Altech, EWG settle their differences

It`s been a comparatively quiet week locally and internationally from an ICT perspective, but the industry is likely to be more active following the end of the school holiday season here as well as in Europe and North America.

* Intelsat acquired New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)-listed PanAmSat for $3.2 billion, to create the world`s largest satellite company with a combined fleet of 53 satellites. PanAmSat was bought by a private equity consortium last year and then floated on the NYSE earlier this year.
* Altech and Econet Wireless Global (EWG) settled their differences with the latter`s buy-out of Altech`s interest in EWG`s cellular network business for $87.5 million, some $17.5 million more than was originally paid for the 50% (plus one share) stake.

* A full-year loss from GijimaAst with revenues also down.
* A full-year loss from Labat Africa, but revenues up about 10%.
* Good year-end numbers from Mustek with revenue up about 10% but profit up over 50%.
* Very good Q2 revenue figures from Cell C, which now has 2.5 million active subscribers; however, the company is still not in the black.
* A positive trading update from VenFin.
* A profit warning from Labat Africa.
* The winding down of RF Group, Nokia`s sole southern African distribution partner, as Nokia changes its distribution arrangements.
* The appointment of Tony Nutter as MD of Solutions for Business Intelligence, a company within the ERP.com Group.
* The de-suspension of Labat Africa`s shares following the publication of its financial results. There is still an emphasis of matter and a qualified audit opinion associated with them, causing the JSE to annotate the listing accordingly.
* The creation of a joint venture, Itec Telecoms, between Itec SA and Tiyende Telecommunications to provide a suite of office telecommunications solutions to the corporate market.
* Beget Holdings acquired the shares held in Beget Interactive by Excellular Systems (34%).

The winding down of RF Group, Nokia`s sole southern African distribution partner, as Nokia changes its distribution arrangements.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners.

* Excellent interim figures from Econet Wireless (Zimbabwe); however, in US dollar terms there was a decline in the numbers.
* The appointment of John Swain as MD of Telecel Zimbabwe.
* Comztek Africa opened a branch in Zambia.
* The isolation of Zimbabwe`s Tel*One by Telkom SA for non-payment of $18 million debt. It seems Tel*One is now technically insolvent, owing $350 million.

* Microsoft acquired Teleo, a voice over IP company.
* NEC reduced its holding in Elpida, Japan`s DRAM chipmaker, to 13.89% from 23.84%, and Hitachi also reduced its shareholding to 19.7% from 23.84%.
* The appointments of David Andrews as chairman of Sirit, Daniel Carroll as CEO and president of Telcordia, John Carrington as president of Websense, Steven Chang as acting-CEO of CDC, James Malone as chairman of Cenveo, and Curtis Staker as CEO of GFI Software.
* Analyst upgrades for Alcatel, Computer Associates, Epiq Systems, Finisar, LTX, MapInfo, Micromuse, Nokia, Nvidia, QLogic, Stratex Networks, Teradyne, UbiquiTel, VeriSign and Vodafone Group.
* Analyst downgrades for Cognos, Gateway, Global Payments, Infineon, Kronos, PanAmSat, Plantronics, SanDisk, Seagate Technology, Sigma Designs and Transmeta.
* Private funding obtained for DiBcom Sa, a developer of mobile TV semiconductors; iConclude, a provider of problem resolution management software; LGC Wireless, a developer of in-building wireless networking products; and ThingMagic, an RFID reader technology developer.
* Stock offering announcements by France Telecom and VeriFone.
* A planned IPO on London`s AIM from SQS Software Quality Systems, a German software testing company.
* Planned IPOs from Iridium Satellite in 2006, and SAIC, a provider of scientific, engineering, systems integration and technical services and solutions.
* IPO filings from IDT Spectrum, a telecommunications company.
* A rights issue from Ireland`s Eircom.

* Boland`s acquisition targets that will enable the company to round out its software delivery optimisation portfolio.
* The buyer for Valarent IT Services, a unit of I-Sector, a communications hardware and software provider.
* A possible reverse take-over of London`s AIM-listed SkyNetGlobal.
* A possible merger involving Geac Computer.

* Worldwide network security appliance and software revenue grew 4% between 1Q05 and 2Q05 to $1 billion and is projected to rise to $1.3 billion by 2Q06, according to Infonetics Research.
* The worldwide external disk storage systems market grew by 8.6% for Q206 to $3.8 billion compared to Q205, according to IDC, while the worldwide disk storage systems market grew 9.9% to $5.6 billion over a similar period.

* JSE All share index: Up 3.1%
* Nasdaq: Up 1%
* Top SA share movements: Beget Holdings (-11.1%), CompuClearing (-9%), Digicor (+8.2%), GijimaAst (-9.4%), Idion (+38.2%), Metrofile (+13.3%), Spescom (+10%) and Stella Vista (+8.3%)
* Top international share movements: Ant (-39.2%), Boston Communications Group (-41.3%), Earthport (+35.7%), Finisar (+34.5%), Flightstore Group (+50%), Manpower Software (+29.3%), NCDI (+33.3%), SEMX (+33.3%), Ultima Networks (+28%) and VocalTec Communications (+29.9%)

The new edition of BusinessWeek features its latest 100 Top Brands listing that includes several technology companies, including Microsoft at number two, IBM at three and Intel at five. Others in the top 25 are Cisco, Dell, HP, Nokia and Samsung. The technology movers include Google and LG coming in for the first time at 38 and 97 respectively, and Sony down at 28 from 20.