IBM`s new focus

It was the fall on Nasdaq to the levels of last November that overshadowed the activities within the ICT market last week.

The next two weeks will see the release of bulk of the quarterly results. Judging by some of the ones last week, such as IBM`s, there will be some `interesting` surprises.

* Very good interim numbers from Connection Group, with both revenue and profit up over 35%.

* A full-year loss from Beget Holdings, although revenue up over 50%.

* A re-stated set of year-end numbers from Elexir that now show a loss for the period.

* A positive trading update from Paracon.

* The acquisition of the business of Foster Melliar by Xantium Technology.

* The appointments of Dawood Asmal as MD of SAMES; Lynda Odendaal as CEO of Network Support Services; and Hymie Pedro as CEO of Labat Africa.

* The appointment of Spescom DataFusion as the distributor for Jacada Fusion, an agent productivity solution.

* Shaun Liebenberg, resigned from the post of group CEO of Grintek to join Denel as CEO designate.

* The release of the 2005 edition of the Map of the IT and Telecoms Sector (MITTS), a joint research study of the ICT market by independent research houses World Wide Worx, Razor`s Edge Business Intelligence and Trigrammic.

* According to a recent UK study, the Nigerian cellular market growth is doubling annually and is now in excess of eight million subscribers.

* Tanzanian Telecommunications and the national operators of Burundi, Lesotho and Zambia are to join the East African Submarine Cable System project.

* The appointment of Planet Innovate as the Southern Africa distributor for the Intellisync Mobile Suite.

* A plan by AMD to spin-off its Spansion flash memory arm, which would then be the subject of an IPO in New York.

* The appointments of Penny Herscher as CEO and President of FirstRain; George Shaheen as CEO of Siebel Systems; Mike Shinya as CEO of Hyperwave AG; and Peter Zotto as CEO of Iona Technologies.

* The resignations of Chris Horn as CEO of Iona Technologies (stays on as vice-chairman); and Michael Lawrie, CEO of Siebel Systems.

* The death of Konrad Reiss, CEO of T-Systems.

* Analyst upgrades for AMD, Atheros Communications, BMC Software, Broadwing, Check Point Software Technologies, Cisco, MicroStrategy, STMicroelectronics, Telewest Global and TiVo.

* Analyst downgrades for 3Com, Apple, Artesyn Technologies, Avaya, BearingPoint, Carrier Access, Comverse Technology, Cymer, EMS Technologies, First Data, Foundry Networks, IBM, Informatica, Magnatek, Network Appliance, Storage Technology, SunGard Data Systems, Sun Microsystems and Western Digital.

* Positive results announcements from Hyperion Solutions and NCR.

* Negative result warnings from BMC Software, Computer Associates, Compuware, Foundry Networks, Infosys Technologies, JDA Software and Microsoft.

* Job loss announcements from BMC Software, IBM and Ingram Micro.

* Planned IPOs on Nasdaq from China Techfaith Wireless Communication Technology and HR software and services provider, Kenexa.

* A planned IPO on London`s AIM from Ki-Bi, a company that offers to sell content to mobile phone users

* A planned listing on the LSE by the end of June by Micro Focus. This will be the first LSE listing of a software company for four years.

* The acquisition of the Italian telecommunications group, Wind, by a consortium led by an Egyptian telecommunications executive.

With this focus [onservices], IBM is sure to tread on the toes of Accenture and other similar organisations.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* According to Insight research, the global market for operating support systems, the computing and software IT infrastructure that performs engineering, provisioning and management functions in telecommunications networks will exceed $30bn this year.

* The middleware market grew 5% last year to $6,7bn according to Gartner.

* Worldwide PC shipments up 10% in Q1 according to Gartner.

* JSE All share index: Down 1,8%

* Nasdaq: Down 4,6%

* Top SA share movements: Beget (11,1%), Cape Empowerment Trust (-12,5%), Elexir (-33,3%), Labat Africa (-8,9%), Sekunjalo (+7,4%), Stella Vista (-25%), Vesta (+87,5%), Y3K (-13,6%) and Zaptronix (+15,4%).

* Top international share movements: Invu (+50%), Merix (-27,4%), Network Computing Devices (-40%), PC Mall (-59,3%), Scan-Optics (+42,9%), SONICblue (-46,7%), Transmeta (-30%), Ultimate Electronics (-46,7%), VocalTec Communications (-28,6%) and Xpertise Group Plc (+40%).

IBM has been the focus of the media in recent days. Last week it announced disappointing quarterly financial results and job cuts in several countries, but was also the subject of the `Cover Story` of the latest issue of BusinessWeek. The article suggests that IBM`s new plan incorporates revamping customer`s operations and even running them as a new focus from a `services` perspective, outside of the normal computer and technology service activities. With this focus, IBM is sure to tread on the toes of Accenture and other similar organisations; so there could be some interesting times ahead.