BMC Software goes private

The privatisation of BMC Software and the ongoing machinations regarding Dell were the main international ICT stories last week.

At home, the full-year loss at Altron and the continued speculation/rumblings regarding the Department of Communications stole much of the local headline ICT space.

* Mixed Q3 numbers from Net1 UEPS Technologies, with revenue up 22.6% but profit down 81%.
* A full-year loss from Altron, although revenue up 6.9%.
* A positive trading update from Mix Telematics.
* Business Connexion wants to de-list its 'A' shares.
* The government's ICT Research, Development and Innovation Roadmap, aimed at bolstering ICT development and research in SA, has been approved by Cabinet.
* Tech Mahindra introduced Tech Mahindra South Africa, in conjunction with Falcorp Technologies, a black empowerment technology services company.
* New JSE cautionaries by Business Connexion and Mvelaserve.
* Renewed JSE cautionaries by Altech, Altron and TCS.
* Brandon Becker was appointed MD of Mimecast South Africa.
* Mark Buwalda resigned as MD of Ananzi.

* Dimension Data acquired AccessKenya, an ISP based in Kenya, for R326.4 million.
* IBM has opened an innovation centre in Nairobi, Kenya.

The 'new' release of Windows 8 is likely to restore certain PC desktop features back into the product.

* Baidu bought PPS, an Internet video provider.
* A group led by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital purchased BMC Software for $6.9 billion.
* Box, a cloud storage company, acquired Crocodoc, a small start-up that provides the technology behind document viewers found on some of the world's most popular Web sites.
* Dell bought Enstratius, an enterprise cloud management company.
* Intel (McAfee) purchased Stonesoft, a Finnish firewall software maker, for $389 million.
* NetSuite acquired OrderMotion, a provider of order management solutions.
* QlikView Technologies bought NComVA, a Swedish advanced visualisation technology company.
* Salesforce.com purchased Clipboard, a social bookmarking service start-up.
* Alibaba made a $294 million (28%) investment in AutoNav, a digital mapping company.
* Rambus has been fined $250 million in a Hynix patent lawsuit.
* The EU anti-trust authority levied a charge against Google's Motorola Mobility unit regarding abusive enforcement of its rights over a technology essential for the rest of the smartphone industry.
* Excellent quarterly results from Alibaba.
* Very good quarterly figures from Interactive Intelligence.
* Good quarterly numbers from Asustek, Cognizant Technology Solutions, CommVault Systems and Plantronics.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from AOL, BCE, BMC Software, Nvidia, SK Telecom, Sykes Enterprises (back in the black) and UMC.
* Satisfactory full-year numbers from Sony (back in the black).
* Mediocre quarterly results from CenturyLink, Dish Network, Electronic Arts and Rackspace Hosting.
* Mediocre year-end figures from Hitachi and Toshiba.
* Mixed quarterly figures from CA Technologies, with revenue down but profit up; Deutsche Telekom, with revenue down but profit up; j2 Global, with revenue up but profit down; MediaTek, with revenue down but profit up; Symantec, with revenue up but profit down; and Telefonica, with revenue down but profit up.
* Mixed half-year figures from Sage, with revenue up but profit down.
* Very poor quarterly figures from Ruckus Wireless.
* Quarterly losses from Cablevision Systems, Groupon, Intelsat, Liberty Global, MEMC Electronic Materials, Nokia Siemens Network, Qualys and Quantum.
* A full-year loss from Panasonic.
* The appointments of Shane Robinson (ex-HP executive) as chairman and CEO of Fusion-io; and Garth Wittles as CXO of Mimecast (was MD of Mimecast SA).
* The resignations of David Flynn, a founder and the CEO of Fusion-io; and Rick White, a founder and the CMO of Fusion-io.
* A poor IPO on the NYSE by Cyan, a network gear maker.

International:
* The possible acquisition by Facebook of Israel's Waze, a mobile satellite navigation start-up, in a deal that is likely to be worth between $800 million and $1 billion.
* The possible acquisition by Microsoft of the remaining stake in Nook Media (the e-book reader), it doesn't already own.
* Resolution of the Dell situation following yet another intervention involving Carl Icahn, this time with Southeastern Asset Management.
* The 'new' release of Windows 8 that is likely to restore certain PC desktop features back into the product, such as the start button.
South Africa:
* The possible parastatal shake-up that could see the supervision of Sentech and Telkom move to the Department of Public Enterprises from the Department of Communications.

* Global tablet shipments in Q1 grew 66.1% over the same period last year, to reach 31.93 million units, consisting of 19.5 million iPads and 12.43 million non-iPads, according to Digitimes Research.
* Smart device sales in Q1 reached 308.7 million units, with tablet and smartphone shipments up, but notebook shipments down, according to Canalys.

* JSE All share index: Up 1.6%
* Nasdaq: Up 1.7% to over 3 400 (highest weekend close since dot-com boom of 1999/2000)
* NYSE (Dow) Up 1%
* Top SA share movements: BCX 'A' (+23.1%), Gijima (-12.5%), Jasco (-11.7%), Labat Africa (+15.4%), Poynting (-12.2%), Sekunjalo (+11.1%), Stella Vista (+50%) and TCS (-50%)

The Barron's 500 is an exclusive ranking of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the US and Canada, as measured by sales in the latest fiscal year. The survey is prepared by Holt, a unit of Credit Suisse, which grades and ranks all companies on the basis of three equally weighted measures: median three-year return on investment, based on a proprietary cash-flow metric called CFROI; the change in CFROI in the latest fiscal year relative to the three-year median; and sales growth in the latest fiscal year, adjusted for pro forma.

Holt's CFROI metric strips out the effects of inflation and adjusts for accounting distortions, including the capitalisation of research and development, and off-balance-sheet operating leases. All data is based on the companies' latest reported fiscal year, which for most is 2012. Each company is graded in three categories; the top quintile gets an A, the bottom, an F. Holt then calculates the total grade-point average, or GPA, for each company, with 4.0 the highest. In cases where scores are tied, the ranking is based on one-year CFROI relative to the three-year median.

From a technology perspective, the only companies in the top 50 are:

* 1: Apple
* 3: Western Digital
* 6: Qualcomm
* 9: Seagate Technology
* 14: Symantec
* 18: Broadcom
* 49: ADP

However, there have been some significant movements, both up and down. For instance:

* 86: Oracle, up from 271
* 95: Motorola Solutions, up from 217
* 156: Facebook, a new entrant
* 255: Intel, down from six
* 71: Ingram Micro, up from 435
* 359: Sprint Nextel, down up 465
* 382: Arrow Electronics, down from 36
* 394: HP, down from 185
* 442: SanDisk, down from 69
* 499: Micron Technology, down from 291

I am overseas on business this week and therefore my next column will appear on 27 May, but will fully cover the intervening two-week period.