The major restructuring of 3Com and the acquisitions of Cell Network AB and Mandator AB by Pixelpath, the spin-off from the German media giant Bertelsmann; the investment by France Telecom in Germany`s MobilCom AG and, the take-over of Debis Systemhaus by Deutsche Telekom dominated the international world of information technology and telecommunications last week.
At the close of the markets at the end of last week, Cisco had edged out Microsoft as the number one most valuable company when measured by market capitalisation.
Top corp
At home, the acquisition of Data Comm Systems (US) by Dimension Data, and Omnicom`s (US) investment in MB Technologies, stole the local headlines.
On the local front:
- we saw satisfactory half-year numbers from Maxtec (up from last year`s equivalent period, but only slightly up re 50% of last full-year);
- very poor interim results from Digicore (revenue static and income halved);
- the prospectus for the listing of Square One Solutions Group in the IT sector of the JSE next month; and
- the application to liquidate X-Stream, a free Internet service provider.
[Local]
[Cautionary]
[Listing]
[Results]
Other local news included the announcement of a delay in the signing of the E-Data/E*Trade deal.
On the international front
- we saw the shedding of jobs by 3Com, following a major restructuring, which also saw the sell-off of some major assets and the buy-in to some new initiatives.
[International]
Other international news included:
- the appointments of Kathleen Fisher as CFO of QAD, Herve Goguely as chairman and CEO of NetCentrex, Jim Illson, ex Merisel, as president of Web integrator, Wareforce.com, and Lawrence Stanley as acting-CEO and president of Banyan;
- the resignation of James Halpin, CEO at CompUSA; and
- the name changes of NDG to SwiftView and Sycom Technologies (digital voice recorders) to Digital 5.
Financial results
Losses came from Allstar Systems, American Xtal Technology, Aureal, Corel, Faro Technologies, GST Telecom, Infinite Graphics, Infowave, Lason, Leap Wireless International, Liberate Technologies, Manugistics, Merrimac Industries, MicroAge, Microvision, NetBenefit, Outpost.com, Segue Software, T-Netix and Tibco Software.
Good numbers were recorded by 3Com, Accor, Esker, Micron Electronics, Pacific Century CyberWorks (back in the black), Telewest Comms and ValueVision.
Mediocre returns came from Great Plains Software, NDC and Netgem SA.
Very poor results came from ACS Electronics, Intelligent Systems and Megadata (but back in the black).
Other financial news included profit warnings from Corel, Eidos, IDS, Power Integrations, RCM Technologies, SBS Technologies, SCO, Telxon, Virata and Xircom.
There were also share split announcements from Credence Systems, Teligent and Virata.
In addition, there were very successful IPOs from Blaze Software (CRM), Caldera (Linux software developer), Silicon Labs, Sonic Foundry and Think Tools; the registration for an IPO from Integrity Software; and the announcements that MicroStrategy is revising its 1998 and 1999 figures in terms of revenue recognition, and that Epicor Software and Inacom are re-stating last year`s figures.
Stock movements
Locally
Comparex (-72.6%)
Conlog (+22.4%)
Hicor (-26.7%)
Maxtec (+20%)
PTH (+20%)
Y3K (+35.3%)
Internationally
Applied Imaging (-23.8%)
Cognos (+26.3%)
Computron (+25.7%)
GartnerGroup (+49.8%)
Golden Telecom (+32.9%)
ILOG (-26.2%)
ISS Group (+28.3%)
Mercury Computer Systems (+23.9%)
Metamor Worldwide (+96.4%)
NetObjects (-24.5%)
NetSolve (-26.2%)
Olicom (+79.6%)
Telewest Comms (+32%)
Final word
At the close of the markets at the end of last week, Cisco had edged out Microsoft as the number one most valuable company when measured by market capitalisation.
It also seems we are now close to the DOJ and Microsoft settling their long-running dispute, if sources who are following the situation are to be believed.
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