Apotheker ousted from HP

The changes at the top of HP dominated the news in the international ICT market last week. With a new CEO in place at the company, the questions are now focused on whether there will be a change of direction with the disposal/IPO of its PC unit; the disposal of WebOS; the Autonomy acquisition; and the “insane” structure and reporting lines of many of the non-US subsidiaries.

At home, the acquisition of MXit stole the limelight.

World of Avatar acquired 90% of MXit.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Good year-end figures from Digicore, with revenue up 34% and profit up 15%.
* Mediocre full-year numbers from AdaptIT, with revenue down 13% and profit down 20%; and FoneWorx Holdings, with revenue down 0.3% and profit down 3.5%.
* A 16-month loss from Silverbridge Holdings, and revenue up.
* A full-year loss from Broadband Infraco, with revenue also down.
* Negative trading updates from Altech, Altron and Jasco.
* World of Avatar acquired 90% of MXit in a deal that sees MIH Holdings and MXit's founder, Herman Heunis, dispose of their shares.
* Marius Coetzee acquired Ideco Biometric Security Solutions, currently owned by the Ideco Group, for R20.2 million.
* The appointments of Alan Knott-Craig Jnr as CEO of MXit; Dave Rawlinson as CEO of Reunert; and Debbie Zane-Chikura as COO of Gijima.
* The resignations of Herman Heunis, CEO of MXit; and Nick Wentzel, CEO of Reunert.

* AdaptIT has expanded into Sierra Leone.
* Eaton Towers has secured $150 million in private equity funding to expand its tower-sharing business in Africa.
* IBM has opened an office in Angola.
* The Ugandan Communications Commission said six companies have lost their licences for failing to launch their services within the required time. The companies are Ace Networks, Excellentcom Uganda, Janu Communications, Mara Telecoms, Mo Telecom and Talk Telecom.
* The appointments of Yves Gautier as CEO of Mobinil (Egypt); Henry Godwin as MEA regional director for Avnet Technology Solutions; and Carlos Sartorius as EMEA VP and GM for Citrix Systems.
* The resignation of Hassan Kabbani, CEO of Mobinil (Egypt).

* Glam Media bought Ning, a social media platform company founded by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini.
* Oracle acquired GoAhead Software, a maker of software used in the communications industry.
* Salesforce.com purchased Assistly, an instant customer-service help desk.
* SAP bought Crossgate, a B2B integration service provider.
* Vista Equity Partners acquired Sage UK's US healthcare unit for $320 million.
* Xerox purchased XL World, an Italian multilingual customer care firm.
* A group that includes Silver Lake Partners and Digital Sky Technologies made a $1.6 billion investment in Alibaba Group Holding.
* Apple said the Chinese Patent Office had issued it with 40 patents that would enable the company to better protect its IP in that country.
* Netflix is splitting the company into two units, ie, Qwikster, which is a DVD-by-mail service; and the streaming service that will retain the Netflix brand name.
* The AT&T merger trial regarding its acquisition of T-Mobile has been set for February 2012.
* Oracle says its revised claim from Google for alleged copyright and patent infringement of Java technology used in the Android operating system is now $1.16 billion.
* Software AG has been awarded the SWIFTReady Financial EAI label for 2011, its ninth year in a row; and its webMethods OneData solution ranked number one in master data management technology for the third year in a row.
* Very good quarterly figures from Red Hat.
* Good quarterly numbers from Oracle and Tibco Software.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Adobe, with revenue up but profit down.
* Very poor quarterly figures from Zynga, although revenue more than doubled.
* The appointments of Angus Dent as CEO of Synchronica; and Meg Whitman, the ex-CEO of eBay, as CEO of HP. Whitman joined the board of HP earlier this year in a shake-up that followed Apotheker's appointment.
* The ousting of Leo Apotheker, CEO of HP. after an 11-month stint. This is the third CEO jettisoned from HP in the past six years. Apotheker was also ousted within 12 months of taking up his position as CEO of SAP.
* The resignation of Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO and co-founder of Synchronica.

* International:
* The outcome of the sale by France Telecom of its Swiss mobile operation.

* Africa:
* The possible investment by MTN in Telekom Networks Malawi, that country's dominant telecommunications company.

* South Africa:
* The long-term merger of Broadband Infraco and Sentech.

* According to HIS, an information and analysis provider, Lenovo moved to become the number three PC shipment provider in Q2, ousting Acer from this position.
* By 2014, at least 10% of enterprise e-mail seats will be based on a cloud or SaaS model, according to Gartner.
* The EMEA unified communications market will reach $16.6 billion by 2015 from $5.7 billion in 2010, according to IDC.
* Worldwide wireless LAN equipment revenue jumped 19% in 2Q11 to reach $813 million, according to Infonetics Research.
* Global business advisory firm AlixPartners says 44% of companies in the global telecommunications and technology industries are at risk of default or bankruptcy within two years.

* JSE All share index: Down 3.2%
* Nasdaq: Down 5.3%
* Top SA share movements: AdaptIT (-11.8%), African Cellular Towers (-11.1%), ConvergeNet (-12%), Ifca Technologies (+18.2%), MICROmega (+25%), Net 1 UEPS Technologies (+11.1%), Poynting Antennas (+10%), SecureData (-15.4%), TCS (+100%) and Zaptronix (-25%)

InformationWeek recently published its annual '500 report' that ranks the most innovative business technology organisations of North America. From a technology company perspective, the following made it into the top 100: Acxiom (number 60), Arrow Electronics (61), AT&T (98), Capgemini (94), Collabera (77), Convergys (57), Fiserv (27), Intuit (41), Iron Mountain (47), Sybase (38), Tech Data (92), Verizon Wireless (90), and XO Communications (46).