CA to choose new CEO

The ongoing PeopleSoft/Oracle saga and the looming sell-offs by the Australian and German governments in their respective national telecoms companies dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications during the last two weeks.

At home, the impending ICASA colloquium and the Beyond IT acquisition by the Connection Group stole much of the local ICT headline space.

* Satisfactory full-year numbers from Connection Group (revenue slightly down but profit well up);

* Interim figures from Altech (revenue well up but earnings only up about 5%) and Jasco (revenue slightly down but well back in the black);

* Mediocre interim numbers from Altron (earnings well down), InfoWave (revenue and earnings both down) and IST (revenue up but earnings significantly down);

* An interim loss from Bytes Technology Group (revenue slightly up);

* The suspension of IST`s shares; and

* A negative trading update from Synergy Holdings but positive trading updates from Reunert and Set Point Technology Holdings.

Other local news included:

* Share re-purchase announcements from Infowave and VenFin;

* Elexir sold a Kyalami property;

* Elexir issued new shares in order to cut its debt situation and fund its restructuring plan;

* ICASA will hold a colloquium on 20 and 21 October to discuss the implications of the recent telecommunications liberalisation announcements;

* Connection Group acquired Beyond IT;

* The creation of Tibco Software`s South African operation, which is to be run by Mark Ehmke, following Tibco`s acquisition of Staffware;

* The appointments of Thoko Mokgosi as HP`s new SA country manager and Fadi Nasr as the local GM for IT4Africa;

* First Technology signed a black empowerment rental partner, InnoVent; and

* Logitech is to open a South African branch next year.

New local distributorships included that of Comztek for Cisco in SA and several other southern African countries.

* A Cameroon-based software company, Applications Technology, is in a legal battle with MTN Cameroon over some unpaid invoices; and

* Celtel, Africa`s third largest cellular operator, is to seek a JSE secondary listing to back up its planned London listing.

* Deutsche Telekom will buy-out investors in its T-Online International Internet division in a deal that could be worth EUR3 billion;

* SunGard Data Systems will spin-off its availability services division, which would be run by its current group CEO, James Simmons;

* Sun Microsystems settled its Java intellectual property case with Eastman Kodak;

* KPMG`s $115 million settlement over a class action lawsuit originally brought by investors in Lernout & Haupsie, the bankrupt Belgian producer of speech recognition software;

* The German government will sell-off EUR4 billion of its shares in Deutsche Telekom and the Australian government will sell-off its remaining shares in Telstra;

* Software Plus changed its name to UnicornHRO;

* The sell-off to minority shareholders of Datec`s holding in New Zealand-based Certus Consulting; and

* The privatisation of Daleen following its buy-out by two Capital Partner groups.

Celtel, Africa`s third largest cellular operator, is to seek a JSE secondary listing to back up its planned London listing.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

International strategic partnerships were announced between Toshiba and Xilinx for the supply of semiconductors to the latter; and between ViryaNet and Australian-based e-Wise.

Additionally, look out for the new permanent CEO of Computer Associates. Rumours suggest it is between the current acting-CEO, Ken Cron, and Leo Apotheker, SAP AG`s president of Global Field Operations.

Other international news included:

* The appointments of Gary Arnold as chairman of Telenetics, Michael Bevis as president and COO of Edict Systems, Sam Box as president of Tetra Tech, Theo Dilissen as chairman of Belgacom, Bill Heye as CEO of BackWeb Technologies, Sir Julian Horn-Smith as deputy CEO of Vodafone, Jonathan Judge as president and CEO of Paychex and David Mitchell as CEO of WebMethods;

* The resignations of Jan Coene as chairman of Belgacom, Tom Evslin as chairman of Teleglobe, Thomas Golisano as chairman of Paychex, James Jaska as president of Tetra Tech, Erez Lorber as CEO of BackWeb Technologies and Michael Taglich as chairman of Telenetics;

* The retirement of Phillip Merrick as CEO of WebMethods and Leslie Muma as president and CEO of Fiserv (as of June 2006); and

* Job loss announcements from AT&T, BackWeb Technologies, Creo, DDi, Eastman Kodak, Global Crossing, Hitachi, Sprint and Unisys.

Excellent* figures from AMSL (back in the black), CalAmp, Infosys Technologies, Juniper Networks, Lam Research, Netflix, Novellus Systems (back in the black) and Yahoo.

Very good* numbers from AMD (back in the black), Apple, ATI Technologies, Cree, Linear Technology, Mercury Computer Systems, Rambus, Robocom Systems International, Samsung Electronics, San Disk, Tata Consulting Services and Wipro.

Good figures* were recorded by Accenture, Adtran, Centennial Comms (back in the black), CNET Networks (back in the black), CyberSource (back in the black), Excel Technology, Fairchild Semiconductor, First Data, Fujitsu Siemens Computers BV, InfoUSA, NetScout Systems, NMS Comms (back in the black), Sony Ericsson, Twin Disc and Wireless Age Comms.

Satisfactory* results were posted by Audiovox, Cypress Semiconductor, iGate Global Solutions, Intel, Kewill Systems, Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Oc'e, QLogic, RF Monolithics, SiVault (back in the black) and SMTEK International.

Mediocre* returns came from AlphaSmart, Electronic Telecomms, Iona Technologies (but back in the black), LG Philips LCD, Nokia and Unisys; while very poor results* came from Altran Group (but back in the black).

Losses* were reported by C-Chip Technologies, CellStar, Comdial, Competitive Technologies, CorVu, Datalink, DPAC Technologies, EXFO, FiberNet Group, Global Crossing, IDT, Knowledge Technology Solutions, Lexar Media, Liberate Technologies, Maxcom Telecomms, Metron Technology, MSGI, Net2Phone, Network Equipment Technologies, Printronix, Sify, SofTech, Sun Microsystems, Superscape Group, Traffix, Verilink, Voxware, Weida Comms and Workstream.

Other financial news included analyst upgrades for Advent Software, Agilent Technologies, Ask Jeeves, BEA Systems, Cable & Wireless, Citrix Systems, Corning, FileNet, GoRemote Internet Comms, IBM, Innovex, Insituform Technologies, International Rectifier, Macromedia, Maxtor, Micrel, Navigant International, Nokia, Parametric Technologies, Seagate Technologies, Sprint, UTi Worldwide, Veritas Software, Vitesse Semiconductor, WebMethods and Yahoo. There were analyst downgrades for ATMI, Clear Channel Comms, Cognizant Technologies, Cree, Google, HP, Kronos, Magma Design Automation, Nokia, Open Text, Perot Systems, QLogic, Silicon Graphics, SonicWALL, SunGard Data, Symantec, Texas Instruments, UTStarcom, Vignette, Vishay Intertechnology, WatchGuard Technologies and WebSense.

Private funding was obtained for Aptsoft, Aristos Logic, Astoria Software, CenterBoard, Diligent Technologies, Ember, First Hop, LinkedIn, NuCore Technology, Pluck, Simtek, Simtrol, Speakanet A/S and Wavesat; share buy-back announcements from Cognos, CompuDyne, First Data and Lam Research; and positive results/profit warnings from Alamosa Holdings, Carphone Warehouse, Digi International, Endwave, Faro Technologies, Image Entertainment, Itron, NCR, Plumtree Software, ScanSource, Sharp, Siebel Systems, Virage Logic and WebMethods.

Negative results/profit warnings (often veiled) came from Actuate, Adtran, Alliance Semiconductor, AlphaSmart, Anixter, ASML, AXT, BindView, C-COR Electronics, Captiva Software, CNET Networks, Corning, Credence Systems, Creo, DDi, Diebold, E.piphany, Enterasys Networks, Flextronics, InFocus, Informatica, Input/Output, JDA Software, Leica, LG Philips LCD, Lionbridge Technologies, Manhattan Associates, McAfee, Open Text, Pctel, Photon Dynamics, Pixelworks, Sprint, TeleCommunication Systems, Terayon Comms, Veeco Instruments, VerticalNet, Vignette, Vishay Intertechnology, Wolfson Microelectronics and Zoran.

There were proposed IPOs from Maxima Holdings on London`s AIM, Phoenix IT Group on the LSE and Telvent, the IT services arm of Spanish business group Abengoa SA on Nasdaq; IPO filings from DreamWorks, a good IPO from Orca Interactive; a satisfactory IPO from StarHub; but a disappointing IPO from Hutchison Telecom. Additionally, Computer Horizons is to re-state its results for 2003 onwards.

Locally

Business Connexion (+23.6%)
Control (+18.2%)
Elexir (-33.3%)
Faritec (+15%)
Labat Africa (+80%)
Sekunjalo (+18.2%)
Stella Vista (+50%)
Trematon (+38.9%)
Uniserv (+15.3%)
Zaptronix (+50%)

Internationally

BITS (+45.6%)
Commerce One (-72.2%)
Copper Mountain Networks (+36.9%)
eGain Comms (+58.8%)
Enherent (+55%)
Glow Comms (+300%)
Reversus (+34%)
Transmeta (+42%)
Warthog (+210.5%)
Wolfson (-41.8%)

In terms of indices, Nasdaq was down 1.6% and the JSE down 0.3% over the last two weeks.

The exhibition/conference scene in the US is set to change dramatically for 2005. TECHXNY, New York`s Technology Week and formally PC EXPO, which was established over 20 years ago, is merging its interest with some of CeBIT America`s interests to create C3 EXPO (Corporate and Channel Computing EXPO) for 2005 that will be hosted in the last week of June in New York. This new event, created by HA Bruno, who originally created PC EXPO, will be run in conjunction with CMP Media.

* NB

Guidelines for the categorisation of results are as follows and are always in comparison with the equivalent period for the previous year; pro forma numbers are ignored (the terminology may vary slightly from country to country).

* Excellent: Both revenue and net income growth in excess of 50%.

* Very good: Both revenue and net income growth in excess of 25%.

* Good: Both revenue and net income growth in excess of 10%.

* Satisfactory: Revenue is within 10% of previous year and net income is up.

* Mediocre: Either revenue and/or net income is down.

* Very poor: Net income is less than 1% of revenue.

* Loss: A loss has been recorded.