A good week for M-Cell, Cell C

The $1 billion-plus Peregrine Systems/Remedy acquisition, the Celestica/Omni Industries take-over and the continuing flow of profit warnings and job cuts dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications last week.

[VIDEO]At home, the M-Cell results and the latest information on the Cell C roll-out stole much of the local headline space.

• .         we saw good full-year figures from M-Cell (revenue and earnings both up but margins squeezed); and
• .         a profit warning from Integrear.
• .         Furthermore, M-Cell may be forced to list offshore to raise the capital to fund its new Nigerian operation.

[Local]

Other local news included:

• .         the launch of 3fifteen, the company created following the management buyout of Datatec`s Logical SA;
• .         the SA launch of Adapt, the US-based CRM company and product, as part of Real Global Business solutions, which is also a preferred quality partner of SAS;
• .         the resignations of Jason Xenopolous, chairman of Metropolis Transactive Holdings, and several other non-executive directors;
• .         the latest developments in the dispute over the acquisition of EC-Hold by MGX; and
• .         the awarding to Siemens of the infrastructure network contract for Cell C.

• .         we saw the name change of Panja back to AMX;
• .         the announcement from L & H that it is to merge its two speech recognition products, Voice Xpress and Dragon NaturallySpeaking;
• .         the closure of CMGI`s AdForce unit, having failed to find a buyer for it; and
• .         the announcement by British Telecom and Deutsche Telekom that they will co-operate in providing 3G cellular networks in Britain and Germany.

Additionally, look out for the sell-off by British Telecom of its shareholding in LG Telecom Co of South Korea.

[International]

Other international news included:

• .         the appointment of Henry Carabelli as president and COO of Pac-West Telecomm;
• .         the resignations of Avi Fogel, president and CEO of Network-1 Security Solutions, Gary Greenfield, president, King Lai, CEO of NetEase.com and CEO of Merant, Kaj-Erik Relander, CEO of Sonera, and Goran Wagstrom, CEO of Adcore AB; and
• .         job loss announcements from Anadigics, Ascom Holding AG, Avaya, Brokat AG, Dell, FirePond, Geoworks, IDT, Infinium, Iomega, NIC Commerce, Nortel Networks, Philips Semiconductor, Polaroid, SONICblue, StarBand Comms, Varian Semiconductor, Verizon Comms and Xerox.

It`s Business Week`s Information Technology 100 ratings time, with Celestica occupying the number one slot.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

We saw excellent figures from iSoft Group and Mosaid Technologies.

Good numbers were recorded by AIT, Daktronics, Infonet Services and Micronetics; and satisfactory ones by Software Spectrum (back in the black) and Wallace Computer Services (back in the black).

Mediocre returns came from Adobe, ASAT Holdings, ePlus and Logility (but back in the black); while very poor results came from American Software (but back in the black).

Losses were reported by ATSI Comms, Engage, Eyretel, IDT, Interact Commerce, Interactive Telesis, Leitch Technology, Loudcloud, Merant Plc., Microlog, MKS, NaviSite, Net2Phone, Remec, RF Monolithics, Sand Technology, Tadpole Technology, Valence Technology and Wi-LAN.

Other financial news included profit warnings from Anadigics, Andrew, AU-System AB, Avaya, Brokat AG, CMGI, CTS, Digitas, DuPont Photomasks, Exar, General Semiconductor, Geoworks, Hughes Electronics, Infinium, Ingram Micro, JDS Uniphase, Micromuse, Nokia, Nortel Networks, Peco II, Philips Semiconductor, Pinnacle Systems, Polaroid, Powerwave Technologies, Quantum, Rainbow Technologies, Sema, Silicon Storage Technology, STMicroelectronics, Tadpole Technology, Telstra, United Microelectronics and Varian Semiconductor; and a reverse stock split form Network Commerce.

Additionally, Alcatel`s cable business, Nexans, floated successfully on the Paris Stock Exchange; NTT DoCoMo announced its intention to list on both the LSE and the NYSE; Caliber Learning Network applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; and 360Networks may also seek bankruptcy protection.

Locally

Accord (-50%)
Bryant (-50%)
Cyberhost (-33.3%)
E-Data (-50%)
EC-Hold (+36.4%)
Explorer (-33.3%)
Jasco (+96.7%)
JemTech (-50%)
Oxbridge (+100%)
Pradatech (+35%)
SecureData (-40%)

Internationally

Comdisco (-63.4%)
ConMat Technologies (-45.8%)
Commerce One (-37%)
Digital Lightwave (-34.2%)
Global Crossing (-33.4%)
Komag (-33.9%)
Micromuse (-43.9%)
Network Technology (-38.2%)
Redstone Telecom (-58.5%)
Remedy (+68.6%)
Tadpole Technology (-33.8%)

It`s Business Week`s Information Technology 100 ratings time, with Celestica occupying the number one slot, followed by Verizon Comms, Scientific-Atlanta, Nvidia and China Mobile. In the individual categories, IBM remains number one in the turnover section, Juniper Networks heads the fastest growing division, Amphenol tops the most profitable list, and PeopleSoft is number one in the best returns section.