Avaya bought for $8.2bn

Avaya's buy-out and several other small acquisitions by some of the major players were the key stories from the international ICT world.

A private equity consortium paid US$8.2 billion for Avaya - 33% more than before the acquisition rumours began. Gartner said the move would enable Avaya to accelerate its transformation from a hardware-based telecommunications platform to a software communications company. "With this acquisition, Avaya can restructure its business behind the scenes and away from public scrutiny," the research firm said in an advisory note.

At home, Telkom and Vodacom stole much of the local media ICT space with their results, as did the speculation regarding a possible sell-off by Telkom of part or all of Vodacom to Vodafone.

* A private equity consortium bought out Avaya for $8.2 billion.

* Good year-end results from Vodacom, with revenue up over 20% and profit up nearly 30%.
* Satisfactory year-end figures from Labat Africa, with revenue up slightly but back in the black.
* Mediocre year-end numbers from Telkom SA, with revenue up 8.4% but profit down.
* A positive trading update from Alliance Data.
* A negative trading update from Celcom.
* FoneWorx transferred its listing from the VC section of the JSE to AltX.
* Carotek's IT division of engineering and electronics, an HP integrator, was bought by Datatec's Logicalis for $6.9 million.
* Ansys, a provider of electronic wheel profile monitoring systems, debuted on AltX.
* Bryant Technology de-listed from the JSE.
* DataPro acquired Xsinet, an ISP.
* EOH purchased network specialist, LANmetrix.
* The IQ Business Group bought the HPL Group, a learning company comprising Hi-Performance Learning and CUDA Technologies.
* Torque IT acquired SmartSource Learning Solutions, a specialist in Novell technologies.
* Westcon AME, part of Datatec, purchased JET Distribution and the Sparnoon-Dynatech Group.
* Altron's Powertech acquired most of the units of IST.
* Dimension Data's Internet Solutions completed a majority investment in InCite Smart Services. InCite will be re-named IS Gated Services.
* Trematon disposed of its shareholding in Intec Telecom Systems.
* BMI-TechKnowledge severed its ties with IDC, which is expected to open its own local operation in the near future.
* The appointments of Jonas Bogoshi as CEO of GijimaAst, Loyal Ndwandwe as MD of ePages, and Willem van Rensburg as CEO of Storm Telecoms.
* DataPro proposed to change its name to VoxTelecom.
* In a dispute resolution, Internet Solutions accepted Verizon's settlement offer.

* Google opened its first African-based operations in Kenya, headed-up by Joseph Mucheru, former CEO of Wananchi.
* Lonrho acquired 65% of Sociedade Comercial Bytes & Pieces, Limitada, one of Mozambique's largest commercial IT solutions providers.

SMS-based revenue in Africa and the Middle East is expected to double to $2.02 billion by 2010.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Ericsson acquired Drutt, a service delivery platform developer, and billing software provider, LHS AG.
* Google purchased PeakStream, a maker of software for running powerful computers.
* Microsoft bought out Engyro, a developer of software integration tools, and Stratature, a master-data management vendor.
* IBM bought out Watchfire, a Web application security testing space player, and Sweden's Telelogic, an application life cycle management and enterprise architecture company.
* Elevation Partners, a private equity group, made a 25% investment in Palm.
* Job loss announcements from Compuware, Hutchison Technologies, Macrovision, Openwave, Palm and Sony.
* Planned IPOs from Spreadtrum Communications, a wireless chip designer; and SS&C Technologies, a financial software developer.
* An excellent IPO on Nasdaq by Infinera, an optical chipmaker.
* A good IPO on Nasdaq by Limelight Networks, a provider of a content delivery network.
* A good IPO on Nasdaq by Starent Networks, a maker of hardware and software.
* A good IPO in Thailand by Total Access Communication PCL, a mobile phone operator.

* A private equity group is looking to buy out Cadence Design Systems.

* According to Portico Research, SMS-based revenue in Africa and the Middle East is expected to double to $2.02 billion by 2010.

* JSE All share index: Up 1.3% (highest ever close)
* Nasdaq: Up 0.5% (highest close for over six years)
* Top SA share movements: Alliance Data (+24.7%), Celcom (-13.9%), Cyberhost (+28.6%), Digicor (+20%), FoneWorx (+25%), Infowave (-18.1%), Metrofile (+15.9%), Labat Africa (+70%), Vestor (-13.2%) and Zaptronix (-12.5%).
* Top international share movements: Bell Canada (-99%), Cicero (-51.7%), EPIQ Systems (-40.5%), Openwave (-32.5%), Pegasus Wireless (-32.1%), Rural Cellular (+26.5%), Sapiens (+27.2%), SEMX (+66.7%), SRS Labs (-32.2%) and VerticalNet (+45.5%).

CIO Insight has released its '40 fastest-growing software companies' list for 2007. At the top is Nuance Communications, with Salesforce.com at number three, Red Hat at number four and Adobe at six. The big names are much further down the list.