A time to buy

The international ICT world was extremely active last week in the mergers and acquisitions arena, with the resolution of the 3Par fight and a raft of other takeovers, including two from VMware. At home, Datatec's move for Comztek and Jasco acquiring Spescom were the local highlights.

* Good year-end figures from Metrofile, with revenue up a little over 10% but profit up 26%.
* Satisfactory full-year numbers from CompuClearing, with revenue up 9% and profit up 15%.
* Mediocre interim numbers from MICROmega, with revenue and profit both down.
* Mixed year-end figures from Mustek, with revenue down 2% but profit up 23%.
* A positive trading update from EOH.
* The suspension of the shares of DTH on the JSE.
* Datatec proposed a R97 million acquisition of Comztek Holdings, the distribution company whose main shareholder is Mustek, with almost 42%. Comztek has operations across Africa that would complement the activities of Datatec's local subsidiary, Westcon Distribution.
* Jasco wants to buy Spescom for R11.8 million, in an acquisition that would create a hi-tech business with a turnover in excess of R1 billion.
* Software AG SA has signed up CPI as a value added reseller. CPI was previously an Aris VAR for IDS Scheer, a company that was recently acquired by Software AG.
* Montseng Mopeli was appointed acting CEO of ICASA; and Ronnie Oeschger was named CEO of NOR Papers.
* The resignations of Michael Freestone, CEO of Zaptronix, due to ill health; Karabo Motlane, CEO of ICASA; and Raymond Blake, founder and CEO of NOR Papers, now a subsidiary of Bytes Document Solutions.

* Satisfactory quarterly figures from Maroc Telecom, part of the Vivendi group.
* A half-year loss from East African Cables, with revenues also down.

Look out for the new CEO at Telkom, a position that has been the centre of much speculation.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* 3M acquired Cogent, a maker of computer systems used to record fingerprints and palm prints electronically and search databases for them. The deal was worth $943 million.
* 3M purchased Attenti, an Israeli maker of people tracking technology, for $230 million.
* AOL bought Rally Up, a location-based social networking service.
* Atos Origin acquired Venture Infotek, an Indian payments processor company.
* CA Technologies bought Arcot Systems, a provider of advanced authentication and fraud prevention solutions, for $200 million.
* Capgemini made a EUR233 million (55%) investment in CPM Braxis, a Brazilian IT group that is a peer of the former.
* Cisco purchased Arch Rock, a provider of wireless network technology for smart-grid applications.
* Citrix bought VMLogix, a provider of virtualisation automation and management technologies.
* Diligenta, a UK-based unit of Tata Consultancy Services, acquired the insurance services unit of Unisys.
* Google purchased SocialDeck, a social gaming start-up.
* HP bought 3Par for $2.4 billion, following Dell's withdrawal from the 'bidding war'. The final offer of $33 a share was 83% above Dell's opening bid of $18. With this deal now sealed, the focus could be turning to Brocade Communications Systems, which is also in storage, and has been looking for a buyer for several months; and/or to maybe Commvault Systems, Compellent Technologies and Isilon Systems.
* Intel purchased Infineon's (Germany) wireless chip business for $1.4 billion. The move is yet another confirmation that Intel intends to diversify into areas other than the PC, as was evidenced by its recent purchase of McAfee. The chips manufactured by Infineon are used in Apple's iPhones.
* VMware bought Integrien, a leader in real-time application and infrastructure performance analytics software.
* VMware also purchased TriCipher, a leader in secure access management and enterprise identity federation for cloud hosted SaaS applications.
* HP has settled the alleged 'kickback' case, which involved contracts with the US government, for $55 million.
* Excellent quarterly results from Compal Electronics, the world's second largest contract maker of notebooks.
* Very good quarterly figures from Acer, ArcSight and Sycamore Networks (back in the black).
* Good half-year numbers from Hon Hai Precision Industry (Taiwan), the world's largest contract electronics maker by revenue.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Quanta, the world's largest contract maker of notebook PCs by revenue.
* Mixed quarterly figures from VimpelCom, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from SGI.
* A half-year loss from Foxconn, the contract handset manufacturing unit of Hon Hai.
* The appointments of Michael Borman as CEO of Blue Coat Systems; Vuneet Nayyar as CEO of Tech Mahindra; and Hugh Shelton as chairman of Red Hat.
* The resignations of Sanjay Kalra, CEO of Tech Mahindra; Brian NeSmith, CEO of Blue Coat Systems (stays on as chief product officer); and Matthew Szulik, chairman of Red Hat.

* International:
* The outcome of investment talks by Nokia Siemens Networks with private equity companies, although there are strong indications that the company may move down the IPO route. Whatever route is chosen, the intention is to relieve the 'parents' of an operational involvement in their joint venture.

* Africa:
* Hits Telecom taking a majority stake in Liberia's Atlantis Wireless in which it already has a 30% shareholding.

* South Africa:
* The new CEO at Telkom, a position that has been the centre of much speculation, with names such as Alan Knott-Craig (ex-Vodacom CEO) and Dali Mpofu (ex-SABC CEO) being thrown into the 'pot'.

* Worldwide PC shipments are expected to grow 19% this year, with the growth slowing in the second half of the year, according to Gartner.
* Worldwide semiconductor revenue is expected to grow 31.5% this year to reach $300 billion, predicts Gartner.
* Dell has retaken the number two slot in global PC sales in Q2, reports iSuppli.
* Worldwide external disk storage systems revenue was up 20.4% in Q2 to just over $5 billion, according to IDC.

* JSE All share index: Up 4.5%
* Nasdaq: Up 3.7%
* Top SA share movements: Amecor (-10.4%), Blue Label Telecoms (+20.9%), Cape Empowerment (+11.1%), EOH (+10.7%), FoneWorx (-12.2%), Net 1 UEPS (-15.8%), SecureData (+12.5%), Sekunjalo (+30.8%), Vox Telecom (+12.1%) and Zaptronix (+50%)

Last week was Gartner's annual symposium, the closing address of which was entitled: 'Emerging trends and technologies now that you have the bandwidth'.

The following are just a few of the examples highlighted during this presentation:

* Social software, where the challenge will be, for instance, in bringing into the enterprise consumer-led innovations in collaboration and community;
* The advent of computing in three dimensions, which is destined to impact all aspects of computing from input and output through to the world of applications;
* The 'Zeitgeist' effect, where social attitudes and political factors will determine the acceptance and adoption of new technologies and services; and
* The continued and strengthening influence of sustainability and green IT.