Acquisition milestone for Oracle

Last week, the international ICT world was dominated by news of Oracle's 30^th acquisition since 2004, and Microsoft's continued woes with the European Union (EU).

At home, we saw financial results from a number of companies.

* Oracle gobbled up Hyperion for $3.3 billion, a 21% premium on the latter's then ruling share price. This is Oracle's 30^th acquisition since 2004. The move potentially gives Oracle access to the SAP base, since, according to AMR Research, 55% of SAP clients use Hyperion software.
* Microsoft was in trouble again with the EU over "unreasonable" royalty fees.

* Good interim figures from Digicore, with revenue and profit up over 30%.
* Good interim figures from Venfin, with profit nearly equalling the full year numbers to 30 June 2006.
* Satisfactory interim numbers from CompuClearing, with revenue up 8% but profit slightly down; Metrofile, with revenue up nearly 10% but profit up over 200%; and Mustek, with revenue up about 8% but profit down slightly.
* Mediocre interim numbers from GijimaAst, with revenue up about 15% but profit down over 10%.
* An interim loss and negative trading update from ERP.com.
* Datatec subsidiary Westcon Group acquired NOXS Europe NV and NOXS Ireland for EUR53.25 million.
* iLayo Software Solutions' 31% investment in Puleng Technology.
* Royal Bafokeng Holdings bought out the minorities in MB Technologies, making it, supposedly, the largest black-owned technology group in SA.
* MTN is bidding for the third Saudi Arabian mobile phone licence.
* Intelleca acquired inContact Centre Solutions.
* Knowledge Integration Dynamics' 49% investment in 8^th Man Consulting.
* Trematon disposed of 32% of its shareholding in Intec Telecom Systems for R16.2 million.
* AMD withdrew its official presence in SA.
* Mavuso Msimang resigned as CEO of SITA.

* Profit warning from Safaricom.
* Zinox Computers was named ICT company of the year in Nigeria.

* Qtel purchased a controlling stake in Kuwait's number two wireless carrier, giving it a foothold in Northern Africa.
* HP acquired PolyServe, a provider of storage software for application and file serving utilities.
* Microsoft purchased Medstory, a Web search company for the healthcare market.
* The appointments of Jeremy Burton as CEO of Serena Software, Frank Ianna as CEO of Attila Technologies, Mikio Katayama as president of Sharp, Eitan Koter as president of Scopus Video Networks, Katsuhiko Machida as chairman of Sharp, Trevor Mather as CEO of ThoughtWorks, Phil Pompa as CEO of SigmaTel, and John Riccitiello as CEO of Electronic Arts.
* Analyst upgrades for Apple, AT&T, Audible, Avocent, BEA Systems, Brightpoint, Brocade Communications Systems, Business Objects, CDI, Ciena, Citrix, Cognos, CommScope, Consolidated Graphics, Integral Systems, Intuit, Komag, L-3 Communications, LSI Logic, Marvell Technology Group, Mindspeed Technologies, National Semiconductor, Rainmaker Systems, Red Hat, Research in Motion, Sprint Nextel and Tekelec.
* Analyst downgrades for Avaya, Ceridian, Cypress Semiconductor, Dell, Deutsche Telekom, Hyperion Solutions, Intevac, Lockheed Martin, Orbotech, SBA communications, Syniverse Holdings and Texas Instruments.
* Negative result warning from Sanyo Electric.
* Stock repurchase announcements from IXYS and Verizon Communications.
* Private funding obtained for Achievo, a software outsourcer; CipherMax, a security storage vendor; Cryptek, a provider of identity and access control software; Destiny Media Technologies, an Internet media distribution company; Dexterra, a mobile business software developer; iSkoot, a mobile VOIP specialist; and Nova Measuring Instruments, a leader in metrology solutions.
* Stock offering announcements by Anadigics and Centennial Communications.
* Planned IPOs from BigBand Networks, a networking company; CipherMax, a provider of storage security solutions; Clearwire, a wireless broadband company; Infinera, a photonic IC maker; and SourceFire, a network security company.

Microsoft was in trouble again with the EU over "unreasonable" royalty fees.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* The 'winner' in the battle for Tandberg TV between Ericsson and Arris Group. The former usurped the latter's bid last week by 10%.
* Nokia's possible take-over of Palm.

* The worldwide server market grew 5.2% in Q42006 to $15.2 billion, when compared to Q42005, although the number of units shipped was flat, says IDC. In total, for 2006, the market grew 2% to $52.3 billion, while shipments grew 5.9% to 7.5 million units.

* JSE All share index: Down 4.6%
* Nasdaq: Down 5.8% (now below the 1 January 2007 level)
* Top SA share movements: African Cellular Towers (-13.2%), Celcom (+34.7%), Cape Empowerment Trust (-10.4%), Cyberhost (-14.3%), FoneWorx (-11.5%), Labat Africa (+11.8%), SAB&T Ubuntu (-15.2%), Stella Vista (-16.7%), Vestor (-13.5%) and Zaptronix (-14.3%).
* Top international share movements: American Superconductor (+23.4%), Bitstream (-59.9%), Boston Communications Group (-24.5%), Credence Systems (-29.9%), Elcom International (+42.9%), Geoworks (+33.3%), MIDGARDXXI (-25%), Onstream Media (-23.3%), Syniverse (-27.6%) and Transmeta (-30.3%).

The HP brand has been dominant in the PC and printer business for many years. The company is now placing its bets on doing the same with its software portfolio. HP Software, the umbrella name, replaces the Open View and Mercury Interactive product names, which will be scrapped. HP recently acquired Mercury Interactive. I assume HP will progressively bring the other software companies it has acquired, such as Bluestone Software and Peregrine Systems, under the same banner.