IBM solidifies the cloud

The international ICT world was very quiet last week, despite quarterly results from several organisations. At home, the withdrawal of Ingram Micro from Africa was one of the highlights.

* Good Q3 numbers from Net 1 UEPS Technologies in US dollar-terms, although flat figures in SA rand terms.
* Mediocre year-end figures from Altron, with revenue down 10% and profit down 27%.
* Positive trading updates from Huge, ISA and UCS.
* Negative trading updates from Ansys and Datatec.
* MB Technologies acquired Ingram Micro's 50% stake in its joint venture with the company, in a move that will include a rebranding to Platinum Micro.
* Angus MacRobert (ex-CEO of Internet Solutions) invested in Axxess DSL, one of the four largest independent ISPs in South Africa.
* Ingram Micro is withdrawing from Africa.
* The Competitions Commission is investigating possible collusion by cable manufacturers.

* Gaith Kadir was appointed AMD's head of its Middle East, Turkey and Africa region.

* ABB purchased Ventyx, a software maker that provides software technology to electricity grid operators, for over $1 billion. This was a purchase from Vista Equity Partners, a US-based private equity company.
* Sophos, UK-based anti-virus software developer, has been acquired by Apax Partners, a major private equity company.
* Google bought Canada-based BumpTop, a 3D desktop operator.
* IBM acquired Cast Iron Systems in a move intended to bolster its cloud computing capability.
* Opera Software, the world's largest mobile browser company, purchased Australian Web-based e-mail provider FastMail.
* VMware (SpringSource) bought GemStone Systems Data Management Technology, a provider of data management solutions.
* Apple is to close down Lala.com at the end of this month, prompting speculation that the former might launch a new Web-based version of iTunes. Apple acquired Lala.com last December.
* Excellent quarterly results from CenturyTel.
* Very good quarterly figures from Arrow Electronics, Cognizant Technology Solutions and Plantronics (back in the black).
* Satisfactory quarterly results from BCE, BMC Software, Cablevision Systems and Symantec (back in the black).
* Mediocre quarterly results from Garmin, Pitney Bowes and Qwest Communications.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Gartner, with revenue up but profit down.
* Mixed half-year figures from Sage (UK), with revenue down but profit up.
* Quarterly losses from ADC Telecoms, Alcatel-Lucent, Alvarion, NetSuite, Sanyo, SGI and Sykes Enterprises.
* Michael Capellas (ex-Compaq CEO) was appointed CEO of the Acadia Cisco-EMC joint venture, which also has investment from Intel and VMware.
* Arthur Weinbach was named chairman of CA.

The Competitions Commission is investigating possible collusion by cable manufacturers.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* International:
* Several announcements from EMC during its EMC World event, happening this week.
* Africa:
* Further developments regarding MTN/Orascom, especially in light of the Algerian situation, which doesn't look good for MTN. In addition, any MTN stake in Telecel (Zimbabwe) would be limited to 40%.
* South Africa:
* The sell-out by Vodacom of its shares in iBurst.
* Further developments in the Square One saga, which now includes a legal squabble with Domino Printing (UK).

* Global semiconductor sales in March grew by 58% compared to March 2009, reports the Semiconductor Industry Association.
* Worldwide IT services revenue declined 5.3% in 2009 to $763 billion, according to Gartner.
* The worldwide semiconductor market declined 9% in 2009 to $225 billion, according to IDC.
* The worldwide mobile phone market grew nearly 22% in Q110 to 294.4 million units, reports IDC.

* JSE All share index: Down 5.7%
* Nasdaq: Down 7.9%

Fortune magazine has just published its '500' listing of America's largest corporations. From a technology perspective, the most interesting movements are as follows:

* New entries for CA at number 482, CenturyTel at number 423, Electronic Arts at 494 and NII Holdings at 468.
* Significant upwards movements include Affiliated Computer Services at 341 (was 401 and now acquired by Dell), Charter Communications at 332 (was 385), Corning at 391 (was 414), Symantec at 353 (was 419) and Telephone & Data Systems at 416 (was 465).
* Significant downward movements include Applied Materials at 421 (was 315), Motorola at 110 (was 78) and Sanmina-SCA at 405 (was 292).

I am currently in the US, so my next column will appear on Monday, 24 May, but will cover the two-week intervening period.