Big guns join forces

Cisco, EMC and VMware announced a joint venture between the companies; and Cisco made another acquisition. At home, BCX, which recently lost much of its Sasol activities, was awarded a major outsourcing contract by Sanlam.

Key local news of the past week

* An interim loss from Ansys, although revenue up 36%.
* Mediocre Q1 figures from Net 1 UEPS Technologies.
* Negative trading updates from ConvergeNet Holdings and Reunert.
* Pinnacle Micro has changed its name to Pinnacle Africa, which will also incorporate DD1.
* Business Connexion has won a deal to provide Sanlam with an outsourced data centre.

Key African news

* Satisfactory half-year figures from Safaricom.
* Gateway Communications has been awarded three new licences in Kenya that will help drive its plan to create a pan-Africa connectivity network.
* HP is to establish new subsidiaries in Angola and Libya.

Key international news

* Cisco acquired the set-top box business of DVN (China) for $44.5 million.
* JDA Software bought i2 Technologies for $396 million, in a move that creates the world's largest dedicated supply chain solutions company. This same deal was on the cards a year or so ago, but never materialised.

* NCR purchased Netkey, a provider of kiosk and digital signage software applications.
* Telefonica acquired Hansenet, Telecom Italia's German broadband unit, for $1.34 billion.
* Windstream bought NuVox for $463 million. The two are rural telecommunications players, and this is another example of the consolidation that is happening within this section of the industry. Windstream acquired D&E Communications in May, and Lexcom in September.
* Singapore Telecom made a $393 million investment in Bharti Airtel, which raises its stake to 31.95%.
* Cisco, EMC and VMware announced a joint venture, Acadia, which will sell a new integrated data centre product.
* New York's attorney general announced a new lawsuit against Intel regarding alleged abuse of dominance of the computer-chip market.
* Good quarterly numbers from Cognizant Technology Solutions and Software AG.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Comcast, D-Link, Deutsche Telekom, Korea Telecom, Logica, Nvidia and VeriSign (back in the black).
* Mediocre quarterly results from Cisco, Qualcomm, Telecom Italia, Time Warner and Tyco Electronics.
* Mixed quarterly figures from ADP, with revenue down, but profit up; Amdocs, with revenue down, but profit up; Fujitsu, with revenue down, but profit up; Garmin, with revenue down, but profit up; Lenovo, with revenue down, but profit up; Pitney Bowes, with revenue down, but profit up; Reliance Communications, with revenue up, but profit down; and Time Warner Cable, with revenue up, but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Alvarion, NetSuite, Sanmina-SCI and Sun Microsystems.
* The resignation of Hector Ruiz, chairman of a joint venture between AMD and the Abu Dhabi government, and the ex-CEO of AMD.
* A planned IPO from Legend Holdings (China), the parent company of Lenovo.

Look out for

* International:
* Singapore Telecom selling its stake in Optus (Australia).
* The de-merger of the UK and international businesses of Cable & Wireless.
* Acquisitions by Capgemini that will strengthen its position in the US market.
* Africa:
* The winner in the bid for a major stake in Zamtel (Zambia).
* South Africa:
* Remgro's finalisation of its acquisition of Venfin, following approval from the Competition Commission.

Research results and predictions

* The South African IT services market grew 25.2% between 2007 and 2008 to reach R27 billion, and is expecting it to reach R38.6 billion by 2013, at a CAGR of 7.4%, according to BMI-T.
* Q309 chip sales dropped by 10% from Q308, reports the Semiconductor Industry Association.
* Worldwide industry vertical market IT spending will total $2.28 trillion in 2009, down 6.8% from 2008. However, it is expected to grow in 2010 to reach $2.34 trillion, according to Gartner.

Stock market changes

* JSE All share index: Down 1.6%
* Nasdaq: Up 3.3%
* Top SA share movements: Ansys (+8.9%), Cape Empowerment Trust (-10%), Dynamic Cables (-11.8%), Faritec (-20%), Huge Group (-15.8%), Labat Africa (+16.7%), MiX Telematics (-12.2%), Net I UEPS Technologies (-9.7%) and Vox Telecom (-18.7%)

Final word

Total Telecom magazine has published its Global 100 for 2009. The list shows no changes in the top nine positions from last year. However, China Unicom has jumped to number 16 (was 23); Saudi Telecom has risen to number 25 from 35; Swisscom to 26 from 34; Liberty Global to 29 from 40; MTS (Russia) to 31 from 44; and VimpelCom to 32 from 50.

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