end, we are working primarily with 2 parties on this front that have the long-term prospects of the company at heart and we hope will have more of a long play with our stock." Source

In our opinion, the news that came out on June 12, 2017 is the result of this hard work. On that date, the company announced that it had signed a Letter of Intent to acquire "the technology, sales assets, and customers of Modevitys enterprise cloud-based data storage, protection and workflow automation platform, ARALOC."What's exactly ARALOC?We could read that it is a software developed in 2004 that, based on SaaS, delivers full encryption and digital rights management. Additionally, the most relevant is that it helps organization gain compliance with many security regulations; HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, ITAR, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and others.When is the acquisition contract going to be signed? In the press release, it was said that the two companies are working to complete the transaction as efficiently as possible. Additionally, it was said to be accretive to earnings beginning Q2 FY 2018 and onwards. Once the contract is signed and announced, the share price could move quite a bit, so we encourage readers to follow closely every announcement made by the company. It will be a great catalyst for the stock.On June 27, 2017, it was released that ClassiDocs, which had been acquired in April 2017, developed a new functionality, which was explained with the following terms:

"ClassiDocs unveiled new functionality that enables any organization to trigger orchestration events based on Classified Data Events – ‘do that when this is found’ – bringing additional leadership to the Data Classification and Governance marketplace." Source

Finally, on July 11, 2017, it was announced that the company signed a 12-month term contract with a client, which is needed to monitor its intellectual property and products across more than 30 global auction sites. The client's name was not disclosed for security reasons, but from the number of sites, we could say that it is not a small client.ConclusionAPHD is making significant efforts to regain the trust of the market. The name change and the acquisition of new businesses are good business decisions that will help in these regards. Additionally, we could read that the company continues to develop software in house, while it is helped by finance professionals that do the M&A work for the company. This is a good news, as the employees are not distracted from the company's main business objective. Finally, we will need to be alert, as the company may announce the signing of the acquisition agreement with Modevitys soon, which will be a great catalyst for the stock.Be sure to check out our coverage on APHD!We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on APHD, sign up below!Image courtesy of Thomas Cowart via FlickrDisclosure: We have no position in APHD and have not been compensated for this article.