EDS buy boosts HP's might

Last week, the international ICT market was dominated by HP's $13.9 billion acquisition of EDS.

At home, the financial results from some key players and the continuing MTN take-over/merger/investment activities stole much of the local ICT media space.

* Excellent year-end figures from Ansys, with revenue and profit both up over 50%.
* Very good year-end numbers from Datatec, with revenue up 27% and profit up 28%.
* Good interim numbers from Dimension Data, with revenue up over 20% and profit up over 50%; and from Paracon, with revenue up 15% and profit up 24%.
* Satisfactory interim numbers from Reunert, with revenue up 9% and back in the black.
* An interim loss from Sekunjalo, although revenue up 22%.
* Positive trading updates from Ansys and SAB&T Ubuntu.
* A negative trading update from Eureka.
* Mustek acquired Tier One Electronics, a supplier in the field of mobile electronic applications.
* Core Peripherals terminated its distributorship of TomTom.

* Mediocre quarterly numbers from Telecom Egypt.
* The UN International Telecommunication Union announced at ITU Africa that Africa is the fastest growing market worldwide in communications technology.

The UN International Telecommunication Union announced at ITU Africa that Africa is the fastest growing market worldwide in communications technology.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Accenture bought Origin Digital, a provider of video capture, transformation and delivery services.
* CBS's $1.8 billion acquisition of CNET Networks, a global interactive media company.
* Cable operator Comcast purchased Plaxo, the contact information Web site.
* HP's $13.9 billion acquisition of EDS. This creates the second largest ICT services company behind IBM and makes HP the largest ICT company, overtaking AT&T, whose annual revenue last year reached nearly $119 billion.
* Oracle purchased AdminServer, a provider of insurance policy administration software.
* Perot Systems snapped up Original Solutions, a professional IT services company.
* The $69 million acquisition by Verizon Wireless of the wireless assets of SureWest Communications.
* Vodafone's EUR31.5 million purchase of Denmark-based ZYB, a social networking company.
* The investment by France Telecom (4.1%) in Telekomunikacja Polska SA (Poland).
* Microsoft announced it is appealing the European Union anti-trust fine imposed last year.
* Good quarterly numbers from BMC Software and IT services company, Indra Sistemas (Spain).
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Brocade, BT Group, Logica, Sony and Telefonica.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Applied Materials, Compuware and T-Systems.
* Mediocre year-end figures from Fujitsu, with revenue up 4.5% but profit down 53%.
* Mixed year-end numbers from NEC, with revenue marginally down but profit up over 100%; and NTT, with revenue down 0.7% but profit up 32%. NTT is the third largest ICT company with annual revenue in excess of $100 billion.
* Quarterly losses from Alltel, BearingPoint, Hitachi, Intelsat, Sprint Nextel and Tiscali.
* The appointment of Lee Yoon-woo as CEO of Samsung Electronics, follolwing the resignation Yun Jong-yong.

* According to Gartner, worldwide services revenue totalled $748 billion in 2007, a 10.6% increase from 2006.

* JSE All share index: Up 1.8% (highest-ever weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Up 3.4% (highest weekend close this year)
* Top SA share movements: AdaptIT (+24%), Beget Holdings (-16.7%), Compu-Clearing (-10.4%), Dialogue Group (-16.5%), DVT (-15%), Dynamic Cables (-13.9%), Ideco (-12.7%), Labat Africa (-20%), Square One (+12.4%) and TeleMasters (-14.9%)

Fortune has published its latest American companies Fortune 500 list, which ranks organisations by revenue. Although there are few changes at the top from a technology perspective, the ins and outs are more interesting. New entries include Embarq (number 381), Jabil Circuit (219), Symantec (461) and Telephone & Data Systems (478); while Avaya, CDW, Level 3 Communications and Solectron were displaced as a result of a takeover or acquisition by a private equity group.