Notice regarding dataHQ

Monday May 18, 2015.

It was announced that BBY Pty Ltd has been placed into voluntary administration. BBY HomeTrader Pty Ltd, as a subsidiary, was also placed into voluntary administration. Administration is a process that is initiated when a company decides that its debts cannot be paid in a timely manner. An external controller is appointed to the company to determine the state of the company and whether the creditors will be paid any of the debt owing to them, and to establish whether the company will be liquidated.

BBY HomeTrader has been responsible for the dataHQ update service, by acting as an independent re-seller of similar services provided directly to its own customers by Norgate Investor Services Pty Ltd (trading as Premium Data).

Norgate wrote to the Voluntary Administrator (KPMG) asking to be registered as an unsecured creditor of BBY HomeTrader Pty Ltd and requesting information as to the status of the “dataHQ” service.

Wednesday June 10, 2015

Norgate received verbal advice that the assets of BBY Hometrader Pty Ltd have been purchased.

Friday June 12, 2015

Correction to previous notice above: Norgate has been advised that the BBY Hometrader Pty Ltd assets have not actually been purchased yet. This appears to be because BBYHT's "Australian Financial Services Licence" has been suspended by ASIC. A detailed report from the administrators was also received which showed that, absent a sale of the business, unsecured creditors had no likelihood of receiving any payment for outstanding debts.

Friday June 19, 2015

The dataHQ server that controls subscriptions and renewals is offline. If your subscription has expired this means that your subscription was not renewed by that site. This does not mean that Norgate has turned off the data supply.

Wednesday Jun 24, 2015

We have been advised that the dataHQ server that controls subscriptions and renewals remains offline and this situation is unlikely to be resolved in the near future.

Wednesday 2 Sep, 2015

We have been advised by the last remaining employee with APP Securities with knowledge of the dataHQ business, Kieren McPherson, this his employment has been terminated and that APP Securities are not interested in reactivating any part of the dataHQ business.

Background

BBY Hometrader is the successor to several corporate entities that have been responsible for offering and managing the “dataHQ” update service. However, from the very beginning, Norgate Investor Services has always supplied the actual data, as a licensed data vendor for the ASX and other exchanges.

The “dataHQ” updating application is a “white labelled” version of Norgate’s “Premium Data” updating application. The historical data made available to dataHQ subscribers is identical to that provided by Norgate to its own Premium Data customers.

As an independent re-seller with its own e-commerce solution, dataHQ has always been able to offer its own subscription terms, which are different to those offered by Premium Data. In particular, dataHQ has offered monthly subscriptions with automatic subscription renewal. Premium Data offers 6 or 12 month subscriptions that are not automatically renewed.

Current Situation

Norgate has no certainty as to the future of the of the dataHQ update service. We have been faced with subscriptions being renewed and credit cards being charged automatically under the dataHQ system. We made a decision after the voluntary administration was announced on May 18 to honour such automatic renewals at least until June 10. More recently, we have been advised that the assets of BBY Hometrader had been purchased, although the future of the dataHQ business is still yet to be determined. As a result, we have extended the honouring date to June 12. On June 12 we were told that the assets of BBY Hometrader had not been purchased due to additional issues and no guidance was given as to when or if the purchase would go ahead. On June 15 the administrator informed us that the subscription renewals performed by dataHQ from May 17 onwards would not be paid in full and Norgate would be one of the many unsecured creditors of the business.

Update:

In a nutshell, this means that if a dataHQ subscription is renewed on or prior to June 12, 2015, data will be supplied for that subscription.

Please be aware that subscriptions taken out or renewed after June 12, 2015 may not function, given that the administrators have made no arrangement for continuing the business or paying Norgate for the data supply.

Subscribing to Premium Data

DataHQ customers who decide to subscribe to a comparable service offered by Premium Data may make the switch with relative ease. Once a Premium Data subscription has been taken out, and an update performed, the application should “re-badge” itself to “Premium Data” from “dataHQ”. You can subscribe by going to the Premium Data Order Form and logging in with your existing dataHQ username & password. Note that any remaining time on your dataHQ subscription will be honoured and added to the Premium Data subscription.

There should be no need to uninstall, or re-install, the software or the historical data.

Terminating dataHQ subscription

Since the dataHQ server is offline, there is no web-based method of ensuring that your dataHQ subscription has been terminated. We have been advised that cancellations can be emailed to kieren.mcpherson@appsecurities.com.au or via the telephone 1300 557 057. Please note: Although Norgate is willing to help where possible, any questions regarding terminating your dataHQ service should be directed to BBY HomeTrader.

Update 2 Sep 2015: Since there is no likelihood that APP Securities, who acquired portions of the BBY business, will be restarting the dataHQ business there is no need to do anything.

Further information