DiData is top growth company

The acquisition of Seagate by Veritas Software and a group of other investors, the investment by AT&T in Net2Phone, and the delay in the DOJ/Microsoft judgement/ruling dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications last week.

Microsoft, ahead of an expected DOJ judgement this week, announced a reorganisation last Friday that saw the merging of its Windows and software development divisions.

Paul Booth, commentator, ITWeb

At home, the news that Dimension Data has been named as the top growth company over the last five years was top news.

• we saw good year-end numbers from Aries (IT now 33% of income) and ShawCell (maidens, and above forecast);

• satisfactory year-end results from Advtech (margins slightly down);

• full-year losses from Conlog, Cyberhost, SecureData (ignoring the sale of its products division) and the Y3K Group (a significant restructuring has also taken place);

• good interim results from E-data and Faritec;

• satisfactory interim figures from Pinnacle Technology (but revenue and margins down, although profit up);

• half-year losses from Oxbridge and Pradatech; and

• a profit warning from Oxbridge.

In addition, Net 1 Applied Technologies (Aplitec) announced that it is moving to the JSE`s IT sector from the venture capital sector. It seems Laptop Technologies is struggling, according to the annual results of Chester Investment Holdings notice published last week.

[Local]

[Cautionary]

[Listing]

[Results]

Other local news included:

• the continued boardroom/shareholder squabbles at Planit Technology;

• the announcement that Advtech is restructuring under a single company, thus de-listing its other existing entities; and

• UUNet Namibia will cede its dial-up subscriber base to Africa Online, but provide it with full Internet network services.

Additionally, Business Report`s rating of three- and five-year growth rates saw Dimension Data taking the five-year honours among the IT/telecommunications companies, while Datatec and M-Cell dominated the three-year situation.

• there were strong rumours re the acquisition of Unisys by Deutsche Telekom, hot on the heels of its take-over of Debis, and of Getronics buying French-based Atos SA;

• news that Baan intends spinning-off its CRM business, based around the Aurum Software product it acquired in May 1997; and

• a merger is expected to be announced this week combining the US cellphone operations of BellSouth and SBC, which would put them in second place in the market behind the Vodafone Airtouch and Bell Atlantic tie-up.

[International]

Other international news included:

• the

  appointments

  of Harold Compton as CEO of CompUSA, Curtiz Gangi as CEO of Muse Technologies and Hugh Sawyer as president and CEO of Aegis Comms;

• the announcement that Fujitsu Siemens is looking for a new CEO;

• the news that Philips Electronics NV is to sell its stake in ASM Lithography Holding NV, worth some $3.5 billion; and

• Xerox has announced 5 200 jobs cuts.

Additionally, Business Week published its performance ratings among the S&P 500 companies, with Microsoft retaining its number one slot. New entries into the S&P 500 over the past 12 months and into this year`s top 50 rankings include Citrix Systems, Lexmark International, Qualcomm and Xilinx.

On the results front, we saw excellent figures from Palm and UnitedGlobalCom.

Losses, however, came from 1mage Software, Adelphia Comms, Advanced Systems International, Aegis Comms, Algo Vision, Aquis Comms, ASA International, Aztec Technology, BrightStar IT Group, BricsNet NV, ClearWorks, Convergent Comms, Davel Comms, Docucon, eGlobe, EpicEdge, Euroweb International, FastNet, FlashNet, Frontline Comms, GigaMedia, Heartland Technology, Howtek, Infodata, Intelect Comms, ISG, KMC Telecom, Logix Comms, MGI Software, Perle Systems, PNI, PrimaCom, Red Hat, Shared Technologies Cellular, Sheldahl, Tera Computer, United Pan-Europe Comms NV, View Tech, Vitech America and Zapata.

Good numbers were recorded by Cabletron, Cenit AG, IRIS (back in the black), Materna Group and ZiaSun.

Satisfactory results where released by CFS Group and Tech Data.

Mediocre returns came from 4Front Technologies, All Comms (back in the black) CellStar, Cesky Telecom, Dionics, National Datacomputer (back in the black) and Zenith Electronics.

Very poor results came from CSP, Pilat Technologies, PSDi, Tekgraf, Telebyte, Telecomm Industries (but back in the black) and Wegener.

Other financial news included profit warnings from Aris, Computer Task Group, Equinox, Hikari Tsushin, Hutchinson Technology, IXOS Software AG, Kronos, Palm, Timberline Software and Xerox (restructuring charge).

There was also a share split announcement from Micron Technology; and very successful IPOs from ArrowPoint Comms (Internet comms), WebSense (management tools) and good IPOs from CompleTel Europe (Telecomms).

It was also announced that EuroTelecom Comms would be listed this week and Telia (Sweden) in June.

Locally

CIH (+50%)
Digicore (+70.8%)
E-data (-33.3%)
PentaCom (+75%)
SecData (+31.6%)
Sekunjalo (+56.3%)
Spicer (-26.1%)
Stella Vista (-20%)
ValueCom (-23.1%)
Y2KTec (-40%)
Zaptronix (-30%)

Internationally

Aris (-51.8%)
BEA Systems (-30.8%)
BroadVision (-33.8%)
Cabletron (-36.7%)
Citrix Systems (-32.4%)
Clarus (-33.8%)
CSK (-39.7%)
Digital Lightwave (-33.5%)
HNC Software (-32.1%)
Kronos (-33.4%)
New Era of Networks (-40%)
Red Hat (-30%)
Serena Software (-45.4%)
Tower Semiconductor (-42.9%)
Wind River Systems (-31.3%)

Microsoft, ahead of an expected DOJ judgement this week, announced a reorganisation last Friday that saw the merging of its Windows and software development divisions. Is this indicative of establishing a viable scenario ahead of a potential break-up?