An empowering week

The two acquisitions by HP and Oracle`s revised bid for PeopleSoft dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications last week.

At home, the third draft of the ICT BEE charter, the sell-off by DataMirror of its Idion shareholding, and the Dimension Data results stole much of the local ICT headline space.

* We saw mediocre full-year figures from Altron (revenue and earnings both down);

* Good interim figures from Paracon (revenue static but earnings well up);

* Very poor half-year numbers from Dimension Data (but revenue up and back in the black);

* Very poor quarterly numbers from Datacraft Asia (although revenue up and back in the black);

* A quarterly loss from Spescom Software (revenue also down); and

* The suspension of Comparex`s shares but the listing of the shares of Business Connexion.

Other local news included:

* The publication of the third draft of the ICT BEE charter that included targets for the first time;

* Intervid`s plan to sell-off its North American operations to the region`s management;

* The merger of Synergy Computing and Sunstone Business Solutions Systems;

* The creation of a joint venture between M-Five Software and ASD; and

* The sell-out by DataMirror of its shareholding in Idion to VenFin and an institutional investor.

* We saw the name change of LSI Logic Storage Systems to Engenio Information Technologies;

* A revised, but lower bid for PeopleSoft by Oracle;

* The sell-off by Reuters of Yankee Group; and

* The unsolicited bid for Microcell Telecomms by Canadian wireless firm Telus.

International strategic partnerships were announced between Getronics and Counterpane Internet Security re Security Services; and between IntelliSense Software and PhoeniX.

Additionally, look out for the spin-off of the DRAM operations of Infineon Technologies AG; and the buy-out of the Hawaiian telephone operations of Verizon Comms by the Carlyle Group.

Other international news included:

* The appointments of Yossi Ben Shalom as chairman of Cimatron, Paul Ctellini as CEO of Intel following Craig Barrett`s retirement, Derek Douglas as chairman of Epic Data, Michael Fister as CEO of Cadence Design Systems, Bruce Henderson as CEO of Imation, Masao Nakamura as president of NTT DoCoMo, David Wang as president of City Network, and Wolfgang Ziebart as CEO of Infineon Technologies AG;

* The resignation of Rimon Ben Shaoul as chairman of Cimatron;

* The planned retirement of Craig Barrett as CEO of Intel; and

* A job loss announcement from MCI.

Six of the top 10 companies rated in the Financial Mail`s Top 200 Empowerment Companies supplement were technology companies, with Telkom at number one.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

We saw excellent* figures from chinadotcom, DRS Technologies, FiberNet (back in the black), hongkong.com, Linktone, LTX (back in the black) and Mama.com (back in the black).

Very good* numbers were posted by Agilisys (back in the black), Analog Devices, Astea International (back in the black), Lowrance Electronics, SRS Labs, SYS Technologies and ViaSat (back in the black).

Good figures* were recorded by Acceris Comms (back in the black), Acxiom (back in the black), Casio, Cisco, Dell, Electronic Systems Technology, Group 1 Software, IDI Global, Infocrossing, Innovative Comms Technologies, Integral Systems, Internet Gold, Internet Initiative Japan, NTT, NTT DoCoMo, Pacific Internet, Point.360, Pomeroy IT Solutions, Swisscom, Symbol Technologies (back in the black) and T-Online (back in the black).

Satisfactory* results were posted by BEA Systems, Compuware, Devoteam Group, Elbit Systems, Global Imaging, iBIZ Technology, IMSI (back in the black), Innotrac (back in the black), Magic Software, Metrocall, MicroTel International, Nikon (back in the black), Sage, Sapiens, SAS Institute, Telefonica, Track Data and Veramark (back in the black).

Mediocre* returns came from Appleton, ASA International (but back in the black), Atos Origin, Capgemini, Deutsche Telekom AG, Dicom, Group Steria SCA, Infodata, Intelsat, InterDigital, KPN NV, Nortech, Perceptron, ScanSoft, Sensytech, Speedus (but back in the black) and SureWest Comms.

Very poor results* came from Cimatron, En Pointe Technologies (but back in the black), ORBIT/FR and ViryaNet (but back in the black).

Losses* were posted by ADIC, AirIQ, AirNet Comms, American Superconductor, AOL Latin America, Attunity, AVX, Bitstream, Block Comms, Cablevision Systems, Charter Comms, Choice One Comms, Cognitronics, Completel Europe, CorVu, D&E Comms, Daou Systems, Data Systems & Software, Datatrak International, Davel Comms, Dex Media, Digital Power, Diversinet, DSL.net, Elbit Vision Systems, Elcom International, eMagin, Ffastfill, Gateway, Giga-tronics, Gilat Satellite Networks, Global Payment Technologies, Globecomm Systems, GoAmerica, Intec Telecom Systems, Integrated Business Systems and Services, Integrated Security Systems, Intelligent Systems, Knology, Lason, LightPath Technologies, Logic Devices, Maxwell Technologies, MCI, MTS, Net Servicos de Comunicacao SA, nStor Technologies, NTN Comms, Numerex, PECO II, Q Comm, QSound Labs, RCN, Rural cellular, Saflink, SatCon Technology, Scan-Optics, Sentry Technology, ServiceWare Technologies, Simtek, Sipex, Softbank, Sonic Foundry, SR Telecom, Summus, Suntron, Sycamore Networks, Telenetics, Telewest Comms, Terra Lycos, Triton PCS, TTI Telecom, UnitedGlobalCom, V-ONE, VIA NET.WORKS, Visual Data, WorldGate Comms, XO Comms, Z-Tel, Zap.com and Zi.

Other financial news included analyst upgrades for Brocade Comms, Captiva Software, Micrel, Micromuse and SafeNet; an analyst downgrade for ADIC; private funding obtained for Pure Networks; share buy-back announcements from ADIC, Cisco, Gtech and InterVideo; and negative results/profit warnings (often veiled) from Amdocs, Arel Comms and Software, DataMirror, Dream Direct, Infogrames Entertainment SA and Quovadx.

There were also share split announcements from V-ONE (reverse 1:2); a disappointing IPO from Shanda Networking; an IPO filing from Right Now Technologies; and planned IPOs from software services company Callwave on Nasdaq, China-based chipmaker CSMC Technologies and MetroPCS. Additionally, Checkpoint Systems is to re-state its 2002 and 2003 results.

Locally

CompuClearing (+10.7%)
Elexir (+100%)
Idion (+10.5%)
Infowave (+29.6%)
Intervid (-11.1%)
MGX (+33.3%)
Pinnacle (+23.8%)
Sethold (-10.7%)
Spescom (-11.4%)
UCS (-12.5%)

Internationally

Arel Comms & Software (+23.8%)
ClickSoftware Technologies (-21.8%)
Digital Lightwave (+45.4%)
FiberMark (-21.4%)
Merix (-34.3%)
Network Equipment Technologies (-23.5%)
Peerless Systems (-24%)
RCN (-45%)
Read-Rite (-50%)
Warthog (+21.5%)

In terms of indices, Nasdaq was down 0.7% and the JSE down 6.2% for the week.

Financial Mail recently published its Top 200 Empowerment Companies supplement. Surprisingly, six of the top 10 companies rated were technology companies, with Telkom at number one. With the finalisation of the ICT BEE charter not complete, the ratings were based on the government`s guidelines, with much of the research being undertaken in conjunction with Empowerdex. Also in the top five were Sekunjalo, MTN and Datacentrix.

* NB

Guidelines for the categorisation of results are as follows and are always in comparison with the equivalent period for the previous year; pro forma numbers are ignored (the terminology may vary slightly from country to country).

* Excellent: Both revenue and net income growth in excess of 50%.

* Very good: Both revenue and net income growth in excess of 25%.

* Good: Both revenue and net income growth in excess of 10%.

* Satisfactory: Revenue is within 10% of previous year and net income is up.

* Mediocre: Either revenue and/or net income is down.

* Very poor: Net income is less than 1% of revenue.

* Loss: A loss has been recorded.