Cowpland leads Zim to turn a profit

In the wake of job cuts at Sun, Nortel and other major vendors, Network World editors had to look hard to find a company whose net income increased. Zim Corp. of Ottawa, which makes software for databases and mobile applications, announced net earnings of $1,961 for the quarter ending Sept. 30. This compares to a quarterly loss of $101,207 a year earlier. The vendor’s services include Mobile Gateway, which is designed to manage content distribution and billing among wireless carriers. Its chief executive officer, Michael Cowpland, rose to fame as a founder of Newbridge Networks later president of graphics software vendor Corel Corp. He bought a majority interest in Zim in 2001. ZIM said as of Sept. 30 it had $457,326 in cash, up from $ 401,525 on June 30. Cowpland attributed the profit to a focus on high-margin services.