HP layoffs loom

* Sprint snapped-up US Unwired for $1.3 billion. US Unwired sells cellular phone services under the Sprint brand, thus the take-over consolidates the situation and removes pending litigation between the companies.
* HP is expected to announce massive layoffs this week up to 15 000 positions.

* Very good year-end (10 months only as change of year-end) figures from FrontRange with growth in revenue and significant jump in profits.
* The JSE`s annotation of the listing Cape Empowerment Trust due to an 'emphasis of matter` in the latest financial statements.
* A positive trading update from Beget Holdings.
* UCS acquired CEB.
* Online financial derivatives market-maker Global Trader opened a UK office.

* Kenya`s Telkom sale is back on course, according to the information and communications minister.
* The omission of Kenyan businessman, Naushad Merali, from the MTC board, who recently took over Celtel. Merali was previously a director of Celtel and is a major player with respect to Celtel Kenya.
* Telkom Kenya may layoff nearly 13 000 staff members.

Look out for a possible merger between 3Com and Juniper Networks.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Bernard Ebbers, founder and ex-CEO of WorldCom, was given a 25-year sentence for his part in the $11 billion accounting fraud.
* Cesar Alierta, executive chairman of Telefonica, was charged with insider trading re his previous company.
* Qwest`s ex-CFO, Robin Szeliga, pleaded guilty to insider trading.
* The name changes of Nisco Solutions to Razorsight and palmOne to Palm.
* The appointments of Patrick Lavelle as president and CEO of Audiovox and Edward Spoerr as CEO of Mobilcom.
* The resignations of Thorsten Grenz as CEO of Mobilcom and Carl Yankowski as chairman and CEO of Majesco Entertainment.
* Analyst upgrades for Altiris, Anadigics, Cognos, GSI Commerce, i2 Technologies, IBM, ISSI, MDC Holdings, Micro Technology, Pixar, Pixelworks, Polycom, RF Micro Devices, Seagate Technology, Symantec, Trident Microsystems, Visteon and Vodafone Group.
* Analyst downgrades for Alltel, Avid Technology, BEI Technologies, BMC Software, Cablevision Systems, Cisco, Earthlink, First Data, Identix, Infocrossing, Network Equipment Technologies, Open Text, Photon Dynamics, SI International, Western Digital and Western Wireless.
* Positive results announcements from Itron, Komag, Morse, NCR, Perficient, ServicePower, SurfControl, Talx and Tietoenator.
* Negative result warnings from Acxiom, Avid Technology, Brooks Automation, Ceradyne, DreamWorks, Entrust, Identix, Infocrossing, IXYS, Macrovision, Majesco Entertainment, Motive, STATS ChipPAC, Symbol Technologies, Trend Micro and Virage Logic.
* Job loss announcements from ING Groep NV and Teradyne.
* A stock offering announcement by LG Electronics.
* Planned IPOs from Baldu.com, a Chinese Internet search engine; and Paetec Communications, a vendor of telecommunications services.

* A possible merger between 3Com and Juniper Networks.
* The fate of Acxiom, the software and data-services provider, as its largest shareholder and a venture capital company battle for control.
* The winner of the auction for control of Auna, the Spanish telecommunications group.

* JSE All share index: Up 1.8% (highest weekend close ever)
* Nasdaq: Up 2.1% (highest close for 2005)
* Top SA share movements: Beget Holdings (+40%), CompuClearing (+57.1%), Connection Group (+18.2%), DataPro (+20.8%), Eureka (+68.4%), Faritec (+14.8%), GijimaAST (+11.5%), Metrofile (+33.3%) MTN (+13.4%) and Stella Vista (-52.6%)
* Top international share movements: Applied Imaging (-27%), Bede (-37.9%), BITS Corp (+76.9%), Com21 (+100%), Enherent (-27.5%), Mobile Telesystems OJSC ADS (+43.2%), Morse (+25.5%), Scan-Optics (-70.8%), SONICblue (+33.3%) and Warthog (+40%)

BusinessWeek has published its latest European BusinessWeek Fifty together with the S&P Europe 350. The highest technology ranking is Bouygues, a conglomerate that includes France`s number three mobile phone operator, at number 33. Other top rankings include TIM (Italy) at 46, TeliaSonera (Sweden) at 47, Deutsche Telekom at 56, Telefonica at 57, TDC (Denmark) at 64, O2 at 86, SAP at 90, the only IT company in the top 100, and BT Group at 95.