Fiorina resigns from Cisco`s board

Lockheed Martin`s multibillion-dollar acquisition of Titan and Atos Origin SA`s takeover of most of SchlumbergerSema`s businesses for about $1.5 billion dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications during the last two weeks.

At home, the black equity discussions re the IT sector and the news that an SNO decision is still possible by the end of the year stole much of the local ICT headline space.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

At home, the black equity discussions re the IT sector and the news that a second national operator (SNO) decision is still possible by the end of the year stole much of the local ICT headline space.

* we saw very good annual figures from ERP.com (revenue and earnings both well up);

* good year-end numbers from EOH (revenue and profit both up, although margins squeezed);

* very poor year-end results from Faritec (revenue down and just in the black);

* good half-year numbers from Cape Empowerment Trust (no revenue figures but back in the black);

* satisfactory interims from Dynamic Cables (revenue and profit both up a little);

* mediocre interim figures from Square One (revenue and earnings both well down);

* a profit warning from Johnnic Comms; and

* the suspension of CCI`s shares.

Additional, SITA also showed a profit for the first time since it was established four years ago.

Other local news included:

* a share re-purchase announcement from Venfin;

* Deloitte & Touche was appointed to investigate financial dealings between EC-Hold and MGX in response to shareholders` allegations of irregularities;

* Advanced Online Systems` application to have CCI liquidated;

* the demise of Teraitech;

* Global Technology Australasia was placed into voluntary administration;

* Nedcor`s progressive reduction of its shareholding in Dimension Data;

* Asus opened a South African office;

* Softline shareholders approved the 'Sage` buy-out; and

* the communications minister`s statement that she still hopes for the awarding of an SNO licence by the end of December 2003.

New local distributorships included that of Corex IT Dynamics for Asus, Pinnacle Micro for Kyocera Mita`s Ecosys range of printers, and Y3K for Protocom Development System`s SecureLogin Single Sign-on software.

* we saw the resignation of Carly Fiorina from Cisco`s board, fuelling speculation of a closer tie-up between Cisco and HP;

* the Dutch government sold off its 12% stake, worth about EUR2 billion, in KPN;

* Getronics NV sold off its stake in DigitalNet for $27 million, in order to reduce its debt burden;

* Sagem sold its 10% stake in Gemplus;

* NetLedger changed its name to NetSuite;

* Sun Microsystems introduced a new approach to its software pricing strategy;

* a strategic partnership between SSA Global and Fujitsu Software;

* Reuters cut its 39% holding in Tibco; and

* Marconi sold off its 7% stake in Bookham Technology.

Look out for the purchase of Inmarsat by British private equity group, Apax Partners Worldwide LLP and Permina Advisers; and the sell-off by MobilCom AG of its 20% stake in Freenet de AG for over EUR170 million, thus clearing its debts.

Other international news included:

* the appointments of Ken Crump as chairman of Norsat, George Garrick as CEO of ActivCard, David Helwig as CEO of InfraSource, William Laden as chairman and CEO of Internet America, Barry Lathan as CEO of Encad, Vic Odryna as CEO of Inceptor, Dominic Orr as chairman of Aruba Wireless Networks, Abe Reichental as president and CEO of 3D Systems and Bobby Yazdani as CEO of Saba Software;

* the resignations of Fernando Darrell Hughes as president and CEO of Cognigen Networks, Abril-Martorell as COO of Telefonica, Paul Berberian as co-founder, CEO and president of Raindance (remains as chairman), Hilary Cropper as chairman of Xansa, Peter Gibbons as COO and president of Internet America, Gaetano Manti as chairman of Norsat (remains on board), Jack Smith as chairman and CEO of Internet America and Geno Tolari as CEO of Saba Software;

* the retirements of Christopher Galvin, chairman and CEO of Motorola, and Steven Humphreys as CEO of ActivCard; and

* job loss announcements from Axcelis, BEA Systems, Corvis, J H Harland, IBM and Sun Microsystems.

We saw excellent* figures from Comtech Telecomms (back in the black), Forgent Networks (back in the black), Research in Motion (back in the black) and Vanco (back in the black); and very good* numbers from iMergent (back in the black), Jabil Circuit and Red Hat.

Good figures* were recorded by Axon Group, Cincom, Cognos, CorVu, Openet, Progress Software, SAIC, Salesforce.com, Standard Microsystems and Tele Nordeste Celular Participacoes SA; and satisfactory* ones by Amstrad, Global Payments, IMSI, Lawson Software and Tibco Software.

Mediocre* returns came from CODASciSys, ICM, Portugal Telecom, Spectrum Control, Tektronix, TeleCity, Telecom Argentina STET-France Telecom SA, Telecom Italia SpA, Telecom New Zealand and TTI Network Technologies; while very poor results* came from Harvey Electronics (but back in the black) and Richardson Electronics.

Losses* were posted by 3Com, ACE*COMM, Aehr Test Systems, Baldwin Technology, Baltimore Technologies, Cedara Software, Circuit City, Comtex, CSS Stellar, Devoteam Group, Equant SA, ESS Technology, Fisher Comms, Globecomm Systems, IBS AN, Intraware, Intrawest, Liberate Technologies, Manugistics, MCK Comms, Merix, Micron Technology, Network-1, Palm, Parity Group, Paychex, Saba Software, Solectron, Tele Norte Leste Participacoes SA, THQ and Trio-Tech International.

Other financial news included analyst upgrades for Bookham Technology, Flextronics, IBM, IDX Systems, Manugistics, NCR and SonicWALL; analyst downgrades for Black Box, Eastman Kodak, Extreme Networks, Netegrity, Powerwave Technologies and Skyworks; share offerings from Axeda Systems, Dot Hill Systems, NTL, Sandisk and Sonus Networks; share buy-back announcements from Cisco and HP; and results/profit warnings (often veiled) from Bisys, CSS Stellar, Entegris, Exar, Kyocera, Level 3 Comms, Solectron, Toshiba, Verizon Comms, Viacom and Zarlink Semiconductor.

There was a share split announcement from US Dataworks (reverse); a rights issue announcement from NTL; a very good IPO from SigmaTel (semiconductors); satisfactory IPOs from AMIS Holdings and Journal Comms; an IPO withdrawal from Centennial Comms; and planned IPOs from Callidus Software and DigitalNet Holdings as well as Canada-based Cryptologic on the London Stock Exchange.

Locally

AdvTech (-11.9%)
AST (-23.1%)

DNA (+100%)
EC-Hold (-48.7%)
Edutech (+25%)
IST (-13.3%)
Sekunjalo (+11.8%)
Stella Vista (+100%)
Trematon (-20%)
Zaptronix (-25%)

Internationally

Butler International (+34.2%)
California Micro Devices (+40.6%)
Enherent (+49.1%)
Exabyte (+39%)
Frontline Comms (+80%)
Level 8 Systems (-31.8%)
Parity (-30.4%)
PCD (+100%)
Rural Cellular (+37%)
Vanco (+30.4%)

In terms of indices, the Nasdaq was 3.4% down and the JSE 2.9% down over the last two weeks.

During my visit to New York`s annual technology week, I discovered that security is still the hot topic, but particularly now within the wireless environment and outsourcing. The latter is particularly interesting since new research has indicated that over 50% of the deals that have been undertaken either failed or fell significantly short of their objectives.

* NB

'Guidelines` for the categorisation of results is as follows and is 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 is in excess of 50%.

* Very Good: Both revenue and net income growth is in excess of 25%

* Good: Both revenue and net income growth is 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.