Beget braves JSE listing

The IBM acquisition of Rational Software for $2.1 billion and the happenings at France Telecom dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications last week.

Aqua has sold its assets and intends to delist from the JSE early in 2003.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

At home, Joan Joffe`s retirement and the breakdown in the Prism/Altech PTSS deal stole most of the local ICT headline space.

* Aqua has sold its assets and intends to delist from the JSE early in 2003;

* the JSE will annotate Bryant Technology`s shares until an unqualified audit opinion has been undertaken; and

* Beget Holdings lists on the JSE today, the first new technology company to do so since August 2000.

[Local]

Other local news included:

* Black Business Quarterly named Business Connexion as the Best Performance and Productivity Black Business for 2002;

* Martin Vergunst, MD of CSC in SA, was appointed as head of the company`s global financial process outsourcing operation, which will be based in Cape Town;

* Joan Joffe, Vodacom`s spokesman and group executive for corporate affairs, announced her retirement; and

* talks between Altech and Prism re the acquisition of the latter`s PTSS unit have been terminated.

* Deutsche Telekom sold off 110 million shares in T-Online for EUR610 million as part of its debt reduction programme;

* the privatisation of Cesky Telecom was cancelled;

* the French Government injected $9 billion cash into France Telecom;

* Cable Design Technologies sold off most of the assets of its Norcom telecoms operation;

* continuing woes at Microsoft as two of the nine states will still not agree to the latest settlement ruling;

* Oniway, a Portuguese 3G operator, has been closed and its assets have been sold to its domestic rivals;

* AT&T, IBM and Intel created Cometa Networks, which is intended to bring high-speed Internet access to the US population over wireless networks; and

* Vivendi seems to have won the battle with Vodafone for control of Cegetel, the second largest French mobile telecoms company, by acquiring British Telecom`s shareholding in Cegetel.

Additionally, look out for a possible consolidation of South Korea`s telecoms industry, maybe under the auspices of the LG Group.

[International]

Other international news included:

* the appointments of Robert Burke as president and CEO of ATG, Naren Gupta as interim president and CEO of Numerical Technologies, Brad Ketch as president and CEO of New Visual, Oliver Sichel as chairman of Wanadoo, Donald Walsh as CEO of Avatech Solutions, and John Wyatt as CEO of Kodeos Comms;

* the resignations of Marc Bell as chairman of Globix, and Nicolas Dufourcq, chairman of Wanadoo;

* the retirement of John McClelland, president of 3Com`s Business Networks Company, and Jean-Francois Pontal, CEO of Orange; and

* job loss announcements from Alcatel SA, IDT, Marconi and Orange SA.

Good numbers* were recorded by National Semiconductor (back in the black) and Xenos Group (back in the black); and satisfactory* ones by JD Edwards, Peerless Systems (back in the black), Sage Group, SBE (back in the black) and Sierra Systems.

Mediocre* returns came from Brocker Technology (back in the black) and Geac Computer; while very poor results* came from Manchester Technologies and Plato Learning.

Losses* were posted by ADC Telecomms, Cable Design Technologies, Csii, eOn Comms, FirePond, Intec, MKS, Merant, Synopsys, Telecom Systems, Versant, Vsource and Xansa.

Other financial news included a share buy-back announcement from Dataram; profit warnings from AOL Time Warner, Corning, Gateway, IDT, JD Edwards, Manugistics, Mentor Graphics, Nokia and Wavecom; share split announcements from Group 1 Software (reverse), Lucent Technologies (reverse) and Navidec (reverse); and a mediocre IPO from MobileOne.

Additionally, Marconi has delayed the release of its interim figures for a second time; Cotelligent is re-stating its 2001 results; and Seagate Technology Holdings should be listing, again, this week.

Locally

Aplitec (-10.6%)
AST (-25.9%)
DNA (-12.2%)
Faritec (-16.3%)
Idion (+20%)
Pinnacle (-27.3%)
Prism (+15.4%)
Sekunjalo (-18.4%)
Synergy (+25%)
Y3K (+50%)

Internationally

Allegiance Telecom (-34.7%)
Auspex Systems (-32.2%)
Avanex (-34.3%)
DA Consulting Group (+90.9%)
Geoworks (+40%)
IDN Telecom (+33.3%)
Madge (+45.8%)
Manugistics (-35.6%)
TeleWest Comms (+60.6%)
Wavecom (-53.5%)

As this is the last Booth`s Bites for 2002, may I wish all my readers the very best for the festive season, and a good and successful 2003. The first issue for 2003 will appear on 20 January and will cover the intervening period.

My summary of 2002 and some predictions for 2003 will appear on Friday, 13 December.

* 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.

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

* Good: Both revenue and net income growth is 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.