Google speculation

The international ICT scene was dominated last week by several significant acquisitions and Google`s forthcoming secondary listing. The local market focused on Telkom SA`s new CEO and Business Connexion`s results.

* The buy-out of Agilent Technologies` semiconductor division by KKR and Silver Lake Partners for $2.5 billion. Agilent Technologies was spun-off from HP in 1999 and is now the world`s largest maker of scientific testing equipment with an annual turnover in excess of $7 billion. In addition, Agilent Technologies is to shed several of its other non-core assets, including its shares in Lumileds Lighting, which are being bought by Philips Electronics. Had Agilent not split from HP, it is conceivable that HP could now have been bigger than IBM from a revenue perspective.

* The acquisition of UK-based Energis Communications by Cable & Wireless in a deal valued at $1 billion. Cable & Wireless, the second largest fixed-line operator in the UK, staved off a last minute counter bid by Thus Group.

* Google announced a planned secondary share issue (14.2 million) that could raise another $4 billion for the company. The surprise move has prompted much speculation about how the Web-search company might plan to use the proceeds.

* Very good Q3 results from Datacraft Asia, a company in which Dimension Data has a major shareholding.

* Satisfactory annual results from Business Connexion, with revenue flat but income up over 100%, although its African operations posted a loss.

* Mediocre full year figures from Prism with revenue up but income down.

* A trading update from GijimaAst that indicates a loss for the year ending 30 June.

* US-based Kaplan IT acquired the assets of Software Training Technology.

* The signing of the shareholders` agreement by the second national operator partners, leaving the way clear for the awarding of a licence by ICASA, which is now expected by mid-September.

* The appointment of Leapeetswe (Papi) Molotsane as the new CEO for Telkom SA. Molotsane, a group executive of Transnet, is currently the acting CEO of TransWerk, part of Transnet, and previously worked for organisations such as IBM SA.

* The appointment of Zion Group as the representative of Forrester Research in SA.

* CellSaf, the black empowerment arm of Cell C, sold off part of its stake to Lanun Securities, increasing the Saudi interest in Cell C to 75%.

* RedLinx signed a black empowerment deal that will see it become a majority black-owned company by 2010.

* Up to 1 600 jobs to be shed at Zimbabwe`s TelOne.

It`s interesting to note how quickly Forrester Research has reacted to the Gartner/Meta deal by establishing a local presence to fill the gap the acquisition created.

Paul Booth, MD.

* Nortel Networks and LG Electronics to establish a joint venture, tentatively called LG-Nortel, for telecom and networking solutions in the wireline, optical, wireless and enterprise areas.

* The Australian Parliament approved the sell-off of government shares in Telstra (51.8%).

* EMC acquired Maranti Networks and Rainfinity.

* Symantec acquired Sygate Technologies, a provider of network access control solutions.

* 3Com is trying to increase its shareholding in its joint venture, Huawei-3Com, to allow it to consolidate its share into its financial numbers in order to give them a better appearance. 3Com holds 49% and is looking for at least 51%.

* The appointments of Armagan Akar as CEO of Teseda, Edward Brown as president and COO of Cymer, William Clifford as chairman and CEO of Aperture Technologies, Farid Shouekani as president and CEO of Viper Networks, Peter Ungaro as CEO of Cray, and Ron Weaver as chairman of Viper Networks.

* The resignation of Jim Rottsolk as chairman and CEO of Cray.

* Analyst upgrades for Activision, Apple, Blue Coat Systems, Cyberonics, Dobson Communications, F5 Networks, HP, International Rectifier, InterVoice-Brite, Micros Systems, Synopsys, Varian Semiconductor and Websense.

* Analyst downgrades for BEA Systems, Captiva Software, CyberGuard, Deutsche Telekom, Gateway, Geac Computer, Lattice Semiconductor, M-Systems Flash, Photronics, Transmeta and Ultratech.

* A negative result warning from Ciber.

* Stock repurchase announcements from Paragon Technologies, Pegasystems, Symmetricom and Websense.

* Job loss announcements from Agilent Technologies and Energis Communications.

* Private funding obtained for Aruba, a developer of wireless LAN switches; Expand Networks, a WAN optimisation and application acceleration vendor; GigaBeam, a high-speed wireless communications provider; Guardium, a database security company; NetDevices, a networking start-up; and Picolight, an optical networking equipment maker.

* A private of placing of stock by VerticalNet.

* Stock offering announcement by Bookham.

* News Corp`s potential acquisition of Blinkx, an Internet search engine start-up.

* The fate of Danish telecommunications company, TDC, which seems to have been targeted by private equity groups.

* The acquisition of Taiwan Broadband Communications by Australia`s Macquarie Bank.

* The acquisition of New Skies Satellite Holdings by Intelsat.

* Worldwide IT spending will increase to $1.3 trillion by 2009 with the healthcare and media sectors offering the highest growth potential, says IDC. A CAGR of 5.9% is forecast from 2005-2009.

* JSE All share index: Down 1%

* Nasdaq: Down 1%

* Top SA share movements: Faritec (-10%), Infowave (+12.5%), Metrofile (-9.1%), Prism (+9.7%), Square One (+30.4%), Stella Vista (+33.3%), Synergy (+33.3%) and Vesta (-44.4%)

* Top international share movements: Bell Canada International (+26.9%), Blue Coat Systems (+23.2%), Brooktrout (+34.8%), Com21 (-36.8%), Daisytek International (-28.6%), FiberMark (-25.9%), NCDI (+66.7%), Primus Telecommunications (+47.3%), Sapiens (+23.2%), SONICblue (+66.7%) and Transmeta (+30.9%)

It`s interesting to note how quickly Forrester Research has reacted to the Gartner/Meta deal by establishing a local presence to fill the gap the acquisition created. It is even more interesting that Forrester and Gartner subscribe to the services of Computerwire, part of the London-listed Datamonitor Group, which now has a presence locally via Marketworks. These in-depth research and analyst services, used by over 90% of the analysts worldwide, are now available at an extremely competitive price, especially when put in the context of the US-based players.