Idion/DataMirror saga hots up

The continuing rumblings re the HP/Compaq merger and the rationalisations within the online brokerage market dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications last week.

[VIDEO]At home, the take-over of Andersen SA by KPMG and the latest in the Idion/DataMirror saga stole much of the local headline space.

• we saw excellent full-year numbers from IST (revenue and earnings significantly up);
• a full-year loss from Explorer (revenue also well down); and
• good interim numbers from EOH (increase in revenue and earnings).

[Local]

Other local news included:

• the announcement that NetCom Solutions is closing its doors and has been granted provisional liquidation;
• the formal launch of African Legend Technologies into the local market;
• the London Bridge Group`s announcement of the formal establishment of a local office headed by Dave Frisby;
• the Idion board`s rejection of the hostile bid by DataMirror;
• the signing of a collaboration deal between arivia.kom and an un-named Nigerian consortium;
• a restructuring at Spartan Computer Rentals; and
• the cancellation by AST of its acquisition of Australian-based Red Rock Consulting.
• Furthermore, Global Technology looks as if it might sell its stake in Swiss-based Temenos.

• we saw a reorganisation at EDS that re-aligns its three largest units;
• the spin-off by Norwegian ASP, TeleComputing ASA, of its application hosting business as a new company called Apptix ASA;
• Top Tier`s disposal of its Australian operations;
• the increased groundswell against Microsoft`s Licensing 6.0 program that is now due to be triggered on 1 August, some 15 months after the originally proposed date; and
• the uproar re Munich-based and Neuer-listed Comroad which may have overstated its revenues by a factor of nearly 100 times.

Global Technology looks as if it might sell its stake in Swiss-based Temenos.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

Look out for a deal by NTL to transfer ownership of the debt-laden cable powerhouse to its bondholders through a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Code filing, which would wipe out $11 billion of debt and rapidly conclude one of the largest-ever corporate workouts.

Also look out for the acquisition target for Direct Wireless Comms, which is seeking a telecom-based operating company; the "winners" in the race for control of Global Crossing; the formation of a full-service telecoms company by Bell Canada and Manitoba Telecom Services, called Bell West, to serve the West Canadian market; and the break-up of Hungary`s principal telecoms company, Magyar Tavkozlesi (Matav), with the hiving off of its wireless unit, Westel Rt.

International acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures etc (see attachment).

Other international news included:

• the appointments of Robert Ashe as president of Cognos, Claudia Bacco as president of TeleChoice, Mark Biestman as president and CEO of Seven, Michael Butcher as COO of Pacific Century CyberWorks, Nabeel Gareeb as chairman and CEO of MEMC Electronic Materials, Mark Hangen as president and CEO of Securify, Anders Igel as president and CEO of Telia AB and the new combined Telia-Sonera Group, Matt Perry as president and CEO of Transmeta, G Stuart Reeves as chairman of Tyler Technologies, John Stiska as chairman of JNI, and Matthew Szulik as chairman of Red Hat;
• the resignations of Douglas Atkin, president and CEO of Instinet, Barry Schuler, chairman and CEO of the AOL division of AOL Time Warner (taking up another position within the group), and Bob Young, chairman of Red Hat;
• the retirements of Klaus von Horde, CEO of MEMC Electronic Materials, and Eric Wenaas, chairman of JNI; and
• job loss announcements from British Telecom, EDS, Enterasys Networks, Ericsson, Lucent Technologies, Napster, Stellent and Vitria Technology.

We saw excellent figures from Echelon.

Good numbers were recorded by Creative Computer Applications (back in the black), Infosys Technologies, infoUSA, Network Associates, PentaSafe, Powerwave Technologies (back in the black), Seagate, Steria and Troy Group (back in the black-just); and satisfactory figures were posted by Cognos, First Data, Franklin Electric, Inet Technologies, Mercury Interactive and PanAmSat.

Mediocre returns came from Cass Information Systems, CellStar, Concord Comms (but back in the black), Elantec Semiconductor, Exponent, Mercury Interactive and Rambus; while very poor results came from Accenture.

Losses were reported by Avery Comms, BestNet Comms, Centra Software, Cree, DoubleClick, eXcelon, Harcourt Companies, I-Link, iMagicTV, Juniper Networks, Metron Technology, MIPS Technology, NMS Comms, Numerical Technologies, Optika, Redback Networks, Research in Motion, Robocom Systems International, Rogue Wave Software, RSA Security, SEMX, Sonus Networks, Storage Access, Telesoft, TMSSequoia and Yahoo.

Other financial news included share buy-back announcements from Kronos and Syncor; and profit warnings from Ascential Software, Borland Software, Citrix Systems, Computer Associates, Delphax Technologies, DoubleClick, eXcelon, Global Crossing, IBM, Kronos, Mentor Graphics, Mercator, Nortel Networks, Perkin-Elmer, PLX Technology, Research in Motion, Software AG, Stellent, Telefonica, ValiCert and Verizon Comms.

There were share split announcements from AT&T (reverse) and Microchip Technology. Additionally, software integrator Heyde AG and Ceyoniq AG have filed for insolvency; Flag Telecom has filed for Chapter 11 protection; however, Globix is expected to emerge from Chapter 11 later this month.

Locally

Elexir (+50%)
Explorer (+66.7%)
FrontRange (+47.1%)
Idion (+21.6%)
IST (+23.9%)
Mustek (+20.8%)
OneLogix (-21.9%)
OSI (-40%)
Pinnacle (+30%)
Zaptronix (+66.7%)

Internationally

Comdisco (-50%)
Elcom International (-26.7%)
Flag Telecom (-29.5%)
Focal Comms (+30.8%)
ILOG (-28.5%)
InterX (+28.6%)
NTLO (-32.8%)
OnSpan Networking (-37.5%)
Pegasus Comms (+38.4%)
Robocom Systems International (-49.9%)

Two new listing appeared last week. The first was the rankings of the 500 fastest growing companies named in the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu`s New European Technology Rankings, and the second, the well-established US Fortune 500 listings.

In the former, RiverDeep Group was number one followed by NordNet (TeleTrade) and Openshop AG. In the Fortune 500 listings, the top technology companies were IBM at number nine (was eighth), Verizon Comms at 11th (was 10th) and AT&T at 15 (was ninth).