Billion-dollar overseas acquisitions

The most significant overseas activity last week was the Adobe/Macromedia deal, while at home the uncertainty over the 'finalisation` of ICT black empowerment charter and the MTN/Celtel situation dominated the local ICT media space.

* Time Warner and Comcast`s $17.6 billion acquisition of Adelphia Communications. Adelphia has been under the control of the bankruptcy court, but approval of the deal is expected shortly. Time Warner and Comcast are the US`s two largest cable TV companies and this deal adds 5.2 million subscribers. Following the deal, Comcast and Time Warner will have about 23.3 million and 14.4 million subscribers respectively.

* Adobe`s $3.4 billion acquisition of Macromedia. This deal potentially creates an industry defining technology platform as the distribution of information extends beyond the PC into a vast range of consumer devices.

* The MTN and Celtel situation in which the former is disputing the offer by Kuwait`s MTC for Celtel. MTN alleges it already had an agreed offer with Celtel prior to the announced MTC deal.

* Very good maiden full-year results from DataPro with a return to profitability.

* Good interim numbers from EOH, with both revenues and profits up over 20%.

* Good year-end figures from Jasco Electronics with net income up over 400%, although revenue was marginally down.

* A positive trading update from Reunert.

* The appointment of Hugo Knoetze as COO of arivia.kom.

* The resignation of Stuart Robertson as CEO of Jasco Electronics with effect from "later this year" in order to take up a post with the group`s empowerment partner, CIH Group.

* AST finalised the disposal of its Bentley West operation.

* AST started trading under its new name, GijimaAst.

* The African ISP Association selected Africa Online and Transtel as regional ISP carriers.

* The appointment of Mark Payne as MD of Genesys Telecommunications for southern Africa.

* Channel Data was appointed as the sub-Saharan distributor for Peribit Networks.

* The appointment of Dale Kutnick, the ex-founder and chairman of Meta Group, as senior VP, director of research at Gartner.

* The appointments of Michael Burdiek as CEO and president of Telenetics, Mike Gustafson as CEO of BlueArc, Mike Quigley as COO of Alcatel SA, and Rob van der Merwe as CEO and president of Paxar.

* The oustings of Edward Newman, chairman and CEO of Xybernaut, and Stephen Newman, president and COO of Xybernaut.

Very good maiden full-year results from DataPro with a return to profitability.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Analyst upgrades for Actel, Adobe, Affymetrix, Alliance Data, Anteon, Ariba, Avid Technology, BellSouth, Benchmark Electronics, Broadcom, Cablevision Systems, CACI, Cogent, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Cray, Dell, Entercom Communications, Ericsson, FormFactor, Freescale Semiconductor, Google, Integrated Circuit Systems, Intel, Juniper Networks, M-Systems Flash, Mercury Computer Systems, Motorola, Navarre, NMS Communications, Novellus Systems, ntl, OmniVision Technologies, Packeteer, Qualcomm, Sanmina, SeaChange International, Seagate Technology, Siemens AG, Sierra Wireless, SigmaTel, Symantec, Synplicity and Tellabs.

* Analyst downgrades for Activision, BEA Systems, BearingPoint, Brocade Communications, Catapult Communications, Epicor Software, Hyperion Solutions, Lucent Technologies, Macromedia, SBS Technologies, Sierra Wireless, Take-Two Interactive Software, Telus, Teradyne and WJ Communications and Yahoo.

* Positive results announcements from ADC, Corning and Intuit.

* Negative result warnings from Agilysys, Analysts International, Atmel, Computacenter, Overland Storage, Sonus Networks and Spirent.

* Stock repurchase announcements from Carreker, Digital River and Synaptics.

* A job loss announcement from Hytek.

* Private funding obtained for Bivio Networks, a supplier of next-generation packet-handling platforms; Idiom Technologies, an enterprise software company; Ingrian Networks, a maker of cryptographic devices and SSL accelerators; SenSage, a provider of security event and performance management software; T-RAM Semiconductor, a developer of memory technology; and Xelerated, a network processor developer.

* A share split announcement from ADC (reverse 1:7).

* The sell-off by Parity Group of it European and US operations.

* Worldwide PC shipments grew 10.3% in Q1 2005, buoyed by significant growth in the EMEA region, says Gartner. Dell retained its number one position, followed by HP, IBM, Fujitsu and Acer.

* JSE All share index: Down 2.5%

* Nasdaq: Up 1.3%

* Top SA share movements: Beget Holdings (-12.5%), DataPro (-6.6%), Digicore (-6%), Faritec (+14.3%), Grintek (+7%), Idion (+4.9%), Jasco (-5.4%), Labat Africa (+5%), Paracon (-4.8%) and Spescom (-4.5%)

* Top international share movements: Belgravia Telecom (-36.6%), Elcom International (+37.5%), Manchester Technologies (+32.7%), MCT (-27.3%), Parity Group (+27.6%), Read-Rite (+66.7%), Red Squared (-29.4%), Silverline Technologies (-32%), Spirent (-28.5%) and Tarantella (-27.5%)

The 2005 Fortune 500 listing is now available for America`s largest corporations. There are no major changes from a technology perspective. However, new technology entrants include Corning at 480, Liberty Media at 254, MCI at 90 and Micron Technology at 439. AT&T Wireless Services has disappeared from the current listing following its absorption into Cingular Wireless.