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In the Right Space at the Right Time: Companies Aligning for Growth(ACCESSWIRE (Canada) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Category: Baystreet Newswire Company: TDM Financial ID: 421264 Date: Wednesday, October 08, 2014 Ticker: OTC:BB:NXGA Whitefish, MT / October 8, 2014 / For any company, regardless of the industry, timing can be everything when it comes to increasing the likelihood of success or, importantly, catching Wall Street's attention. Potential catalysts can vary greatly, but it takes R&D ahead of time to be properly positioned when the time is ripe. Chance favors the prepared mind, as the old adage goes. These are some companies that have laid the groundwork over the years and now find themselves in opportune positions based on current events, or even better, overall trend shifts in the world today. Oculus Rift Release Next Galaxy Corp (OTC: NXGA) has been garnering more attention based on its advances in augmented and immersive Virtual Reality (VR) software development and content solutions. With the Oculus Rift rollout to developers, investors are paying close attention to the Consumer Virtual Reality market. Most of the attention has been centered on headgear, such as the Rift or even glasses made by smaller companies like Vuzix Corp. (OTC: VUZI). While that happens, Next Galaxy is quietly starting to receive recognition for its CEEK platform that is locked in on content and bringing Virtual Reality to a new level in combination with VR headsets. Remember, headsets are only one part of the VR equation; the other pillars are content and sound. While Next Galaxy works in-house with its own R&D team, it has also made the astute move to team with VR expert EON Reality to assist in developing CEEK, with a beta launch for the VR portal (www.ceek.com) planned for early in the fourth quarter and full-scale launch early in 2015, according to Next Galaxy. In the last three months, the company has seen its stock price more than double with average daily trading volumes starting to rise in the last couple weeks. Since the beginning of the year the stock has risen from 3 cents to 25 cents. Their latest coup has come in the form of a partnership with basketball coaching icon Jim Boeheim. Boeheim has been the head coach of Syracuse University's men's basketball team since 1976, amassing an amazing 948 wins, placing him as second all-time on the wins list of men's NCAA Division I coaches. Per the agreement, Boeheim will be opening the doors to his personal basketball court exclusively to Next Galaxy to create a fully immersive experience. Coach Boeheim appeared on CNBC's Squawk Alley last Thursday morning discussing VR technology. In a clip titled, "Virtual Reality Transports Sports Fans," Coach Boeheim explains why he is excited about VR as a fan, saying that Next Galaxy "has great ideas, something a fan is really going to enjoy watching a game, watching their favorite team, watching a musician…you're going to have a front row seat or an on stage seat and I think that's something that all fans are going to want. I think it's something that is going to happen in the very near future." CNBC followed that video with an article that featured an interview with Next Galaxy President and founder Mary Spio, in which Ms. Spio discussed how the company is taking VR "a step further" and what the partnership with Coach Boeheim means to opening new doors for Next Galaxy. The audio for the experience will be created using omnidirectional sound customized for listening through Ceekars, Next Galaxy's first-in-class audio headset. Ceekars is touted by Next Galaxy to provide 360-degree sound and pick up more frequencies than headsets today. If the blog post on the Next Galaxy website featuring a video titled "Ceekars Holophonic 3D Audio” is any indication of what's in store for the next generation of audio, Ceekars is something to pay close attention to going forward as a driver for Next Galaxy. Next Galaxy is making a name for itself in the VR industry not only for its products, but as a thought leader. In August, the company announced a partnership with the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce to which they are set to host The Business Innovation and Growth (B.I.G) Summit in Miami Beach, Florida. The popular annual summit caters to business and community leaders, C-level executives, venture capitalists, innovators and visionaries, providing increased exposure of Next Galaxy and its offerings. Randi Zuckerberg, a New York Times Bestselling author and former exec with brother Mark at Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), is the keynote speaker at the upcoming B.I.G. summit, which this year is centered on the topic of reimagining business with Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. "No matter how much people think they know what is coming, these revolutionary technologies are likely to exceed all expectations with applications canvasing social media, entertainment, business and much more," Ms. Zuckerberg was quoted in a NXGA press release, offering strong words about the impending impact VR. As VR takes center stage, Next Galaxy should continue to garner more attention. They are an industry innovator and thus positioned to capitalize on the popularity of the virtual reality movement over the coming months and years. Drone Popularity Rising Unmanned aircraft have been rising in popularity over the past few years and now drones are among the top autofill responses on Google when users start a search with the words "I want to buy," according to ConvergEx Group, a brokerage firm that keeps tabs on Google Trends data. The potential uses for drones are expansive, to say the least. Majors have put drones in the spotlight, including Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) acquiring drone startup Titan Aerospace shortly after Facebook disclosed buying Titan Aerospace competitor Ascenta, a U.K.-based company working on high altitude drones, as both companies look to expand their presence into new, relatively untapped markets. Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has raised eyebrows as well with its Amazon Prime Air initiatives, in which it envisions drones will quickly and efficiently deliver packages to consumers' doors in the future (assuming approval can be obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration). The military has embraced drone usage as the aircraft can gather intelligence and help keep soldiers safe. AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) has a family of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) that are operated with a common ground control system in its portfolio. These UAS cater to the military, tactical units and security personnel. Late in September, AeroVironment announced that it received a firm fixed-price order valued at $21.8 million for the company's RQ-12 Wasp(r) AE small UAS and initial spares packages for the United States Marine Corps. The RQ-12 Wasp AE, which has also been used by the U.S. Air Force, weighs less than 3 pounds, is launched by hand and can fly for nearly an hour at a range of up to 5 kilometers to deliver live, streaming color and infrared video. Only days after that news, AeroVironment announced three firm fixed-price orders from the United States Army totaling $27.2 million for RQ-11B Raven(r) and RQ-20A Puma AE™ UAS spare parts. Since May, the company has received orders for Raven and Puma AE UAS spare parts and Raven upgrades to $77.6 million. Further evidence of the interest in drones is shown by AeroVironment revenue rising in fiscal Q1 2015 (ended 8/2/2015) to $51.9 million, up 18% from the year prior quarter. A microcap looking to grow its footprint is Drone Aviation Holding Corp. (OTC: DRNE), a developer of specialized lighter-than-air aerostats and tethered drones that went public through a reverse merge with MacroSolve in April. By using tethered products, Drone Aviation offers unmanned aircraft that can fly within the current parameters of FAA guidelines that say unmanned aircraft can only be used legally for commercial purposes if they're connected to the ground. Similar to untethered drones, potential usages abound, including communications, monitoring/security, and intelligence. The company has established sales channels with the U.S. military, law enforcement, state Department of Transportations and municipal agencies. Examples of recent business activity include the delivery of specialized surveillance equipment to support the U.S. Army Rapid Equipping Force; delivery to a state agency customer an advanced day/night specialized video imaging package for use on its Blimp in a Box(r)-100 aerostat system; and delivery of an aerial photogrammetry package to a state agency for use in land management applications in August. Drone Aviation also said that its that the Blimp in a Box(r) aerostat system and the Winch Tethered Small Platform (WASP) product have been included in the U.S. General Services Administration Schedule through its existing distributor relationship with U.S. government prime contractor ADS Inc., the same company that works with AeroVironment. Interestingly, Dr. Phillip Frost, a former Director at Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) and former Chairman and CEO of IVAX Corp. until it was sold to Teva Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: TEVA) for $7.4 billion in 2005, led the investment in a recent private placement of DRNE shares. Dr. Frost agreed in September to head Drone Aviation Holding's newly formed Strategic Advisory Board. Joining Dr. Frost was joined on the new board by Steve Rubin, who current serves as EVP and Director at Opko Health (NYSE: OPK). With sales of $125,000 in the second quarter, Drone Aviation has a tall order in front of it to be mentioned in the same breath with other large drone plays. But as a pure play, it has attracted some solid advisors and finds itself in a quickly emerging space that presents an opportunity for growth if it can execute. Cyber Security Hits a Nerve Again The latest data breach, this time at JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), has cyber security firms getting a lift as the seriousness of problem to keep people's information secure is back in the spotlight. The cyber attack on the big bank affected some 76 million households and follows massive breaches at countless other large companies, including Target (NYSE: TGT), Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and P.F. Chang, to name just a few. Shares of biometric authentication company NXT-ID Inc. (NASDAQ: NXTD) have surged from $1.36 on September 19 to a high of $4.19 last Friday, including a pop of more than 30% following the JPM breach news. The company has MobileBio solutions is designed to mitigate risks associated with mobile computing, m-commerce and smart OS-enabled devices. The lead product in the franchise is called the Wocket, a next smart wallet meant to replace all the cards in a person's wallet by programming the Wocket with the information and having it only accessible through biometric technologies. NXT-ID has begun taking pre-orders for the Wocket, which sells for $150, and recently ran ads during market hours on CNBC in a bid to generate attention to the product's commercial launch. The launch comes at a time when interest in cyber security is ballooning, in part because of the recent announcement by Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) for its Apple pay for digital payments. There are clear differences between the two, including the Wocket being a separate device, not a smart phone application or technology; Apple Pay is only for iOS and iTunes users; and Apple Pay doesn't cover other cards, such as loyalty cards, that are often in a person's wallet. The proof is going to be in the pudding if NXT-ID can achieve scale and widespread consumer acceptance. Banks and businesses of all sizes may start becoming more proactive in protecting customers' data, rather than playing catch-up after a breach. This will bode well for many companies in the security sector that have seen a rise in value upon the JPM news. Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW) just received a price target increase at Piper Jaffrey from $110 to $120, which is nearly a 20% upside from current levels, in part on the basis on increasing demand and the strength of its Traps product and WlidFire Advanced Persistent Threats service. Proofpoint (NASDAQ: PFPT), which has a focus on email filtering and advanced threat protection, and Qualys (NASDAQ: QLYS), a company offering cloud security and compliance solutions, are other public firms that could benefit from heightened awareness for cyber security solutions. Conclusion These companies are innovators that are positioned to capitalize on favorable market conditions in their areas of expertise. Overall driving forces could serve as long-term catalysts to continue to spur demand. While there's no shortage of attention for other "hot button" plays, such as the Ebola outbreak, that type of energy often quickly dissipates. As it stands now, the market conditions for companies in Virtual Reality, drone technologies and cyber security should enable each to experience growth and for smaller firms to find additional funding as they execute their business models. Disclaimer: Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in this release contain 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. 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