Five weeks in focus

Welcome to the first Booth`s Bites of 2006, which includes coverage of the last five weeks.

Despite the holidays, there was nothing quiet about the ICT sector either locally or internationally, as many deals were finalised and some interesting announcements were made during this time. Over 130 mergers and acquisitions were announced globally, more than ever before during this time of the year.

* The proposed lb817 million takeover of Virgin Mobile by NTL, which is already in the middle of acquiring Telewest.
* Alltel spun off its local telephone business through a merger with Valor Communications in a deal valued at $9.1 billion.
* Sprint Nextel acquired Nextel Partners for $6.5 billion.
* Seagate Technology purchased Maxtor for $1.9 billion.
* Vodafone`s $4.55 billion auction bid win for Turkey`s Telsim, the country`s number two mobile telecommunications operator.
* Google`s 5% ($1 billion) investment in AOL, spiking Microsoft`s intentions in this regard.
* The potential $12 billion buy-out of CSC by the Blackstone Group and HP.
* The issuing of the licence for the second national operator.
* The establishment of Virgin Mobile South Africa by Cell C and Virgin Mobile, an independent services provider that will be owned on a 50/50 basis, and which should be operational during H106.

Over 130 mergers and acquisitions were announced globally, more than ever before during this time of the year.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Good year-end numbers from Stella Vista, with revenues up about 24% and well back in the black; and Zaptronix, which is also well back in the black.
* Year-end results from Cyberhost following its section 311 settlement and the subsequent acquisition of Top Restaurants and Intranet.
* Positive trading updates from Cape Empowerment Trust, Faritec and FrontRange.
* Faritec`s acquisition of Enterprise Connection.
* Saab Grintek`s acquisition of Aerospace Monitoring and Systems.
* The launch of Nakatomi Corporation, an ICT company focused on efficiency, technology and project management solutions.
* A R10 million share issue by Xantium Technology.
* Xantium Technology Holdings changed its name to Simeka BSG.
* The de-listings of Connection Group following its acquisition by the JD Group and FrontRange following its takeover by a Californian private equity group.
* ICASA shut down illegal WISPs.
* Econet Wireless will establish an operation in New Zealand later this year.
* Telkom withdrew from the bidding for Nitel, leaving Egypt`s Orascom as the `winner`. However, as the bid price is below the reserved price, the deal is still subject to a final decision by Nigeria`s National Council on Privatisation.
* Satish Roopa resigned as chairman of Vesta Technology Holdings.
* Bouygues Telecom pulled out from the bidding for Tunisie Telecom.

* MTN acquired Libertis Telecom of the Republic of Congo and announced it was part of a consortium vying for Egypt`s third mobile licence that also includes Golden Pyramids Plaza, Raya and Stars Communication.
* A good IPO by Telecom Egypt in both Egypt and UK.
* A Nigerian Federal High Court issued an interim order to stop the privatisation process of Nitel.
* The `suggestion` that Zimbabwe is likely to cancel Telecel Zimbabwe`s licence.
* The ending of the international telecommunications monopoly by Cabo Verde Telecom in Cape Verde on 1 January 2006, as well as the ending of the fixed-line services monopoly by CV Telecom on 1 January 2007.
* A proposed IPO by the merged entity of Wananchi and ISPKenya.
* Celtel purchased a majority stake in Madagascar`s Madacom.
* Telecom Holdings of Malawi bought an 80% stake in Malawi Telecommunications for $30 million.
* Celtel Kenya laid off staff.
* Orascom Telecom invested in Hutchison Telecom.
* The appointments of Thapelo Lippe as CEO of Orange Botswana and Simon Tembo as MD of Zambia Telecommunications.

* The indictment of Joseph Nacchio, the former CEO of Qwest Communications International, for alleged insider trading.
* The battle for Telindus now seems over with Belgacom`s new offer of EUR594.3 million holding sway.
* Philips Electronics is to make its semiconductor division a separate entity, probably prior to a listing or sale.
* The $31 million fine imposed on Microsoft by South Korea`s anti-trust watchdog, which has also ordered it to unbundle its Media Player and instant messaging programs from its operating system.
* The European Commission warned Microsoft that it faces penalties of up to EUR2 million per day if it doesn`t make a greater effort to comply with the commission`s 2004 anti-trust ruling.
* IBM acquired Bowstreet, a provider of applications development tools for portals, and Micromuse, a provider of voice and video network traffic management software.
* The merger of the world`s two largest smart card makers, Axalto and Gemplus, with the new company to be called Gemalto.
* Siemens Business Services sold off its hardware maintenance business (PRS unit) to Fujitsu Siemens.
* Siemens AG transferred part of its IT unit to Fujitsu Siemens Computers BV, as part of its restructuring process.
* The disposal of VW`s Gedas IT services unit to T-Systems.
* The Dutch government reduced its stake in KPN NV to 8% (from 16%) worth EUR1.4 billion, potentially opening up KPN for a private equity leveraged buy-out.
* The disinvestment by Singapore Telecommunications of its shares in Singapore Post, a deal expected to raise about $400 million.
* Microsoft`s investment in India is expected to be as much as $1.7 billion over the next four years.
* The UK`s Financial Times named Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google, as their `Men of the Year`.

IPOs, results announcements

* The satisfactory listing on London`s AIM by Cyan, a fabless semiconductor company.
* Planned IPOs from CMR Fuel Cells on London`s AIM and telecommunications equipment provider, Italtel SpA, in Italy.
* An IPO filing from PixelPlus, a maker of chips for mobile camera phones.
* A possible IPO in London by Comstar United Telesystems, a Russian telecommunications carrier.
* A very good IPO from Suntech Power.
* Satisfactory IPOs by Appian Technology on London`s AIM; Indian outsourcer, Patni Computer System on the NYSE; PixelPlus, a Korean maker of chips for mobile camera phones; Israeli-based Scopus Video Network on Nasdaq; and Spansion, the flash memory chipmaker, on Nasdaq.
* A postponed IPO from IDT Spectrum.
* MCI to re-state its figures for the first three quarters of 2005; and United Microelectronics to re-state its financial figures for 2002-2004.

* The sell-off by Verizon Communications of its directory division, which could be worth $17 billion.
* A tie-up between Samsung and Sony re flash memory chips.
* A possible $8 billion sell-off of Affiliated Computer Services to a buy-out consortium.
* Bain Capital`s $2.5 billion acquisition of TI`s sensors and controls business.
* The sale/privatisation of Russia`s telecom holding company, Svyazinvest.
* The acquisition of BMC Software by an investment consortium.

* The storage software market grew by 10% in Q305, with EMC as the largest supplier with 29% market share followed by Symantec (Veritas Software) with a 20% share, says IDC.
* Semiconductor revenues will reach $235 billion in 2005, an increase of 6.9% over 2004, says Gartner, with Intel taking a 15% market share followed by Samsung (7.6%) and TI (4.4%).
* RFID spending will surpass $3 billion by 2010, says Gartner.
* According to Insight Research, wireless revenue will grow to 49% of all telecommunications revenue by the end of 2006 and grow to 55.6% by 2010. Revenues are expected to reach $1 200 billion by the end of 2006.
* 2006 should see double-digit PC market growth in 2006, says IDC.

* JSE All share index: Up 8.7% (highest-ever weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Up 1.4% (highest close this decade)
* Top SA share movements: Beget Holdings (+33.3%), Control (+19.6%), Faritec (+22%), GijimaAst (+20.4%), Square One (+26.7%), Synergy (+66.7%), Trematon (+26.3%), UCS (+26.4%), and Zaptronix (+20%).
* Top international share movements: Applied Imaging (+69.6%), BITS Corp (+118.7%), Digital Lightwave (+100%), Future Internet (+151.6%), Hynix Semiconductor (+61.5%), Intermec (+62.9%), IQ Ludorum (+257.1%), Maxtor (+70.5%), NeoMagic (+169%) and Stilo (+100%).

As is always the situation at this time of year, the Nasdaq-100 index was updated with 12 new stocks, with Activision, Cadence Design Systems, CheckFree, Google, NII Holdings, Nvidia and Red Hat from a technology perspective joining the index.

Intersil, Level 3 Communications, Molex, Novellus Systems, Qlogic, Sanmina-SCI and Synopsys were the technology companies removed.