Apple goes to Lala land

The international ICT market was dominated by numerous activities in the communications and telecommunications arenas over the last two weeks. At home, the finalisation of the arivia deal and the spat between Mustek and HP stole much of the local headline ICT space.

T-Systems received approval from the Competition Commission to buy arivia.kom.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Good year-end figures from Vox Telecom, with revenue up about 10%, and profit up even further.
* Mixed year-end figures from UCS, with revenue up, but profit down.
* Mixed interim numbers from Naspers, with revenue up, but profit down; and Telkom SA, with revenue up, but profit significantly down.
* Very poor year-end numbers from Stella Vista, with revenue down 18% and just in the black.
* A year-end loss from Sekunjalo, with revenue also down; and Zaptronix, although revenue up 29%.
* An interim loss from Huge Group, with revenue also down.

* A negative trading update from Ideco.
* Net 1 UEPS Technologies acquired Medikredit Integrated Healthcare Solutions, a company that provides transaction processing, financial and clinical risk management solutions to both funders and providers of healthcare. The deal was worth R74 million.
* UCS reversed its decision to unbundle its Argility division that sells retail software developed by the parent company as well as other products. Argility was sold off to shareholders in September 2007.
* Huawei established its first telecoms R&D centre in SA.
* Huge Group announced a new subsidiary, Huge Media, which is designed to sell mobile advertising technology.
* IBM established telecommunications development centres in China, Malaysia and SA.
* Mustek placed a formal complaint with the Competition Commission against HP.
* KDDI (Japan)-owned Telehouse is to establish its carrier-neutral data centre facilities in SA.
* T-Systems received approval from the Competition Commission to buy arivia.kom, which brings to an end a protracted three-year sales process.
* Cassandra Gabriel, chairman of the Universal Service and Access Agency of SA, resigned. The entity is still without a CEO.

* The Libyan government plans to sell small stakes in the country's two mobile phone networks as part of a wider plan to sell off state-owned corporations. The IPOs will offer shares in the government's two mobile telephone operators, al Madar and Libyana.
* Millicom has started its mobile operations in Rwanda.

* Apple acquired Lala.com, an Internet music site.
* Broadcom purchased Dune, a company that makes networking chips used in Ethernet switches, for $178 million.
* Ciena bought Nortel Networks' metropolitan Ethernet networks business for $769 million in an auction, where the company out-bid Nokia Siemens Networks, in a deal that will make Ciena the third-largest optical equipment player in the market, behind Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei Technologies.
* Ericsson acquired Nortel Networks' US and Canada GSM business unit for $70 million.
* Kapsch Carrier Com AG purchased Nortel Networks' EMEA and Taiwan GSM businesses.
* Inmarsat bought Segovia, the mixed satellite and terrestrial networks group, for $110 million.
* Forrester Research acquired Monitor Group's Strategic Oxygen unit, which provides tools that help marketers identify who they should target for their products or services.
* Gartner purchased AMR Research, a research and advisory services company serving supply chain management and IT professionals, for $64 million.
* Google bought AppJet, a software company providing real-time collaboration; and Teracent, a display advertisement specialist.
* IBM acquired Guardium, a company providing real-time enterprise database monitoring and protection.
* KPN made a $93.3 million investment in iBasis for the shares it doesn't already own. iBasis is a wholesale carrier of long-distance phone calls and provider of retail prepaid-calling and other services for mobile operators.
* Motorola invested in Sensitive Object, a French company that makes software for converting surfaces into touch-screens.
* Three investment firms, including Sequoia Capital, invested in Sina, China's largest Internet portal.
* Telefonica invested in Digital Plus, the satellite TV of Prisa, Spain's largest media group.
* The Swiss mobile operations of France Telecom and TDC merged.
* TDC (Denmark) merged with Nordic Telephone Company ApS (Denmark).
* Microsoft disposed of two of the units of Fast, a Norwegian company it acquired last year.
* EU regulators have dropped a four-year-old anti-trust investigation into Qualcomm.
* The European Commission announced France Telecom must repay about EUR1 billion in illegal state aid.
* Microsoft and Yahoo have finalised their search agreement.
* The $200 million buy-back by Lenovo of its handset unit, which was sold off to investors for half that price 18 months ago.
* Good half-year figures from Carphone Warehouse (back in the black).
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Blue Coat Systems (back in the black).
* Mediocre quarterly results from QAD and Sage (UK).
* Mixed quarterly figures from Brocade, with revenue up, but profit down; CDC Software, with revenue down, but profit up; HP, with revenue down, but profit up; and Nuance Communications, with revenue up, but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Novell (revenue also down) and Siemens (revenue also down). A
* Alexander Izosimov was appointed CEO of the newly enlarged VimpelCom.
* Planned IPOs from Sensata Technologies, a company that produces sensors and industrial technology.

* International:
* A merger between AU Optronics (Taiwan) and CPT (Taiwan) that would create the largest panel maker in Taiwan.
* The sell-off the assets of TDC (Denmark) by its private equity owners.
* South Africa:
* Telkom SA buying a stake in, or the complete entity of one of the Zimbabwean telecommunications players.

* The worldwide PC market in 2009 is expected to grow 2.8% this year to 298.9 million units, although revenue will fall 11%, according to Gartner. In 2010, the number of units shipped could reach 336.6 million units.
* The worldwide external controller-based disk storage revenue declined 7.3% in Q309 to $3.9 billion, reports Gartner.
* The worldwide server market declined 17.3% in Q309 to $10.4 billion, according to IDC.

* JSE All share index: Up 1.7% (highest weekend close since August 2008)
* Nasdaq: Up 2.3% (highest weekend close since September 2008)
* Top SA share movements: AdaptIT (-18.4%), Dynamic Cables (-17.8%), Faritec (-20%), Ideco (-36.2%), Ifca Technologies (+66.7%), Labat Africa (-18.6%), Square One (+920%), Stella Vista (-33.3%) and Zaptronix (-33.3%)

This is my final column for this year, although as usual, I will publish my review of 2009 next week. My first column of 2010 will appear on 18 January and will cover the intervening period.

I would like to thank all my readers for their support during 2009 and wish them well over the festive season and the very best for 2010, which is already looking to be an exciting year.