ERP market heads for a shake-up

The Love Letter virus and its derivatives, and the $5.7 billion acquisition of ArrowPoint Comms by Cisco, dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications last week.

At home, the Tel.Com Africa 2000 conference was of interest, although there seems to have been little of substance forthcoming from Telkom itself.

The enterprise resource planning (ERP) market seems to be in turmoil again, with SSA now in Chapter 11 with listed assets ($84.6 million) considerably less than its debts ($207.9 million). Its assets have been purchased by Gores Technology Group for $52 million (but little is said as to the future of its BPCS product).

Baan`s shares have fallen yet again (there has been a drop of 81% since the beginning of the year) despite a major injection of cash ($134 million) by Bear Stearns. JD Edwards has issued a profit warning forecasting a loss in the latest quarter (it seems everything has gone wrong since the CEO`s departure earlier this year).

Mapics is returning yet another quarterly loss. The original challengers to SAP are either falling by the wayside or are in deep financial trouble. The next few weeks could see some interesting happenings in the ERP market.

• we saw good year-end (maiden) results from Labat Africa;
• disappointing year-end numbers from Fintech (both revenue and income marginally up); and
• a profit warning from Casey.
• Shareholders of ITech, which is soon to de-listed, have been told that the assets of the company were inflated significantly in the year-end results just published.

[Local]

[Cautionary]

[Listing]

[Result]

Other local news included:

• the announcement that Apple SA is to retrench the majority of its staff;
• Telkom will miss some of its service targets, which could reduce its period of exclusivity;
• Fintech is looking to buy a document management and an IT company; and
• Datatec is preparing for a London IPO for Logical Holdings.

• Alcatel SA, France`s biggest telecoms equipment maker, says it`s forming a joint venture with Fujitsu of Japan to develop and manufacture next-generation mobile-phone networks; and
• Dutch and Spanish telecomms companies, KPN and Telefonica, have been in discussions regarding some form of tie-up, or even a merger, but this is now on "hold".

[International]

Other international news included:

• the appointments of Enrico Pesatori (an ex-Compaq executive) as CEO of Synaxia Networks, and Mark Woodward as president and CEO of Serena Software; and
• the dropping of MCI from MCI WorldCom. In future, the company will be known as WorldCom.

We saw excellent figures from Cell Network AB, Jupiter Comms, Macrovision, Magic Software, Pac-West Telecomm, Psi Technologies Holdings and Radware (back in the black).

Losses came from Aegis Comms, Aetrium, Alaska Comms, Allin, Alysis Technologies, Aspeon, Bitstream, Breakaway Solutions, Classic Comms, Comcast, Creative Computers, Cypress Comms, Data Systems Network, Digex, DCTI, Elbit Vision Systems, En Pointe Technologies, Enlighten Software Solutions, Entercom Comms, Epic Data, General Magic, Gilat Comms, Global Crossing, Golden Telecom, GTSI, High Speed Access, Intelect, IPC Comms, ISG International Software Group, IXnet, LanOptics, Logix Comms Enterprises, Log On America, Mapics, Maxcom Telecomms, MCT, Medialab International AB, Merisel, MetaCreations, Microware, Navidec, Neoware, Netlojix Comms, Network Access Solutions, Notify Technology, OneLink Comms, Opus360, Peritus Software Services, PNI, RadVision, RCN, RMI.NET, RSL Comms, RTG Plc., S1, Sapiens International, SEEC, SmartDisk, SoftNet Systems, Sonic Foundry, SSE Telecom, StorageTek, Sync Research, Tegal, TeleComputing, Titan, Tower Semiconductor, Tricord Systems, Triton PCS, Vialog, Viatel, Vitrix, WebLink Wireless, WebMethods, Williams Comms, Xenos Group and ZDNet (much better than expected with revenue nearly double the figure for the same quarter in 1999).

Good numbers were recorded by Acxiom, Alcatel (back in the black), Amkor Technology, American Xtal Technologies (back in the black), AT&T (below expectations), Information Connecta AB, Cybex, Highway AB, Intershop Comms (back in the black), Logitech International, Meta Group, Mitel (back in the black), Pegasus Solutions, Price Comms (back in the black), SAIC, Sitel (back in the black), Software AG and Staffware.

Satisfactory results were reported by Acer, Aladdin Knowledge Systems, ECI Telecom (back in the black), Giga-tronics (back in the black), Hector Comms, Intelidata Technologies, Intermedia Comms (back in the black), Mentor Graphics (well back in the black), Perot Systems, SPSS, Ultimate Electronics and Unigraphics Solutions.

Mediocre returns were posted by Cable & Wireless HKT, Compuware, IMRglobal, MDSI (back in the black), Printronix, RCM Technologies and Topcall International AG.

Very poor results came from Acsys (but back in the black), CFW Comms, Cognitronics, CyberGuard (but back in the black), Elite Information Group, Information Analysis (revenue well down), Intelligent Systems, Jacada, MDSI (but back in the black), OAO Technology Solutions, PCD, SEMX, Systemax and Technisource.

Other financial news included profit warnings from AT&T, JD Edwards, Novell, On Comms and Solectron. There was also a share split announcement from EMC and a cancelled IPO from Linuxcare.

Locally

Bynx (-20%)
CCH (-20%)
CIH (-33.3%)
Cyberhost (+50%)
Dectronic (+25%)
Digicor (-21.4%)
Elexir (+33.3%)
Micrologix (-57.1%)
PentaCom (-33.3%)
Pradatech (+122.2%)
SecData (-25%)
ValueCom (-31.6%)

Internationally

Anacomp (-49%)
Baan (-27.7%)
Citrix (-29%)
Fibernet Group (+35.4%)
IMRglobal (+28.6%)
Jacada (+28.4%)
Novell (-43.9%)
PSDI (-30.1%)
Sapient (+26.2%)
SeaChange International (+33.3%)
SSA (-60%)
Summit Technology (+26.8%)
Terayon Comms Systems (+35.2%)
VISX (+30%)

Last week saw the merger announcement of the London and Frankfurt stock exchanges to create Europe`s leading stock exchange, called iX. It seems only a matter of time before other European exchanges join iX, for what is sure to become the major alternative to Nasdaq.