Hitting new negatives

Last week, the international IT and telecommunications world was dominated by Deutsche Telkom recording the largest ever European corporate yearly loss, WorldCom posting the largest ever write-off in US corporate history, and the European Commission news/comments re Microsoft.

Toshiba is to move four of its ten core business divisions, about 20% of the total business, out the parent company into separate units within the Toshiba group.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

At home, the Jasco/BEE transformation and the re-emergence of BCS-Net stole much of the local ICT headline space.

* we saw good year-end figures from Control Instruments (revenue well up and back in the black);

* a full year loss from Advtech (revenue also down); and

* a profit warning from Global Technology.

Other local news included:

* job losses at Dimension Data;

* MTN expanded its cellular telecoms infrastructure in Nigeria with an investment of some R11 billion;

* Tasslelane Investments, a black economic empowerment company, was acquired by Jasco, resulting in a change of control;

* ITXC opened a sales office for Africa in Johannesburg, which is to be run by Ndi Towo;

* an empowerment consortium has purchased BCS-Net and has also taken over the networking business of Siemens Business Services; and

* the appointment of Ismail Sali-Ameen as CEO of BCS-Net.

In addition, Computrolley was appointed as a distributor for Avantstar`s software packages.

* Deutsche Telekom posted an all time record yearly loss of EUR24.6 billion;

* Toshiba is to move four of its ten core business divisions, about 20% of the total business, out the parent company into separate units within the Toshiba group;

* Microsoft disposed of its investment (24.6%) in Corel; and

* the European regulators panel has concluded that Microsoft has breached competition law.

Additionally, look out for a possible buy-out of Concord EFS; the possible merger of Telecom Italia SpA and Olivetti SpA; the possible acquisition of Pace Micro by Amstrad; and further acquisitions by Borland and CGI Group.

Other international news included:

* the appointments of Jeff Cavins as president and CEO of Loudeye, Thorleif Enger as chairman of Telenor, Henning Kagermann as sole-CEO of SAP, Mike Laphen as president and COO of Computer Sciences, Hasso Plattner as chairman of SAP, and Dennis Spina as CEO of Reality Networks;

* the resignations of Itsik Danziger, president of Comverse Technology and Hasso Plattner as co-CEO of SAP; and

* job loss announcements from Accenture, Dell, Infineon, Philips Electronics and Terayon.

We saw excellent* figures from Infocrossing (back in the black), InterDigital (back in the black) and Sand Technology; and very good* numbers from ComTech Telecomms and SteelCloud.

Good figures* were recorded by Adobe, Elbit Systems, SureWest Comms, Verint Systems (back in the black) and Verity; and satisfactory* ones by Arch Wireless (back in the black), Computacenter, K3 Business Technology Group, Manatron, Norstan, North Pittsburgh Systems, SAS and Telecom Italia Mobile SpA.

Mediocre* returns came from AtosOrigin, Axon Group, BrightStar Information Technology Group (but back in the black), Hector Comms, Microlog (but back in the black), Software AG, Spirent, Ulticom and Ultimate Electronics.

Losses* were posted by ACT Teleconferencing, Applix, Audiovox, Certicom, ChoiceOne Comms, CMGI, Comverse Technology, Covad Comms, deltathree, Descartes Systems Group, Deutsche Telekom, DSL.net, e-SIM, FiberNet Telecom Group, Formula Systems, GigaMedia, GraphOn, HyperFeed Technologies, IDT, MasTec, MCK Comms, Net2Phone, New Horizons Worldwide, Norsat, NUR Macroprinters, Optical Cable, ORBIT/FR, RCN, SmartDisk, T-Online International AG, Telecom Argentina, Telecom Italia, Temenos, Tom.com, Top Image Systems, Triton PCS, TSI Telecomm Systems, Vertel, viaLink, Volt Information Sciences, WiLAN and Workflow Management.

Other financial news included share buy-back announcements from AMS and Z-Tel; results/profit warnings from ADP, Andrew, Black Box, Consolidated Graphics, GTSI, Nokia, Oce NV, Ultimate Electronics and WorldCom (following the biggest ever write-off by a US company - $79.8 billion); and share split announcements from CE Software (reverse) and Loudeye (reverse).

Additionally, Gemstar-TV Guide is to re-state some of its results for 2000, 2001 and 2002; John Casses, co-founder and CEO of Computer Horizons, has "taken a leave of absence" following the US Justice Department`s indictment over insider trading; HP is re-stating its cash flow for Q1; and Asia Global Crossing has emerged from bankruptcy proceedings as Asia Netcom.

Locally

CompuClearing (+10%)
Cycad (+50%)
Digicor (+12%)
DNA (-13.6%)
Elexir (-25%)
Global Technology (-27.3%)
IST (-12.8%)
MGX (+26.7%)
Spescom (+11.1%)

Internationally

Adept Technology (-27.8%)
Auspex Systems (+45.7%)
Black Box (-33%)
Consolidated Graphics (-33.7%)
Daisytek (+93%)
IDN Telecom (+39.7%)
Level 8 Systems (+31.8%)
PNC Telecom (-27.6%)
PSC (+50%)
Spirent (+44.2%)

The recent weeks have seen several tenders from the public sector that precluded local companies with local brands being able to qualify for these business opportunities. Fortunately, following much frenzied activity and many organisations condemning this 'restrictive` practice, some of these situations have been reversed and the relevant tenders changed so that all participants are able to submit proposals on an equal footing.

* NB

Guidelines for the categorisation of results are as follows. The figures are 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 are in excess of 50%.
* Good: Both revenue and net income growth are 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.
* Loss: A loss has been recorded.