Telecoms dominates

Nothing dominated the international ICT market last week, which was not surprising following some key acquisitions the previous week.

However, locally the market was dominated by the telecommunications sector with the Virgin news and the results from MTN, Telkom SA and Vodacom.

* BenQ took over the Siemens mobile handset division. BenQ paid nothing for this deal and has also acquired the staff and relevant manufacturing facilities. BenQ also receives EUR250 million in cash to integrate the product lines; in return Siemens gains a 2.5% share in BenQ via its subscription to EUR50 million worth of newly created BenQ shares. As part of this deal, BenQ inherits Siemens` 8.4% shareholding in Symbian.
* The news that a new cellular network service should be launched within months under the Virgin Group brand and running on the Cell C infrastructure. The two companies will establish a joint venture trading under Virgin`s name.

* Very good year-end figures from MTN with revenue up 21% and profit up 47%.
* Very good year-end numbers from Vodacom, with revenue up 19.5% and profit up 27.2%.
* Good annual results from Telkom SA, with revenue up 6.5% but profit up 48.7%.
* Bafokeng Investment Services` 26% investment in Alliance Data.
* The appointment of ACT as the distributor for Samsung`s optical storage range, Annex Distribution as the distributor for BenQ projectors, and Canonical as a distributor for the Ubuntu Linux operating system.
* Share repurchasing by Pinnacle Technology Holdings and its purchase of the remaining 35% of Pinnacle Micro Cape.

* MTN dropped its legal battle over Celtel.
* Very good annual numbers from MTN Nigeria Communications.
* The appointment of Egis Software as a distributor in the Africa and Indian Ocean areas for Adobe`s Intelligent Document Platform.

The latest FT Global 500 was published last week and from a technology perspective has Microsoft at number three, Vodafone at 12, IBM at 13, Intel at 15 and Cisco at 27.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* The French government sold about 6% of its stake in France Telecom SA, which raised EUR3.4 billion.
* Computer Associates acquired Niku, giving the company a foothold in the exploding governance market.
* Oracle acquired TimesTen, a database specialist in real-time, in-memory databases.
* Atos Origin SA announced it is to sell-off more of its non-core units by year-end.
* A delay in the privatisation of Pakistan Telecommunications.
* Danish IT services company, DCE Group A/S, filed for bankruptcy.
* The appointments of David Chamberlain as president and CEO of Versata, Robert Ewald as CEO of Linux Networks, Brian Morrow as president and CEO of Analytical Surveys, and Solomon Trujillo as CEO of Telstra.
* The resignations of James Caparro as president and CEO of Atari, and Gary Daichendt as president and COO of Nortel Networks.
* Analyst upgrades for Adtran, Artesyn Technologies, C&D Technologies, Cable & Wireless, Foundry Networks, France Telecom, Gtech Holdings, HP, II-VI, Intel, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks, Secure Computing, Sierra Wireless, Standard Microsystems, STMicroelectronics, Tekelec, United Microelectronics, Viisage Technologies and Xerox.
* Analyst downgrades for ATI Technologies, BMC Software, Captiva Software, CDW, Ikon Office Systems, iPayment, NetScout Systems, Niku, Sandisk, Siemens, Taiwan Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Tier Technologies, Titan and Xilinx.
* Positive results announcements from Adtran, Harris, Knology, Komag, Monolithic Power Systems, SMSC and Tessera Technologies.
* A stock repurchase announcement from Analogic.
* A job loss announcement from STMicroelectronics.
* Private funding obtained for Black Duck Software, a developer of compliance software; BlueArc, a NAS developer; Factory Logic, a lean production software vendor; Clovis Solutions, a developer of system infrastructure software for the communications industry; Cogent Communications, an ISP; Crossbow Technology, a wireless sensor supplier; Global Locate, a provider of GPS products and services; Klir Technologies, a company that offers hosted network performance and analytic services; Plethora Technology, a remote access technology vendor; Saflink, a biometric security provider; Tatara, a mobile platform developer; and Voltaire, a company that offers InfiniBand Interconnect Systems.
* A share split announcement from Incentra Solutions (reverse 1:10).
* An IPO filing from Activant Solutions Holdings, a provider of business management software.
* A mediocre IPO from Rackable Systems.

* ValueAct Capital`s acquisition of Acxiom.
* TietoEnator`s controlling investment in IT services provider, Esy.

* JSE All share index: Up 0.06%
* Nasdaq: Down 0.4%
* Top SA share movements: Cape Empowerment Trust (-14.3%), I-Solutions (+25%), Labat Africa (+27.3%), Metrofile (+18.8%), Prism (+7.6%), Spescom (-8.6%), Square One (+100%), Stella Vista (-12.5%), UCS (+13.9%) and Zaptronix (+18.2%).
* Top international share movements: AirNet Communications (+23.3%), Boston Communications Group (+36.6%), DAT Group (+36.5%), DDi (-27%), Eicom (-24.3%), Flightstore (-35.7%), Mitek Systems (+31.7%), NeoMagic (+21.1%), Ultimate Electronics (-42.9%) and VocalTec Communications (+30.6%).

The latest FT Global 500 was published last week and from a technology perspective has Microsoft at number three (down from two), Vodafone at 12, IBM at 13 (up from 14), Intel at 15 (down from eight) and Cisco at 27 (down from 11).

Google enters for the first time at 279 and Apple is back in at 340 (was last featured in 2000).