Blu-ray wins the race

The 3Com news and the win by the Blu-ray DVD standard dominated last week's international ICT market. At home, the handful of local results took pride of place.

* Excellent interim figures from Celcom, with revenue up 87% and profit more than double.
* Very good interim numbers from Pinnacle, with revenue up over 30% and profit up over 50%.
* Good interim figures from FoneWorx, with revenue up 20% and profit up over 66%.
* Mixed interim numbers from Blue Label Telecoms, with revenue up over 40% but profit down 45%.
* A positive trading update from SecureData.
* Negative trading updates from Business Connexion, Metrofile and Mustek.
* The acquisition by Datatec's Analysys Mason of Redbox Consulting Services, a telecommunications and media consultancy.
* SAB&T Ubuntu's 42% investment in The Data Factory, a provider of end-to-end solutions in the retirement fund and benefit industry.
* The 25.1% investment in Stella Vista by Woodlane Consortium for R7.8 million, the latter being 55% owned by Sahara Systems.
* Microsoft's 38.85% investment in Oxigen Services India, the Indian subsidiary of Blue Label Telecoms.
* The announcement that Mindset Network, a local educational NGO, has been named as an industry Innovator for Systems Development & Application by the Society of Satellite Professionals International.
* The rumour that Telkom SA has requested permission to set up its own mobile phone network.
* The appointments of AC Ruiters as chairman of Business Connexion.

* Excellent six-month figures from Access Kenya, with revenue up over 70% and profit up over three times.
* The announcement by the Nigerian government that it has, in essence, reversed the sale of Nitel and M-Tel to Transcorp. At least five companies have expressed interest in taking over Nitel/M-Tel; these being Emirates Telecom, France Telecom, Orascom, Telkom SA and Vodacom.
* The Ghana government suspended the privatisation process of Ghana Telecom. The highest bidder for the 51% stake was France Telecom, which the government has now said was too low an offer.
* The acquisition by Reliance Communications, India's largest integrated telecommunications provider, of Uganda-based Anupam Global Soft, a company holding a public infrastructure provider licence and a public services provider licence.
* The 20% investment by UK's Liquid Telecom Group in Zimbabwe's Transaction Payment Systems, a subsidiary of Econet Wireless Holdings.

Intel has taken the top spot in this year's 100 Best Corporate Citizens list.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* EMC acquired Pi, a developer of personal information management technology.
* Lawson Software bought VasTech, a workforce management software provider.
* Lenovo purchased certain assets of Sanmina-SCI, a technology contract manufacturer.
* Toshiba and SanDisk created a joint venture for flash memory wafer production.
* The announcement of a chip-making venture involving Toshiba (60%), Sony (20%) and Sony Entertainment (20%), which will start operations in 2009.
* The announcement that the 3Com acquisition by Bain Capital and Huawei had fallen due to political pressure from Washington and now may not happen. This has serious consequences for 3Com, which has been making losses continuously since the year 2000.
* Ericsson intends to sell-off its PAX subsidiary to Canada's Aastra, an enterprise communications company.
* Toshiba has thrown in the towel re its HD-DVD format, clearing the way for Sony's Blu-ray technology to become the new de facto standard.
* Excellent quarterly results from Garmin.
* Good quarterly numbers from HP.

* Vodacom is taking over Lap Green Networks' recently purchased operations in Rwanda and Uganda.

* According to Research & Markets, in 2008 India will replace the US as the second largest wireless market behind China.

* JSE All share index: Up 4.7%
* Nasdaq: Down 0.8%
* Top SA share movements: African Cellular Towers (+14.3%), Celcom (+20%), Datatec (+12%), Ifca Technologies (+13.3%), Metrofile (-17.9%), MICROmega (-10%), Paracon (+12.5%), SAB&T Ubuntu (-18.7%), Stella Vista (-25%) and TeleMasters (-11.8%)

Intel has taken the top spot in this year's 100 Best Corporate Citizens list, which is published by CRO Magazine. Intel has been in the top 20 since the listing was established nine years ago.