A week of rumours, speculation

The massive merger of two media giants, Viacom and CBS Group, both with extensive but different Internet initiatives, had the international IT world talking last week.

It seems that Internet bandwidth demands are now doubling every three to four months!

At home the speculation re the fate of both Brainware and USKO seems to have been a hot topic of conversation, as was the announcement by Ziff-Davis in conjunction with International Fairs and Exhibitions, that they intend mounting a South African Comdex exhibition in October next year.

• the announcement that yet another IT company, ERP.com, intends to list shortly. It will list in the venture capital sector of the JSE on 16 September;

• very disappointing full-year figures from Brainware (income well down on last year);

• excellent full-year numbers from Ixchange (income still a little disappointing);

• good interim figures from the Y3K Group; and

• news that the results from The Connection Group would be delayed, depending on the imminent sale of ComTec, its UK training operation.

[Local]

Local acquisitions, mergers, investments etc (see attachment).

Local Cautionary Notices (see attachment)

Local Listing calendar (see attachment)

Other local news included:

• the announcement that the local Baan company has changed its name to SoftworX, following its management buyout; and

• rumours that Allied Technologies has acquired USKO.

• we heard that Vodafone Airtouch, the world`s largest mobile phone group, was talking with Bell Atlantic about a possible link that would enable the group to cover the entire US from a mobile perspective; and

• there was talk in US financial circles that Computer Associates was going to buy PeopleSoft. This on the surface seems very unlikely since the two cultures are extremely different, and of course it`s been denied by both parties!

[International]

International acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures etc (see attachment).

Other international news included:

• the appointment of a new EMEA president for Baan, Mike Shinya from Oracle;

• the appointment of Tom St Dennis as the new CEO at Wind River Systems;

• a 20% staff cut by General Magic;

• a major reorganisation at EDS; and

• news from Compaq that it not only intends to shed more staff but also axe the bulk of its distributors in Europe.

We saw excellent figures from RCM Technologies.

Losses came from Atec Group DTS, Lorien, Certicom, LTX, Microlog and Mortice Kern Systems.

Good numbers were recorded by Cap Gemini SA, Druid Group, GFI Informatique SA, Logica, Parity Group, Real Software Group NV, Staffware and Trace Computers. Satisfactory results came from DocuCorp and National Semiconductor (back in the black).

Mediocre returns came from Alcatel.

Other financial news included profit warnings from Ingram Micro (also looking for a new CEO), Mastech, PairGain and Seagate (reorganisation charge); a share split announcement from Intuit; and the news that SSA`s common stock is to be moved to the Nasdaq SmallCap Market.

Locally

CIH (-25%)
CS Holdings (-23.1%)
Cyberhost (-20%)
Explorer (-32.1%)
Infiniti (-26.7%)
Ixchange (-21.1%)
PentaCom (-41.2%)
Wentech (-31.1%)
Y2Ktec (+42.9%)
Zaptronix (-28.6%)

Internationally

Aspen Technology (+22.5%)
Aspect Telecomms (+23.9%)
Hummingbird Comms (+31.6%)
i2 (+31.2%)
Ingram Micro -27.5%)
JD Edwards (+36.3%)
New Era of Networks (+40.4%)
NEC (+23.5%)
PairGain (+27.2%)
PeopleSoft (+27.2%)
Portal Software (+26.7%)
Red Hat (+41%)

The following two quotes came from the recently held African Summit:

1.       "Deregulation now the norm." This was in the context of discussing National Telecommunications Authorities, and was made by Inmarsat`s regional director for Africa, Shola Taylor. In the conference summary, which has been communicated to each of the major governments in Africa, the following was said: "It is clear that without telecommunications, no country can have a serious information agenda. The summit wishes to assure all African governments that information and communication technology liberalisation does not pose any threat to national security but rather serves as a positive agent for change." What an appropriate message for this country!

2.       "Change is happening too fast to manage." This was from one of the UUNET representatives, when asked how they manage to keep abreast with what`s happening in our industry.

Additionally, we are used to the phenomena of chip technology doubling in capability every 18 months, but it seems that Internet bandwidth demands are now doubling every three to four months!

Last week I incorrectly stated that Louis Barclay had joined Computer Configurations as COO. I should have said Software Futures, one of the companies within the Computer Configurations Group. I apologise for the slip-up.