Big deals expected in coming weeks

Apart from the $15.3 billion acquisition of Denmark`s TDC, the international ICT space was very quiet. Despite the time of year, however, I still expect some major developments during the next few weeks and these will be covered in my first column of 2006.

According to Gartner, sales of camera phones will reach nearly 300 million this year, some 38% of total cellphone sales.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

The acquisition by a group of private equity companies of Denmark`s TDC AS for 15.3 billion, the largest-ever European leveraged buy-out.

* Excellent interim numbers from Real Africa with profits up over 200%.
* Very good Q3 figures from Cell C with revenue up 35% and EBITDA up over 50%.
* Very good year-end numbers from Sekunjalo with revenue up 28% and profit up from 1.6 million to 37.5 million.
* Satisfactory interim numbers from Labat Africa with revenue down about 15% but well back in the black; and from Synergy Holdings with revenue almost static but net profit up nearly 80%.
* Satisfactory annual numbers from Trematon with profit up some 15%; and from Vesta Technology where revenue was down some 40% but well back in the black.
* The 20% investment by Amabubesi in Pinnacle.
* The merger of Lava Systems Africa and Real Global Business Solutions to create Enterprise Content & Wireless, a BEE company.
* The acquisition of Avnet`s HP business unit by Datatec`s UK entity, Logicalis.
* The acquisition by Dimension Data of the remaining shares of Plessey not already held by the company.
* The sell-off by MB Technologies of a 26% stake to Royal Bafokeng Finance.
* The formal de-listing on the JSE of EC-Hold.
* A potential SNO "spanner in the works" from Optis, a failed bidder for the SNO.

* Mauritius to become the first African nation to be fully covered by a WiMax network.
* MTN to consider a listing in Nigeria but has decided not to go ahead with its bid for Nitel.
* Gateway Communications to provide connectivity services for Madagascar and Seychelles.
* Celtel may pull out of the bidding for Nitel and Tunisia Telecom but is still looking for expansion in Africa.
* Vodacom renews its bid for V-Mobile.

* HP buys Trustgenix, a provider of single sign-on software.
* NEC buys 60% of Philips Electronics NV Business Communications unit.
* Positive results announcements from 2e2 Group, Amino Technologies, Business Objects, Fairchild Semiconductor and Qiao Xing Universal Telephone.
* Negative result warnings from Ceragon Networks, Cognos, MTC Technologies, Spansion and Zetex.
* A job loss announcement from TeliaSonera.
* Eutelsat revives its IPO proposal that was canned in October and will list in Paris in December.
* A planned IPO in Paris from France`s Cartesis SA, a BPM software vendor.
* A disappointing IPO from Actions Semiconductor.
* A planned IPO by Telecom Egypt (TE) with the sale of 20% of its shares. TE also owns 25% of Vodafone Egypt, the local mobile operator.

* The buyer for United Utilities` Your Communications telecoms unit.

* According to Gartner, sales of camera phones will reach nearly 300 million this year, some 38% of total cellphone sales and expected to rise to almost 750 million by 2009.

* JSE All share index: Down 2.2%
* Nasdaq: Up 0.5%
* Top SA share movements: Beget Holdings (-14.3%), Digicore (+10%),Eureka (+26.5%), Faritec (-7.4%), GijimaAST (-7.5%), Sekunjalo (+50%) and Zaptronix (-7.7%).
* Top international share movements: Entrada Networks (-40%), Exabyte (-31.9%), FiberMark (+53.8%), Future Internet (+42.2%), Intraware (+33.9%), Level 8 Systems (+112.5%), Mitek Systems (+48.8%), Parity (+48.6%),RadView Software (+106.9%), Silverline Technologies (-26.8%) and Zetex (-26.8%).

This is my final column for 2005 although I will be publishing my review of 2005 next week. The first issue for 2006 will appear on 9 January.

To all my readers, may I take this opportunity to thank you for your support during 2005 and to wish you well over this festive season and a very successful 2006.