CenturyTel acquires Qwest

The planned $10.6 billion merger between two major US landline companies dominated the international ICT market, along with a raft of quarterly results. At home the BEE announcement from Microsoft SA, and the possible tie-up between MTN and Orascom took much of the local ICT headline space.

* Mediocre interim numbers from ConvergeNet, with revenue down 22% and profit down by almost 50%; and Vox Telecom, with revenue down slightly but profit down 18%.
* Mixed interim figures from Business Connexion, with revenue down but profit well up (BCX's year-end was changed last year, so a 'true' comparison is not possible).
* Mixed year-end numbers from Altech, with revenue up very slightly but profit down 5%.
* Mediocre year-end figures from Datacentrix, with revenue down 15% and profit down 33%.
* Positive trading updates from Ideco and Silverbridge.
* Negative trading updates from Ansys and Vodacom.
* Microsoft SA plans to pump R472 million into local black-owned South African software companies over the next seven years, in a move designed to improve its BEE credentials.
* The West Indian Ocean Cable Company announced completion of the East Africa Submarine Cable System yesterday.
* Stephen Newton, Google's SA country manager, resigned.

* Alain Penel was appointed MEA head for Alcatel-Lucent.

* US-based CenturyTel acquired Qwest Communications International, a move that merges two of the US's largest landline companies. The deal is worth $10.6 billion.
* Google bought Agnilux, a start-up run by members of a semiconductor design company that Apple bought in 2008.
* Salesforce.com purchased Jigsaw, a lead-generation start-up, for $142 million.
* SAP acquired TechniData AG, a provider of environmental, health and safety solutions, and historically a strategic partner of SAP for 15 years.
* Visa bought CyberSource, a provider of electronic payment security services to online merchants, for $2 billion.
* A group led by Digital Sky Technologies (Russia), a company in which Tencent (China) has a 10% stake, has made a $135 million investment in Groupon, a social commerce Web site. Tencent's largest shareholder is Naspers.
* Excellent quarterly results from Apple, AU Optronics (back in the black), Hynix Semiconductor (back in the black), LG Display (back in the black), Rambus (back in the black), SanDisk (back in the black) and Western Digital.
* Very good quarterly figures from F5 Networks, Netgear, Seagate Technologies (back in the black) and STMicroelectronics (back in the black and first profit since 2007).
* Good quarterly numbers from Bottomline Technologies (back in the black), Citrix Systems, EMC, HCL Technologies, Juniper Networks (back in the black), Millicom Cellular International, Sybase and VMware.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from China Mobile, DST Systems, IBM, Informatica, Microsoft, Nokia, Qualcomm (back in the black), Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Yahoo.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Ericsson.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Amdocs, with revenue up but profit down; AT&T, with revenue up but profit down; KDDI (Japan), with revenue down but profit up; Polycom, with revenue up but profit down; TeliaSonera, with revenue down but profit up; and Verizon Communications, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from NCR and Xerox.
* A planned IPO from NXP, the former chip-making arm of Philips Electronics.

Look out for the future, if there is one, of Square One Solutions.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* International:
* The possible acquisition by Apple of UK-based ARM Holdings, a semiconductor technology licensing company. Apple is ARM's largest single customer.
* The possible acquisition by Google of ITA Software, an IT and services provider.
* The spin-off by Unitech (India) of some of its businesses, including its telecommunications interest.
* Africa:
* A possible tie-up between MTN and Egypt's Orascom for the latter's mobile operations, in a deal that could be worth up to $10 billion.
* South Africa:
* Further developments following the ICASA decision not to grant Infraco a full ECNS licence.
* The future, if there is one, of Square One Solutions.

* Samsung Electronics shipped 1.8 million netbooks in Q1, second only to Acer with 1.9 million units; and overtaking Asustek with 1.5 million units to take the number two slot, according to Digitimes Research.
* The EMEA PC market grew 22% in Q110 to 26.3 million shipments, with Acer and Asus' market share growing; while the market shares of HP and Dell remained static, according to IDC.
* The worldwide BI, analytics and performance management software market grew 4% in 2009 to $9.3 billion, according to Gartner.
* The worldwide application infrastructure and middleware market grew 2.8% in 2009 to $15.9 billion, according to Gartner.

* JSE All share index: Down 0.4%
* Nasdaq: Up 2% (highest weekend close this year)
* Top SA share movements: Ansys (-36.7%), Beget Holdings (+50%), Dialogue Group (-26.7%), Faritec (-25%), ISA (+13.5%), Net 1 UEPS (+19%), Silverbridge (+17.6%) and Zaptronix (+66.7%)

Bloomberg BusinessWeek has just published its 2010 list of the world's top 50 innovative companies. Not surprisingly, technology companies are strongly represented, with Apple at number one, Google at number two, Microsoft at three, IBM at four, LG Electronics at seven and Sony at 10. Also included in the top 50 are, in alphabetical order, China Mobile, Cisco, Dell, Facebook, HP, HTC, Intel, Lenovo, Nokia, Oracle, Samsung Electronics, Verizon Communications and Vodafone.