Big players' small buys

No 'earth-shattering' announcements came from the ICT industry during the past two weeks, either internationally or locally, although there were a number of small acquisitions from some of the major players, together with results from many of the local players.

From an international results perspective, excellent, very good or good figures came from Acer, Apple, AT&T, Capgemini, Ericsson, Microsoft and Software AG; only satisfactory/mediocre numbers emanated from 3M, Business Objects, EDS, France Telecom, Fujitsu, Kyocera, Lexmark, NCR, TI, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, Symantec, Toshiba and Verizon Communications; but very poor numbers/losses came from Ariba, BenQ, Nortel Networks and Unisys.

* A possible deal between Microsoft and Yahoo.
* The privatisation of Maxis, Malaysia's number one mobile phone company, by Ananda Krishnan and his partners, who already own 59% of the company.
* The potential acquisition by Fujitsu of GFI Informatique, a French IT systems integration company.

Look out for a possible deal between Microsoft and Yahoo.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Very good year-end numbers from SilverBridge Holdings, with revenues up 40% and profits up over 100%.
* Good year-end figures from Allied Technologies, with revenues up 12% and profits up 15%, and Jasco with revenues up over 20% and profits up over 44%.
* Mixed year-end numbers from Infowave, with revenues up 44% but profits only up 15%.
* Mediocre year-end numbers from BTG, with revenues up 18% but profits down 15%.
* Good interim numbers from Zaptronix, with revenues up about 10% and back in the black.
* Satisfactory interim numbers from Sekunjalo with revenues up over 7% and back in the black.
* A loss from Cell C, although revenues up 19%.
* The suspension of the shares of Integrear, now deemed to be a 'cash shell'.
* Positive trading updates from Datatec, Eureka, SAB&T Ubuntu and UCS.
* A negative trading update from Trematon.
* The placement of shares in the UK by Datatec.
* The R9.1 million acquisition of ConvergeNet SA by Vestor Investments. The latter is also intending to change its name to ConvergeNet Holdings. It has also purchased Structured Connectivity Solutions, a full-solutions IT company for R11.2 million.
* The acquisition of an additional 40.1% by Dimension Data in Datacraft Americas Holdings, thus giving it a controlling 50.1% interest in that company.
* The acquisition by Control Instruments of the distribution rights and the fleet telematics, data management and commercial vehicle fitting businesses from Siemens VDO Trading.
* The opening of a South African office by Numara Software, a supplier of service desk management solutions.
* The appointment of Altech as the southern Africa distributor for US-based CityNet Wireless and Pinnacle Micro as a distributor for Western Digital.
* The appointments of Mike Hamilton as MD of Channel Data; Peter Ibbotson as CEO of Ingram Micro SA; Tebogo Mogashoa as chairman of Beget Holdings; Mandla Ngcobo as CEO of Telkom Media; and Jack Ward as chairman of Channel Data.
* The resignations of D Harrington as chairman of Beget Holdings and Guy Whitcroft, a director of MB Technologies and ex-CEO of Tarsus Technologies.
* The retirement of John Miller, CEO of GijimaAST.

* Very good year-end numbers from Vodafone Egypt, with profits up nearly 50%.
* The appointment of Carl Kleynhans as regional director Africa for APC-MGE.

* The acquisition by CSC of Covansys, an outsourcing and technology services company.
* The acquisition by HP of Logoworks, a Web-based graphics design service provider.
* The acquisition by Microsoft of ScreenTonic SA, a European mobile advertising pioneer.
* The acquisition by Motorola of Terayon Communications Systems, a creator of video processing solutions, and the investment by Motorola in Vocera Communications, a provider of wireless communications systems.
* The acquisition by Oracle of Lodestar, a provider of metre data management and competitive energy solutions for the utilities industry.
* The EUR4.1 billion acquisition of an 18% stake in Telecom Italia by Telefonica, together with three Italian financial institutions.
* The spin-out by BenQ of its branded business in September. It will then re-name itself Jia Da Corporation and focus on contract manufacturing.
* A planned IPOs from Alibaba, the Chinese Internet company owned by Yahoo; Cross match Technologies, a biometric technology developer; Autonomy's consumer division; and Virgin Mobile USA.
* An IPO filing from VMware, a unit of EMC.
* A good IPO by Cavium Networks, a provider of semiconductor processors.
* Voluntary Chapter 11 filings by All American Semiconductor and Pac-West Telecomm.

* JSE All share index: Up 0.9% (highest ever weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Up 1.8% (highest weekend close for over five years)
* Top SA share movements: Beget Holdings (+66.7%), Cyberhost (-16.7%), Infowave (+17.1%), Metrofile (+17.4%), MICROmega (-12.5%), SAB&T Ubuntu (+17.1%), Silverbridge (+23.1%), Stella Vista (-20%), TeleMasters (-17.1%) and Zaptronix (+14.3%)
* Top international share movements: All American Semiconductor (-60.6%), Baidu.com (+27.5%), Cicero (-40.6%), Covad Communications Group (-24.2%), Cray (-28.1%), Deltalink (-29.1%), Eagle Broadband (+37.5%), Exabyte (-33.3%), i2 Technologies (-30%) and Interactive Intelligence (+24.3%)

Fortune Magazine has published its 'USA Fortune 500' listings. From a technology perspective, the key changes include HP taking over the top IT spot - at number 14 - from IBM; the inclusion in the list of Anixter International, Level 3 Communications and Western Digital; and the displacement of BellSouth (acquired), Cox Communications, Freescale Semiconductor, Ikon Office Solutions, Jabil Circuit and Navistar International.