All quiet on local ICT front

* Ericsson bought UK-based Marconi`s key assets for lb1.2 billion and the latter, which will operate as a separate company, will be re-named Telent.
* Eutelsat shelved its planned Paris IPO.
* The Dolan family withdrew its $7.9 billion offer for Cablevision.

* Mediocre interim numbers from Datatec with revenue up about 15% but attributable profit significantly down.
* Positive trading updates from Reunert and Telkom SA.
* The suspension of Bryant Technology`s shares.
* Ziphathe Empowerment Network`s 26% investment in Call Centre Nucleus.
* The appointments of Welcome Msomi as chairman of CCN and Nicky Sheridan as MD of Oracle SA.
* Ntsundeni Madzunya, CIO of the SA Post Office, was named IT Personality of the Year 2005. Professor Basie van Solms received the ICT Leadership accolade and the ICT Social Responsibility Award went to Kobus van Wyk.

It was disappointing to see that in the latest Annual Reports Awards 2005 listings, the only technology company to feature was Allied Electronics.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* SBC Communications is to be called AT&T after its expected $16 billion acquisition of the remainder of AT&T, following the sell-off of the latter`s wireless business.
* Unisys and NEC will collaborate on computer manufacturing.
* Positive results announcements from On Track Innovations, Sharp, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Telvent and Wolfson Microelectronics.
* Negative result warnings from Alcatel, Brightpoint, France Telecom, Kanbay International and RadiSys.
* Job loss announcements from Lattice Semiconductor, Marconi, Novell and Pixelworks.
* A planned IPO in Japan from Sumco, the world`s second largest maker of silicon wafers (Shin-Etsu Chemical is the largest producer). The IPO would be Japan`s largest this year.
* A planned IPO in India latter this year by Tulip IT Services, a network integrator.
* A planned IPO in London next year from Mobile Streams.
* A satisfactory debut on London`s AIM by Celoxia, an electronics design company.
* A good IPO on Nasdaq by NCI, an IT specialist.

* The possible buy-out of CSC by some private equity organisations.
* The buy-out of Chelys, the owner of the Energis Group, by Cable & Wireless.
* The outcome of possible take-over talks involving UK`s Deltron Electronics.
* The possible merger of Hong Kong`s New World Mobile and another Hong Kong wireless operator, as yet un-named.
* A buy-out of SCI Entertainment.

* According to IDC, the mobile middleware market will increase to $1.4 billion by 2009; it has just breached the $500 million mark.
* The business process outsourcing market will grow from $382.5 billion in 2004 to $641.2 billion in 2009, says IDC.
* IT spending in the US in 2006 will increase by 5.5%, says Gartner.

* JSE All share index: Up 4%
* Nasdaq: Up 0.4%
* Top SA share movements: Dynamic Cables (-20%), ISA (-15.8%), Labat Africa (+9.1%), Metrofile (+11.7%), Pinnacle (+12.8%), Stella Vista (-33.3%) and Zaptronix (-11.8%).
* Top international share movements: Activision (-26.7%), Auspex Systems (+39.2%), Cornwell Management (-31.2%), F5 Networks (+25%), Forgent (+30.9%), Formjet (+42.6%), i2 Technologies (-32.8%), Internet America (-26.2%), Matrix Communications (+27.9%) and Ultimate Electronics (-60%).

It was disappointing to see that in the latest Annual Reports Awards 2005 listings, the only technology company to feature was Allied Electronics.