The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that Canadian technology companies that slashed spending last year to focus on the bottom line are starting to hit their profit targets. The Globe's Sean Silcoff writes that on Tuesday, Vancouver-based Thinkific Labs reported that, for the first time since going public, it had generated positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and further adjustments for items including share-based compensation and related payroll taxes. The measure, known as "adjusted EBITDA," is not a recognized accounting standard, but the company earned $700,000 (U.S.) by that yardstick in the third quarter ended Sept 30, up from negative $5.7-million (U.S.) in the same period last year (U.S.). The surprise achievement came one to two quarters ahead of company forecasts and makes Thinkific the third company, after Docebo last year and Lightspeed Commerce last week, to go into the black on adjusted EBITDA. Thinkific, which provides a platform to create and run on-line courses, also generated $3.5-million in cash from operations and managed to increase cash and cash equivalents by almost $2-million since the end of the second quarter, to $86.6-million (U.S.).