Executive changes

The indictment of Bernie Ebbers, and Michael Dell`s relinquishment of the CEO job at Dell dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications last week.

RFID, one of the technologies that I predicted late last year in my 'Review of 2003` would start to have a major impact in 2004, is now coming to the fore overseas.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

At home, the executive changes at Dimension Data and the news that the first draft of the ICT black economic empowerment charter will be released this week, stole much of the local ICT headline space.

* We saw excellent interim figures from Tracker (headline earnings double - only figures available);

* Very good half-year figures from Aplitec (revenue and profit both well up);

* Satisfactory interim results from Grintek (revenue down but earnings up);

* Mediocre interim numbers from Venfin (revenue and earnings both down) and Psitek (headline earnings significantly down - only figures available);

* The de-listing of Maxtec`s shares; and

* Positive earnings/profit warnings from Idion (although a loss is still expected), IST and Trematon.

Other local news included:

* A share re-purchase announcement from Digicore;

* Venfin`s proposed acquisition of the Howard family`s shares in Intervid, which would increase its shareholding to 49.78%;

* The appointment of Brett Dawson as group CEO of Dimension Data; and

* Datatec filed an IPO for its US subsidiary, Westcon.

A new local distributorship was announced between Intergraph Mapping & Geospatial Solutions and GeoSpace International, while a new strategic business alliance was announced between Leaf Wireless and Sebros Telecomms for the provision of prepaid cellular and fixed-line airtime and electricity services via POS devices.

* We saw TSI Telecommunication Services change its name to Syniverse Technologies;

* Sprint is to combine its two stocks;

* The Malaysian government sold off a 4.4% stake in Telekom Malaysia;

* The US Department of Justice formally charged ex-WorldCom CEO, Bernie Ebbers, with conspiracy and fraud; and

* The French government approached the European Commission re a proposed bail-out of Groupe Bull.

Additionally, look out for NTT DoCoMo`s possible sale of its stake in 3 UK, Hutchison`s 3G operator in the UK; the outcome of the talks between Telefonica and BellSouth re the latter`s South American mobile assets; and the outcome of the struggle for the control of Megafon, one of the largest mobile phone operators in Russia.

Other international news included:

* The appointments of Joe Brown as president and CEO of Seance Software, Frank Galuppo as CEO of TTR Technologies, John Glazik as president and CEO of Superclick, Patti Hart as chairman and CEO of Pinnacle Systems, Ruud Huisman as CEO of Tiscali, Patrick Lelorieux as COO of SMC Networks, Lang Lowrey as chairman of Danka Business Systems, Tod Mavis as CEO of Danka Business Systems, Kevin Rollins as CEO of Dell and Kim Shin-bae as CEO of SK Telecom;

* The resignation of Michael Dell as CEO of Dell (stays on as chairman); and a job loss announcement from Gateway.

We saw excellent* figures from CNT (back in the black), Mamma.com (back in the black), Opsware (back in the black), Superconductor Technologies (back in the black) and Wolfson Microelectronics; and very good* numbers from CGI Holding, Glenayre (back in the black), Macrovision, ManTech International and Scitex (back in the black).

Good figures* were recorded by ADE, Axon Group, Interlink Electronics, Netsmart Technologies, STET Hellas Telecomms SA and TCL International Holdings; and satisfactory* ones by Cavalier Telephone, Daou Systems (back in the black), Eidos, Geac, GN Store Nord, Insightful (back in the black), Merant, Optelecom, QAD and SeaChange International.

Mediocre* returns came from Citizens Comms (but back in the black), Eurotel Bratislava, Intelsat, Symbol Technologies (back in the black), Systemax, Take-Two Interactive Software and Triple P NV (but back in the black); while very poor results* came from Merisel.

Losses* were posted by Bitstream, Cablevision Systems, Completel, deltathree, Duraswitch, Finisar, Gemstar, GlowPoint, I D Systems, inTEST, ITC^DeltaCom, Kaz Group, LogicaCMG, Madison River Comms, Netia SA, NTL, PCCW, SCO Group, Simtek, Stratos International, TiVo, Top Image Systems, TransAct Technologies, US Unwired, Versata and Vialta.

Other financial news included analyst upgrades for Acxiom, Cognos, F5 Networks, International Game Technology, Micron, NetScout Systems, palmOne and Veritas Software; analyst downgrades for Cablevision Systems, Dobson Comms, FileNET, Sun Microsystems and Valentia; a private placement of shares by V-One; share offerings from Applix, Creo, NMS Comms and SS&C Technologies; share buy-back announcements from Amphenol and Telenor ASA; a negative results/profit warning from Superconductor Technologies; share split announcements from Datawatch (2:1), Star Computing (4:1) and TransAct Technologies (3:2).

There was a rights issue announcement from Intershop Comms; a planned Frankfurt IPO from X-Fab, a small semiconductor maker; and a very good IPO from China-based Linktone. Additionally, Symbiat, formerly Computone, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Locally

Beget (+16.7%)
Cycad (+50%)
Edutech (+20%)
Elexir (+50%)
Global Technology (+50%)
Idion (+20%)
Infowave (+32%)
Intervid (+27.5%)
Pinnacle (-16.7%)
Stella Vista (+66.7%)

Internationally

DMA Technology (-28.5%)
Entrada Networks (+27.3%)
Geoworks (-30.8%)
Jacada (+26.8%)
Macronix (+21.9%)
NCDI (+25%)
PalmOne (+35%)
Pegasus Comms (+29.5%)
RCN (+25%)
SONICblue (-42.2%)

In terms of indices, Nasdaq was up 0.9% and the JSE up 1.8% for the week.

RFID, one of the technologies that I predicted late last year in my 'Review of 2003` would start to have a major impact in 2004, is now coming to the fore overseas and threatening to fundamentally shake up the retail market in particular and in a way that some people view is similar to that which we experienced with the Y2K scenario.

RFID isn`t just the next generation of barcode technology. It is a radical new capability that will fundamentally change the supply chain operations of most, if not all, organisations and create many new business intelligence and analytic opportunities from the significantly increased volumes of information that will be generated as a direct result of utilising this technology.

* NB

Guidelines for the categorisation of results are as follows and are always in comparison with the equivalent period for the previous year; pro forma numbers are ignored (the terminology may vary slightly from country to country).

* Excellent: Both revenue and net income growth are in excess of 50%.

* Very good: Both revenue and net income growth are in excess of 25%

* Good: Both revenue and net income growth are in excess of 10%.

* Satisfactory: Revenue is within 10% of previous year and net income is up.

* Mediocre: Either revenue and/or net income is down.

* Very poor: Net income is less than 1% of revenue.

* Loss: A loss has been recorded.