Govt commits R647m to Infraco

There were no dominant stories in the ICT sector last week in either the international or local scene. Internationally, there was further consolidation in the IT services sector with Cap Gemini snapping-up Kanbay International, while Cisco and Oracle continued on their acquisition trail.

Locally, the proposed new government telecommunications initiative, Infraco, was the most interesting story.

* Cyberhost returned to profitability, bought the Open Plan IT platform and reverse lists into Top Restaurants in a move that will provide a base for its Internet and Web-hosting products.
* Positive trading updates from Alliance Data and Datatec.
* Arivia.kom put up for sale with all its shares available on the open market. Eskom and Transnet currently own the company.
* Vodafone agreed in principle to allow Vodacom to expand into other regions.
* Paracon acquired The Personnel Concept, a niche consultancy.
* Cape Empowerment Trust increased its interest in African Alliance to 25% from 20%.
* The appointments of Shirley Arnold as chairman of Telkom SA and Henry Ferreira as MD of Unisys SA.
* The resignation of Nomazizi Mtshotshisa, chairman of Telkom SA.
* The allocation of R647 million by government for its proposed Infraco, a telecommunications infrastructure company.
* At the CSSA President`s Banquet last week, Anthony Fitzhenry, CEO of Axiz, won the CSSA ICT Personality of the Year title, with Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane, CEO of Sentech, winning the ICT Leadership award.

* Good profits from Kenya`s Safaricom.

Q3 2006 mobile device shipments topped 245 million, and could reach one billion in total by year-end, according to ABI Research.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Oracle bought MetaSolv Software, a provider of service fulfilment operations support systems solutions, for $219.2 million.
* Cisco acquired Orative, a company that provides an application that will allow Cisco to extend its Unified Communications portfolio to mobile devices.
* Cap Gemini acquired Kanbay International for $1.25 billion.
* The appointments of Peter Birth as president and CEO of Auvitek, Fred Gumbel as CEO of WAY Systems, Ian Strain as president and CEO of Vigilon, Michael Strianese as CEO of L-3 Communications, and George Symons as CEO of Yosemite Technologies.
* The resignations of Dean Goodman as president and COO of ION Media Networks, Lou DiNardo as president and COO of Intersil, and Rajesh Vashist as chairman and CEO of Ikanos Communications.
* The retirement of James Mahan, co-founder, chairman and CEO of S1.
* The death of Cob Steadman, deputy chairman of Ntl.
* Analyst upgrades for Affymetrix, Business Objects, Celestica, Clear Channel Communications, DreamWorks Animation, EFI, Garmin, KLA-Tencor, Komag, Netgear, Newport, Plantronics, Qwest Communications, Sirenza Microdevices and Websense.
* Analyst downgrades for ADC Telecommunications, Alaska Communications Systems, Andrew, Arris, Broadwing, Cablevision Systems, Ciber, Coherent, Color Kinetics, Corning, Digital Power, DRS Technologies, ECI Telecom, Emulex, Fiserv, Flextronics, Getty Images, Global Imaging Systems, GSI Group, Hittite Microwave, Infosys, Intuit, Kanbay International, Microsemi, Neoware, netease.com, NetLogic Microsystems, Nextest Systems, Open Solutions, Openwave Systems, QuickLogic, Red Hat, S1, Seagate Technology, Shanda Interactive Entertainment, Sierra Wireless, TALX, Tech Data, Teledyne Technologies, Trident Microsystems and Xilinx.
* Positive results announcements from America Movil, CDC and Epicor Software.
* Negative result warnings from Analog Devices, Infineon Technologies, Lexmark, NEC, Silicon Image, Texas Instruments and TSMC.
* Stock repurchase announcements from Exar, Keane, Microchip Technology and Red Hat.
* A job loss announcement from Infineon Technologies AG.
* Private funding obtained for Colubris Networks, a WLAN infrastructure vendor; Coveo, an enterprise search provider; DeviceVM, a virtualisation software start-up; FPT, a Vietnamese IT services provider; MonoSphere, a storage capacity software provider; NewStep Networks, an enterprise and carrier fixed-mobile convergence services company; SourceLabs, a provider of open source software support systems; Synacor, online content and technology solutions provider; TerraGo, a mapping and geospatial software provider; and Vangard Voice, an integrator of voice into mobile and business applications.
* A stock offering announcement by Elcom.
* Planned IPOs from Genpact (Nasdaq), an Indian BPO provider; Orbcomm (Nasdaq), a provider of global machine-to-machine communications; Sourcefire (Nasdaq), an intrusion detection and prevention software developer; and Veraz Networks (Nasdaq), a VOIP provider.
* A good IPO on Nasdaq by Optium, a telecommunications equipment maker.
* A very good IPO in Taiwan by Innolux Display, a LCD maker.

* HP`s possible acquisition of Atos Origin.

* Q3 2006 mobile device shipments topped 245 million and could reach one billion in total by year-end, according to ABI Research.

* JSE All share index: Down 1.2%
* Nasdaq: Up 0.04% (five-year high achieved during last week).
* Top SA share movements: Alliance Data (+10%), Dynamic Cables (+29.4%), I-Solutions (+18.2%), Stella Vista (+15.4%), Synergy (+20%), Vesta (+150%) and Zaptronix (+11.1%).
* Top international share movements: CellStar (+29.7%), Entrada Networks (-25%), Epicus Communications (-30.8%), Exabyte (-36.2%), Hittite Microwave (-26.6%), Interphase (-35.3%), Micro Component Technology (+31.6%), RadView (-33.3%) and Zhone Technologies (+25.5%).

The UK Financial Times has just released its third annual rankings of Europe`s top 25 businesswomen. From an ICT perspective, the only entry was Marie Ehrling, president of TeliaSonera, at number 15.