Financial results take centre stage

Microsoft lost its appeal against the European Commission last week; while at home, much of the local ICT news focused on financial results.

* Excellent full-year figures from FoneWorx, with revenue up 75% and profit more than triple; and Pinnacle, with revenue up over 70% and profit well back in the black.
* Very good year-end figures from Digicore, with revenue and profit both up over 35%; and EOH, with revenue up 40% and profit up over 30%.
* Good year-end numbers from SITA, with revenue up 15% and profit up over 75%.
* Mediocre full-year numbers from Faritec, with revenue up 62% but profit down over 20%.
* Positive trading updates from Jasco Electronics and SecureData Holdings.
* DataPro is now trading as Vox Telecom.
* Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone, announced he would like to control, not own, Vodacom.
* iCentric Consulting acquired the BI division of Associated Computer Solutions.
* Alliance Data proposed it changes its name to Alliance Mining.
* Richard Fearon was appointed CEO of Avnic Holdings.

* Mediocre year-end numbers from Botswana Telecom, with revenue up about 8.5% but profit down 15%.
* MTN went back on the air in Benin, following a settlement with the country's telecommunications regulator.
* A possible delay to the IPO of Safaricom (Kenya) because the Kenyan Cabinet has not yet signed a critical agreement.
* Six mobile operators are fighting for the purchase of Rwandatel, including Celtel and Vodacom.

Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone, announced he would like to control, not own, Vodacom.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Microsoft lost its EUR500 million appeal regarding the European Commission's 2004 anti-trust judgement.
* A capital and operations tie-up between Sharp and Pioneer will give Sharp a 14.7% stake in Pioneer. In turn, Pioneer takes a 0.9% stake in Sharp.
* Deutsche Telekom's M-Mobile acquired US-based SunCom Wireless Holdings for $2.4 billion. The deal will broaden T-Mobile's coverage in the US.
* Cisco purchased Cognio, a company that develops analysis and management products for wireless networks.
* Fujitsu Consulting, part of Fujitsu, bought OKERE, a US-based consulting and IT services company that serves some of the largest global enterprises.
* Nokia acquired Enpocket, a global player in mobile advertising. The latter provides technology and services that allow brands to plan, create, execute, measure and optimise mobile advertising campaigns around the world.
* Paetec Holding purchased McLeodUSA for $492 million, in a move that will create a major rival to AT&T and Verizon for business-telephony services.
* Yahoo bought Zimbra for $350 million. Zimbra Mobile is a Linux-based messaging and collaboration platform that supports mobile push e-mail and native synchronisation.
* Excellent quarterly results from VMware.
* Very good quarterly figures from Adobe and Oracle.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Progress Software, although profit up over 45%.
* Quarterly losses from 3Com, although revenue slightly up (3Com has not made a quarterly profit since 2000).

* Gartner says worldwide IT services end-user spending is expected to exceed $730 billion this year, up 8.7% from 2006.
* Shipments of always-on Internet ultra-mobile devices will reach 95 million units by 2012, according to ABI Research.

* JSE All share index: Up 2.7%
* Nasdaq: Up 2.7%
* Top SA share movements: Ansys (+11.4%), Beget Holdings (+16.7%), Celcom (-11.8%), Cyberhost (+11.1%), Digicore (+8.9%), Faritec (-15.4%) and MICROmega (-9.1%)

BusinessWeek has published its Asia BusinessWeek 50, embracing the region's top-performing companies. From a technology perspective, HTC (Taiwan) came in at number two, Siemens (India) at number four, Telekomunikasi Indonesia at eight, Compal Communications (Taiwan) at 18, and Tata Consultancy Services at 23. Also on the list were Digital.com (Malaysia), Foxconn (Taiwan), NHN (Korea), Novatek Microelectronics (Taiwan) and Yahoo Japan.