Executive shake-up at Sony

This week`s column is slightly shorter than normal as it closed on Thursday evening since I am out of town for a few days. Next week`s edition will cover the intervening period and the ratios will cover a two-week period.

* Sony`s executive re-organisation with the appointment of Howard Stringer, the first non-Japanese group chairman and CEO at the consumer and entertainment group. It seems the new team, which represents the biggest shake-up in the company`s 60-year history, has a remit to re-awaken the global giant.

* Fujitsu Services SA announced its black empowerment initiative. In one of the first empowerment deals involving a global player, Yard Capital has taken a 30% stake in Fujitsu`s South African operation, its first deal since the company was started two years ago. Yard Capital is headed up by Irene Charnley, an MTN executive director, and Leslie Maasdorp, former director-general of the Department of Public Enterprises.

* Excellent interim numbers from VenFin with revenue up over 70%.

* Excellent interim numbers from Tracker; partially owned by VenFin.

* Mediocre interim figures from Psitek; partially owned by VenFin.

* Interim losses from GenuOne and Intervid; the former partially owned by VenFin and the latter completely owned by VenFin.

* An interim loss from Metrofile, the first set of results since its listing as Metrofile and its re-organisation.

* SunGard Europe acquired Ensemble Technologies.

* DataPro Group acquired Wickhit (annuity revenue, customers and intangible assets).

* Safika Holdings` 20% investment in African Resonance.

* The resignation of CC Kan, chairman of Mustek.

* A3 was appointed as Temtec`s African and Middle-East distributor.

* Microsoft`s acquisition of Groove Networks, a company whose products allow groups of people to work together regardless of location.

* Digital Revolution changed its name to SOA Software.

Singapore has now overtaken the US as the world`s most successful economy in exploiting new ICT, according to the World Economic Forum`s latest global IT report.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* The appointments of Steven Altman as president of Qualcomm, Phillip Barber as president and CEO of E Mobile, Ryoji Chubachi as president of Sony, Logan Clarke as acting CEO and president of Scan-Optics, Paul Jacobs as CEO of Qualcomm, Jeff Peotter as chairman of InfoNow, Sir Howard Stringer as chairman and CEO of Sony, and Peter Ungaro as president of Cray.

* The resignations of Nobuyuki Idei as chairman and CEO of Sony (remains as a corporate advisor), Irwin Jacobs as CEO of Qualcomm (stays on as chairman), Michael Johnson as CEO of InfoNow, and James Mavel as president and CEO of Scan-Optics.

* The retirement of Anthony Craig as president and CEO of Safeguard Scientifics, and Tony Thornley as president of Qualcomm.

* Analyst upgrades for Alcatel, Altera, Amkor Technology, Applied Signal Technology, Cadence Design Systems, China Unicom, Entrust, GSI Commerce, Gtech Holdings, JDA Software, Maxtor, Motorola, Nai Tai Electronics, Novellus Systems, Plantronics, QLogic, RF Microelectronics, Sentech, Siemens AG, Symantec, United Microelectronics, VeriSign, Volterra Semiconductor and Yahoo.

* Analyst downgrades for August Technology, Computer Associates, Cognizant Technology Solutions, EMC, Getty Images, Infineon Technologies, M-Systems Flash Disk, Net2Phone, Quality Systems, Research in Motion, Sonus Networks, Taiwan Semiconductor and ViaSat.

* Positive results announcements from Qualcomm and Seagate Technology.

* Negative result warnings from Avanex, CallWave, Carreker, Hewitt Associates, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments.

* Stock repurchase announcements from InterDigital, National Semiconductor and Per-Se.

* A job loss announcement from Cable & Wireless.

* Private funding obtained for Cardtronics, an owner and operator of ATMs; Clearwire LLC, a wireless broadband provider; Colubris Networks, a wireless LAN systems provider; HyperRoll, a provider of business intelligence acceleration software; mBlox, a mobile messaging infrastructure provider; Optaros, an open source consulting and systems integration company; Valchemy, a provider of software for the automation of the M&A process; and Zeus Technology, an Internet infrastructure solution provider.

* Share split announcements from Comtech Telecommunications (3:2) and PPT Vision (reverse 1:4)

* A good IPO in India by IT services vendor, Scandent Solutions.

* Interlink Electronics re-stated its Q1-Q3 2004 results.

* Sipex re-stated its 2003 and Q1-Q3 2004 results.

* The possible merger of Siemens Business Services and French IT services provider, ATOS Origin SA.

* A possible bidding war between SAP and Oracle for control of Retek, a company that specialises in retail applications.

* The Taiwanese government sold off its 17% stake in Chunghwa Telecom in a deal that is worth about $3.4 billion.

* The relational database market grew by 11.6% in 2004 to $14.9 billion, according to IDC.

* Gartner says the largest barrier to business intelligence (BI) deployment is a lack of user skills and knowledge of best practices. The research company indicates that three times as many BI individuals will be needed by 2008 as compared to 2004.

Singapore has now overtaken the US as the world`s most successful economy in exploiting new ICT, according to the World Economic Forum`s latest global IT report.

SA is at number 34 (was 37). Although SA maintains dominance in sub-Saharan Africa, it has lost the top spot among the 23 African countries covered by the index. Tunisia, which held the 40th position last year, has moved up to 31st place.