IBM bags WebDialogs

The international ICT scene was extremely quiet last week, with only a handful of small acquisitions. The local ICT picture was dominated by various financial results, together with several trading updates.

* Good full-year figures from Business Connexion, with revenue and profit up over 10%.
* Satisfactory full-year numbers from CompuClearing, with revenue up 6% and profit up 8%.
* Very good interim figures from MICROmega, with revenue and profit both up about 48%.
* An interim loss from IFCA Technologies (maiden numbers).
* Positive trading updates from FoneWorx, GijimaAst and Mustek.
* A negative trading update from Metrofile.
* Simeka BSG acquired Premium Ideas, a company that personalises smart cards. The acquisition cost R135.2 million.
* Lejara Enterprise Solutions, a supplier of business intelligence services in Africa, invested in Bridge People and Technology, a supplier of e-learning software and solutions.
* A parliamentary committee announced the communications minister should have no role in the performance management of ICASA councillors.
* Kam Chetty was appointed MD of EDS SA. He was the CEO of the Cape Winelands municipal authority.
* Cortie Burton, MD of EDS SA, resigned.

Worldwide mobile phone sales reached 270.9 million in Q207, up 17.4% over last year, according to Gartner.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Orascom Telecom announced it would not make a revised bid for Raya, an Egyptian communications and technology company.
* Cuthbert Chidoori, DG of Zimbabwe's Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, resigned.
* Nigeria's Netcom Africa purchased Nigeria's Accelon Africa, a rival ISP.
* Celtel acquired 80% of Ghana's Westel, the country's second national fixed-line operator, for $125 million.
* A full-year loss by Sotelma (Mali).

* BT Group purchased Basilica Computing, a UK IT services provider focused on small businesses, a space BT is trying to penetrate.
* Infineon Technologies bought LSI's mobility product group for $500 million. This unit was part of Agere, which it bought last December.
* IBM acquired WebDialogs, a Web conferencing company. The deal will bolster its Lotus Sametime collaboration platform.
* Good quarterly numbers from Hutchison Telecommunications, with revenue up 12% but profit significantly up on the back of its sale of its Indian mobile phone arm to Vodafone.
* Mediocre quarterly results from ACS, Brocade Communications (although revenue up over 50%) and QAD.
* Quarterly losses from TOM Group (revenue also down).
* Steve Burch, CEO of Virgin Media, and Michael Wang, CEO of Quanta Computer, resigned.

* The possible sell-off by Orascom Telecom (Egypt) of its Iraqi subsidiary, after its withdrawal from the race for a long-term cellphone licence in that country.

* The software as a service market is expected to grow to $5.1 billion this year, up 21% over 2006, and expected to reach $11.5 billion by 2011, says Gartner.
* IDC said worldwide server sales reached $13.1 billion in Q207, up 6.2% from Q206. Gartner announced similar figures. The market is still dominated by HP and IBM, which holds almost a 60% market share.
* Worldwide mobile phone sales reached 270.9 million in Q207, up 17.4% over last year, according to Gartner. The research firm predicts a total of 1.13 billion this year. Motorola kept its second place, but Samsung is closing in fast and now has a market share of 13.4% as compared to Motorola's 14.6%.

* JSE All share index: Up 5.5%
* Nasdaq: Up 2.9%
* Top SA share movements: Beget Holdings (+16.7%), Dialogue Holdings (+10.6%), Digicore (+9.6%), FoneWorx (+35.5%), IFCA Technologies (+9.1%), Paracon (+10.6%), Square One (-16.7%), TeleMasters (+11.4%) and Vestor (+27.4%)

Last week, the Sunday Times Business Times published its Top Brands survey. In the IT Brands-Business category, HP took number one slot from Microsoft, which slid down to number four. Two and three were occupied by Dell and Mecer/Mustek. Apple/Mac, LG and Samsung entered the top 10, while Intel, Pastel and SAP dropped out of the top 10.