Hon Hai sharpens its spears

Hon Hai's investment in Sharp, a quarterly loss from RIM and small acquisitions by Cisco and Oracle were the main international ICT stories last week.

At home, the Turkcell/MTN situation and the Reunert/John Holdsworth 'spat' stole much of the local ICT headline space.

Turkcell is suing MTN in the US for $4 billion in damages.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Mixed interim numbers from Mvelaserve, with revenue up 14% but profit down 53%.
* A year-end figures loss from Ifca Technologies.
* A negative trading update Telkom SA.
* Itec Group acquired UK-based Time Business Systems, an office automation supplier.
* KT has completed its due diligence of Telkom SA.
* Reunert has instituted proceedings against John Holdsworth, the ex-CEO of ECN Telecommunications, and his new business AppChat.
* Software AG SA has formalised its partnership with triVector for the delivery of value-added BPM solutions.
* Turkcell is suing MTN in the US for $4 billion in damages regarding the awarding of the Iranian licence to the latter in 2005. It alleges corruption through bribery and trading in influence.
* The appointments of Mary Bolema as deputy chairman of Metrofile Holdings; and Jansen Harper as COO of Tarsus.
* Paul Nkuna, deputy chairman of Metrofile Holdings, retired.

* Bharti Airtel has launched its operations in Rwanda.
* An Algerian court has issued a $1.3 billion fine against Orascom Telecom Algerie as the result of a long-running dispute between the company and the government.
* MTN has been awarded 3G licences in Benin and Cote d'Ivoire.
* The Swaziland government is transferring the 51% of MTN shares it owns through Swaziland Post and Telecoms Corporation (SPTC) to a government-owned special purpose vehicle that could allow the SPTC to now offer and operate an alternative to the MTN operations.
* The Ugandan government has approved four new ICT policies for that country.
* The appointment of Jaco Roux as head of MB Technologies Africa.

* Avnet acquired Ascendant Technology, a content management company.
* Cisco purchased ClearAccess, a company that makes hardware and software to help service providers manage increasingly complex residential and mobile devices.
* Groupon bought FeeFighters, a company that helps small business compare payment providers.
* Oracle acquired ClearTrial, a cloud-based medical software provider.
* Oclaro, a provider of optical communications and laser solutions, merged with Opnext, a designer and manufacturer of optical modules, components and subsystems.
* Hon Hai made an $805 million (10%) investment in Sharp.
* Hynix Semiconductor is changing its name to SK Hynix following the 21% investment by SK Telecom in that company.
* The number of mobile phone accounts has broken the one billion barrier in China.
* Good quarterly numbers from Hon Hai Precision Industry, Synnex Technology International and Tibco Software.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Quanta Computer and Red Hat.
* Satisfactory year-end figures from Software AG.
* Mixed year-end figures from ZTE, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Research In Motion (revenue also down 25%) and Telecom Italia.
* A full-year loss from Acer.
* The appointments of Jean-Bernard Levy as CEO of SFR; and Jens Schulte-Bockum as CEO of Vodafone Germany.
* The resignation of Frank Essar as CEO of SFR.
* A very good IPO on the NYSE by ExactTarget, a customer relationship management, marketing and sales software provider.
* A good IPO on the NYSE by Vantiv, a payment processor.
* A very good IPO on the NYSE by Vocera Communications, a provider of mobile communication solutions to healthcare and non-healthcare markets.
* A possible delay in Avaya's planned IPO until 2013, as Facebook's IPO - now expected in May - is attracting too much investor attention.

* International:
- A buyer for AOL's patent portfolio that numbers over 800.
- A possible deal between Elpida Memory and SK Hynix.

* Africa:
- A possible share seizure by a DRC court to settle a $21 million dispute with a consultant, a judgment that Vodacom is currently appealing.

* South Africa:
- Further developments regarding SK Telecom's interest in Telkom SA.

* Almost one billion smart connected devices were shipped in 2011, and by 2016 this number is expected to have doubled, according to IDC.
* MEA server shipments grew 10.3% in Q4 2011, although revenue only increased 2.9%, according to Gartner.
* Worldwide SaaS revenue is expected to reach $14.5 billion in 2012, according to Gartner.

* JSE All share index: Down 0.05%
* Nasdaq: Up 0.8% (highest weekend close this year)
* Top SA share movements: African Cellular Towers (+25%), FoneWorx (-9.3%), Ifca Technologies (+14.3%), Poynting Antennas (+7.7%) and Silverbridge (-6.7%)

Fortune magazine has published its 2012 listing of 'The World's Most Admired Companies'. From a technology perspective, the following were included:

* 1. Apple
* 2. Google
* 3. Amazon.com
* 5. IBM
* 17. Microsoft
* 34. Samsung Electronics
* 36. Intel
* 41. eBay
* 42. Cisco
* 43. Accenture
* 46. AT&T
* 49. Oracle

Notable by their absence were HP, SAP and Xerox.

As this coming weekend is Easter, my next column will appear on Monday, 16 April and will cover the intervening two-week period.