EMC seals the deal

EMC's final success regarding its proposed acquisition of Data Domain dominated the international world of ICT last week. The appointment of Jeffrey Hedberg as CEO of Multi-Links, in Nigeria, stole much of the local ICT media space.

* India-based Aegis acquired Call Centre Nucleus Group.
* Webcom Group made a 50% purchase of RDB Consulting, an ICT consulting services provider.
* MIP Holdings bought TreasureGrow, a treasury software specialist company.
* Jasco made a R4 million (30%) initial investment in Maringo Communications, a provider of converged ICT services.
* Nozala Investments, an empowerment organisation, invested in Kyocera Mita South Africa, creating a new empowered entity in which Kyocera Mita Japan will hold a 65% stake, and the rest will be held by Nozala and two staff trusts.
* Visec Surveillance Systems, a developer and distributor of licence plate recognition software and surveillance systems, has joined up with Sentronics, a distributor of surveillance equipment in SA.
* Optus Brands was appointed national distributor for Eastman Kodak.
* Stuart Clarkson was named CEO of Siemens SA, while Siegmar Proebstl resigned as CEO of Siemens SA.

* Vodacom made a $100 million buyout of minority shareholder Mobilelea in its Kenyan subsidiary.
* WiA Group (Tanzania) made a 49% investment in Dimension Data's Tanzanian subsidiary.
* Maroc Telecom, owned by Vivendi, has won the tender for a 51% stake in Sotelma (Mali), in a deal valued at EUR275 million.
* Jeffrey Hedberg (ex-CEO of Cell C) was appointed CEO of Multi-Links (Nigeria), a subsidiary of Telkom SA.

Africa's overall corporate market spend on IT is expected to grow at an annual rate of 6.3% between 2009 and 2013, according to BMI-TechKnowledge.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* CDTI, a full service, global engineering, repair and logistics company, bought Motorola's fibre-to-the-node product portfolio.
* CSC acquired BearingPoint's Brazilian operation.
* EMC purchased Data Domain for $2.1 billion, after a long battle with NetApp. The final price is nearly 50% higher than the original offer by NetApp and higher than its subsequent offer of $1.9 billion.
* Software AG bought Switzerland-based Teconomic, a provider of IT consulting services and applications for the European financial sector.
* NTT DoCoMo made a $45.5 million (35%) investment in PacketVideo, a subsidiary of NextWave Wireless and a developer of mobile video services.
* Asustek Computer made a 4% investment in D-Link, a network equipment maker.
* Google is to introduce a PC operating system, initially aimed for the netbook market, which will compete with Windows.
* Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape, has set up a venture capital company with Ben Horowitz that will target computer start-ups. The fund already has a commitment of $300 million.
* Good quarterly numbers from Infosys Technologies.
* Mixed quarterly figures from 3Com (revenue down and back in the black), HTC (revenue up, but profit down) and Lawson Software (revenue down, but profit up).
* Quarterly losses from Corel.
* The announcement of a EUR735 million rights issue by Infineon, the loss-making German chipmaker, underwritten by Apollo Global management, a private equity group.

* International:
* Acquisitions by Wataniya, a Kuwait telecommunications company, which main shareholder is Qatar Telecom.
* The sell-off by Hutchison Whampoa telecommunications unit of its 51% stake in its Israeli subsidiary, Partner Communications, a deal that could be worth $1.3 billion.
* Africa:
* The outcome of the discussions between Zain and Vivendi regarding Zain's African operations.
* South Africa:
* The appointment of a new country manager for HP.

* Africa's overall corporate market spend on IT is expected to grow at an annual rate of 6.3% between 2009 and 2013, according to BMI-TechKnowledge.
* The global green IT market is estimated to be $789 billion in 2008 and is expected to reach $1 257.7 billion by 2015, says Global Markets Direct.
* Worldwide IT spending in 2009 should reach $3.2 trillion, a 6% decline from 2008, predicts Gartner.

* JSE All share index: Up 0.3%
* Nasdaq: Down 2.3%
* Top SA share movements: AdaptIT (-10.6%), Ansys (-10.9%), Faritec (+50%), FoneWorx (-13.3%), Labat Africa (-50%) and TCS (-20%)

This week will see the start of the usual quarterly flood of results from the North American market that is likely to heavily influence the technology-oriented Nasdaq stock market index. The results will also give some indication as to how the current economic climate is performing.