IBM moves procurement to China

The international ICT world last week included several acquisitions involving some of the larger players in the industry, such as Google, Hitachi, Microsoft and Oracle, and the shock announcement from IBM of the move of its procurement division to China.

However, locally, the ICT market was very quiet.

* IBM will move the global headquarters of its procurement arm to Shenzhen in China. Currently, 30% of IBM`s $40 billion procurement budget is spent in the Asian-Pacific region, half of which is in China.

* Good interim numbers from Altron, with revenue up 20% and profit up nearly 40%.
* Lefatshe Technologies, a security solutions provider, bought RT Systems, an environmental monitoring specialist.
* Beget acquired black-owned Seagicom, a supplier of biometric devices.
* The JSE approved the transfer of the listing of Synergy to AltX as from late November.

According to Gartner, 80% of money spent on IT is "dead money".

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* UK`s Carphone Warehouse bought AOL`s Internet business interests in the UK for lb370 million.
* Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion. YouTube is the leader in the online video viewing market.
* Oracle snapped up Sunopsis, a provider of heterogeneous data integration products.
* Hitachi purchased a controlling stake in Clarion, a maker of automotive audio and navigation systems.
* Microsoft acquired Colloquis, a provider of conversational online business solutions.
* The re-alignment of Siemens Business Services and its IT services and software activities into a single unit, Siemens IT Solutions and Services.
* The name change of PalmSource to Access.
* AirNet Communications emerged from Chapter 11.
* The appointments of Neil Ash as CEO of CNET Networks, Robert Bennett as chairman of Sprint Nextel, Steven Dalrymple as CEO of USRobotics, Dale Fuller as interim CEO of McAfee, Kathryn Marinello as president and CEO of Ceridian, Jarl Mohn as chairman of CNET Networks and Paul Tobin as acting president and CEO.
* The resignations of Shelby Bonnie, co-founder, chairman and CEO of CNET Networks, Timothy Huff, CEO of GlobeTel, and EY Snowden, president and CEO of Boston Communications Group.
* The retirements of Tim Donahue, chairman of Sprint Nextel, and George Samenuk, CEO of McAfee.
* The death of Ray Noorda, founder of Novell.
* The dismissal of Kevin Weiss, president of McAfee.
* Job loss announcements from IBM and Sun Microsystems.
* Good IPOs from Acme Packet, a provider of secure and interactive communications across IP network borders; eHealth, an online insurance broker; and SAIC, a research and engineering firm.
* An IPO on London`s AIM by Teleset Networks, a fixed-line telecommunications operator based in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan.

* The possible purchase by private equity groups of H-3C, the joint venture between 3Com and Huawei Technologies.

* According to Gartner, 80% of money spent on IT is "dead money", ie, it is not contributing to business growth or the enhancement of a company`s competitive edge.
* According to Gartner, 50% of C-level executives will perform 80% of their work on a non-company-standard PC through 2008. This is likely to increase security risks for companies.

* JSE All share index: Up 1.5% (highest ever weekend close).
* Nasdaq: Up 2.5% (back above the levels extant at the beginning of the year).
* Top SA share movements: Altron (+11.2%), Beget Holdings (+25%), DataPro (+11.1%), GijimaAst (+10.9%), I-Solutions (-13%), Integrear (-13%), ISA (-10%), MicroMega (-15.6%) and Zaptronix (+12%).
* Top international share movements: Amkor Technology (+43.8%), AXS-One (-27.9%), Eagle Broadband (+22.2%), Forgent Networks (+40.2%), Monolithic Power Systems (+29.6%), Saifun Semiconductor (-27.1%), SigmaTel (+21.6%), Sitel (+23.8%), Silicon Graphics (+43.5%) and Vitesse Semiconductor (+20.4%).

The latest Fortune magazine has its "50 Most Powerful Women" listing. From an ICT perspective, the top women are Patricia Russo, chairman and CEO of Alcatel Lucent at number one; Mary Ma, CFO of Lenovo (10); Barbara Kux, chief procurement officer at Royal Philips Electronics (21); Theresa Gattung, CEO of Telecom New Zealand (23); and Sun Yafang, chairman of Huawei Technologies (25).