HP forks out for 3Com

In international news, HP acquired 3Com. At home, the JSE imposed fines on two top executives at Huge.

Key local news of the past week

* Very poor interim numbers from Vodacom, with revenue up slightly, but profit down 84%.
* An interim loss from African Cellular Towers, with revenue also well down.
* Mixed 15-month figures from Business Connexion, with revenue up, but profit down.
* A positive trading update from Vox Telecom.
* A mixed trading update from UCS.
* Negative trading updates from TCS and Telkom SA.
* Computerlinks, a global security distributor, has opened a local office to represent the African region.
* EPiServer (Sweden) has opened a South Africa office. EPiServer is a major provider of Web content management and online community platforms.
* Informa Telecoms & Media, part of UK-listed Informa group, has opened an office in South Africa.
* The JSE upholds its decision to fine Huge Telecom's directors, executive chairman Anton Potgieter and CEO James Herbst, R5 million each, in their personal capacity, for breaching trading regulations.

Key African news

* Mixed quarterly figures from Maroc Telecom, with revenue up, but profit down; and MobiNil (Egypt), with revenue up, but profit down.
* Cellcom Telecommunication (Liberia) is going public. This is a landmark situation as it is the first time a profitable and privately owned company is offering shares to the Liberian public.
* Globacom has obtained a mobile licence in Côte d'Ivoire.

Key international news

* Google purchased AdMob, a mobile advertising start-up, for $750 million; and Gizmo5, a start-up that handles Internet-based voice calls and instant messaging.
* HP bought 3Com for $2.7 billion, in a move that enhances HP's networking business, potentially offers a threat to Cisco, and counteracts some of Cisco's inroads into the server market. It also establishes for HP a major presence in China, as over 60% of 3Com's staff is based in China. 3Com has made profits in only about three quarters since the year 2000. This deal also raises questions over HP's longstanding relationship with Brocade, which analysts expected HP to buy.
* Infosys Technologies acquired US-based McCamish Systems, a BPO provider, for $58 million.
* Liberty Media (USA) purchased Unitymedia, Germany's second largest cable network provider, for €3.5 billion.
* Logitech International SA bought LifeSize Communications, a maker of video conferencing equipment, for $405 million.
* Microsoft acquired the Teamprise-related assets of SourceGear that enables developers using the eclipse IDE or operating on multiple operating systems, to build applications with Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server.
* AMD and Intel have settled their four-year dispute, as the latter offers $1.25 billion as part of the agreement.
* Telia-Sonera (Sweden) and Altimo (Russia) will combine their stakes in MegaFon (Russia) and Turkcell into a new company that will be listed on the NYSE.
* Good quarterly numbers from Micro Focus and Tencent (one of Naspers' investments).
* Satisfactory quarterly results from BCE and Singapore Telecom.
* Mediocre quarterly results from CSC, Partner Communications, Telefonica and Trend Micro.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Alibaba.com, with revenue up, but profit down; British Telecom, with revenue down, but profit up; CGI Group, with revenue down, but profit up; and Vivendi, with revenue down, but profit up.
* Quarterly losses from First Data and Intelsat.

Look out for

International:

* The sale by Motorola of its biggest business unit, ie, the one that makes TV set-top boxes and networking gear, in a move that could raise between $4 billion and $5 billion.
* The acquisition by Vivendi of GVT (Brazil) following its out-bidding of Telefonica.
* The possible acquisition of Palm by Nokia.

South Africa:

* The listing of the new Remgro shares, following its acquisition of VenFin, a major investor in technology companies.

Research results and predictions

* Worldwide PC microprocessor unit shipments rose 23% in Q309 compared to the previous quarter, reports IDC.
* Worldwide SaaS revenue will grow 18% this year to reach $7.5 billion, according to Gartner.

Stock market changes

* JSE All share index: Up 2.6%
* Nasdaq: Up 2.6% (highest weekend close this year)
* Top SA share movements: African Cellular Towers (-20.3%), Dialogue Group (-20%), Dynamic Cables (+26.7%), Faritec (+25%), Huge Group (+12.5%), Ifca Technologies (-37.5%), Silverbridge (+13.3%), Spescom (+12.8%), TCS (+28.6%) and TeleMasters (-17.5%)

Final word

At last week's AfricaCom, Africa's largest technology event, 10 awards were presented to the most innovative of the continent's companies. This included Dark Fibre Africa for its optical fibre ducting infrastructure as the new entrant of the year; Comviva, with its virtual phone as the best new services provider and the company that had the telecoms innovation of the year; and Seacom, with its East African submarine cables as the best Pan-African initiative.

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