Patrice Green In Houston : The conference schedule picks up this week as things return to normal following the holidays. The three day Needham & Co. Growth Conference kicks off on Tuesday in New York, as does the Goldman Sachs CEO Healthcare Conference. The three day Citi Global Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference also begins Tuesday but is being held in Phoenix. The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show will take place in Las Vegas this week and there will be some notable conferences coinciding. Nomura Securities will hold their annual conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, as will JP Morgan, who will hold their annual tech forum. General Mills (NYSE: GIS) will meet with analysts in New York on Friday. For tech investors, the annual Macworld trade show kicks off Tuesday with a keynote speech by a top Apple official -- but not Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The announcement last month that Jobs would forego his traditional opening remarks sent Apple's stock tumbling as worries resurfaced about Jobs' health. The sector gets another look at new products next week as Microsoft Corp., Cisco Corporation and other leading technology companies head to Las Vegas for the annual International Consumer Electronics Show.

Patrice Green Houston

Even with depressed equity market valuations, storage companies such as Network Appliance ($5 billion) and Data Domain ($696 million) sport robust valuations. Even smaller peers, which are not yet profitable such as Isilon, 3Par, which are not currently profitable, trade for multiples of sales.

Patrice Green Houston VeriChip Corporation (NASDAQ: CHIP), a provider of radio frequency identification systems for healthcare and patient-related needs, announced the results of an independent study presented at the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine's Annual Meeting. The study concluded that use of the VeriChip for access to patient medical history verification significantly decreased the emergency care charges among critically injured patients in a randomized, blinded, prospective mass casualty scenario. This study adds to the body of evidence further validating that the VeriChip technology can lead to more efficient and effective patient care in a triage or emergency room setting. Shares fell by $0.17, to finish the week at $1.89.