Big buys for large players

Last week, the international ICT scene was dominated by the acquisitions made by AMD and HP. The local market was again quiet with the highlight being Simeka BSG`s annual results.

The flood of quarterly results started to emerge with good/excellent numbers from Applix, AT&T, Millicom International Cellular SA, SanDisk and Telefonica. However, Ariba, Iomega, Pitney Bowes and Seiko Epson posted disappointing figures.

* AMD acquired graphics chipmaker, ATI Technologies, for $5.4 billion in one of the largest takeovers the semiconductor industry has ever seen. The new group looks like having annual revenue well in excess of $8 billion and a market capitalisation of over $13.5 billion.
* HP acquired Mercury Interactive for $4.5 billion to almost double the size of its software business.

* Excellent year-end numbers from Simeka BSG with revenue up nearly 250% and profit up about 150%.
* Eskom plans to sell its network infrastructure to the second national operator.
* A consortium led by Digital IQ has expressed an interest in Telkom`s Swiftnet.

* MTN upped its stake in MTN Uganda to 97.34% by acquiring the 12.89% stake held by Tri-Star Investments.
* Good Q1 results from Vodafone Egypt with revenue up 37% and profit up over 50%.
* Chinguitel SA was awarded the third GSM licence in Mauritania.
* Miko Rwayitare, a South African-based Rwandan tycoon, acquired Terracom Communications of Rwanda through a share-swap agreement.
* Internet Solutions acquired a 51% stake in Interconnect, a Kenyan ISP.

HP acquired Mercury Interactive for $4.5 billion to almost double the size of its software business.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Matsushita, NEC, NEC Electronics, Panasonic Mobile Communications and TI to form a joint venture that will conduct global development design and technology licensing for a hardware and software communications platform to manage the core communications functions for mobile handsets for 3G and beyond.
* Matsushita and NEC formed a joint venture to develop mobile phone software.
* Motorola and Wipro formed a joint venture to provide outsourcing services.
* Motorola and Huawei Technologies formed an alliance to develop various wireless products and services.
* Microsoft bought Azyxxi healthcare software technology.
* The appointments Louis D`Ambrosio as president and CEO of Avaya.

* A planned IPO on the NYSE from Qimonda, Infineon`s memory chip unit.
* A planned IPO in India from Tech Mahindra.
* An IPO on London`s AIM by ReneSola, a Chinese company that recycles silicon wafers.
* A good IPO by WNS, the parent company of BPO provider, WNS Global Services.
* The scrapping of Alien Technology`s IPO.

* The private equity buyer for Philips` semiconductor division, which could be a bid worth more than EUR10 billion.

* The content applications market will continue to grow at above the 10% CAGR level, through 2010, says IDC.

* JSE All share index: Up 2.7%
* Nasdaq: Up 3.6%
* Top SA share movements: Beget Holdings (+25%), CompuClearing (+14.3%), I-Solutions (-8.3%), ISA (+9.5%), Labat Africa (+8.3%), Metrofile (+13.9%), Simeka BSG (+8%) and Zaptronix (+11.1%).
* Top international share movements: AirNet Communications (-32.1%), American Superconductor (+31.5%), CDI (-32%), Eagle Test Systems (+34.3%), Entrada Networks (-33.3%), Pegasus Wireless (+34%), PixelPlus (+40.8%), Rackable Systems (-40%), SigmaTel (+41.6%) and Silverline Technologies (+132.1%).

BusinessWeek has published the Boston Consulting Group`s list of 100 emerging-market companies that have the potential to reach the top rank of global corporations. The list contains many technology companies, including America Movil, the Mexican telecom services company; China Mobile; Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecommunications equipment supplier; Infosys Technologies, an Indian IT services company; Lenovo Group, the Chinese IT company that acquired IBM`s PC unit; Orascom Telecom, one of Egypt`s telecommunications players; Tata Consultancy Services, an Indian IT services company; and Wipro, an Indian IT services company.