International companies plan IPOs

The ICT world was quiet last week. The international scene saw a handful of small acquisitions, including ones from Cognizant Technology Solutions and IBM, but more importantly, some IPOs and planned IPOs. At home, it was the reshuffling of Business Connexion's assets that constituted the main ICT news.

* An interim loss from Stella Vista Technologies, with revenue also down 35%.
* A full-year loss from Labat Africa, with revenue also down 35%.
* A mixed trading update from Naspers.
* A negative trading update from TCS.
* Business Connexion is to sell its Nanoteq unit and its two data centres to another subsidiary within the group.
* iTouch South Africa changed its name to Buongiorno SA, following the latter's parent company taking over iTouch worldwide. Buongiorno is the worldwide leader in mobile entertainment.
* Michael Freestone was appointed CEO of Zaptronix.

* Mixed year-end figures from Mauritius Telecom, with revenue up 4.4% but profit down 23.8%.
* Tunisie Telecom acquired TopNet, a provider of Internet access and a broadband Internet network in Tunisia.
* Kyle Whitehill was appointed CEO of Vodafone Ghana.
* David Venn resigned as CEO of Vodafone Ghana.

Look out for further moves by MTN regarding its desired expansion into Africa.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Broadcom purchased UK-based Innovision Research & Technology, a data communications technology company, for $47.5 million.
* Capgemini bought Strategic Systems Solutions, a provider of IT and BPO services.
* Cognizant Technology Solutions acquired France-based Galileo Performance, an IT testing consultancy.
* Criterion Capital bought AOL's social networking site, Bebo, for $850 million.
* IBM acquired Coremetrics, a provider of Web analytics software.
* Ingram Micro purchased Spain-based Albora Soluciones, a global wholesaler of technology products and supply chain management services.
* NTT Data acquired Intelligroup, an IT services company, for $199 million.
* Fujitsu and Toshiba's mobile phone divisions merged.
* Qualcomm is facing a new EU inquiry regarding possible anti-competitive behaviour in Europe.
* Jason Hirschhorn resigned as company president of MySpace.
* Planned IPOs on the NYSE from Fabrinet, a maker of components for optical communications systems (founded by David Mitchell, the co-founder of Seagate Technology); Inphi, a fabless semiconductor business that supplies chips to many of the big players such as Cisco, Dell HP, IBM and Samsung; and MagnaChip Semiconductor, a Korean chipmaker.

* A satisfactory IPO by BroadSoft, an Internet communications company.

* International:
* An investment by Qualcomm in an Indian telecommunications company.
* The sale of Infineon's wireless business.
* The sale of Reliance Communications' fibre-optic cables and telecommunications tower business to Reliance Industries.
* Africa:
* Further developments regarding Nitel, now that the report commissioned by the president has been completed.
* South Africa:
* Further moves by MTN regarding its desired expansion into Africa.

* Worldwide PC shipments are expected to be up 19.8% this year to 354.8 million shipments, according to IDC.
* The worldwide supply chain market contracted 0.7% in 2009 to $6.2 billion, according to Gartner.

* JSE All share index: Up 3.4%
* Nasdaq: Up 3%
* Top SA share movements: AdaptIT (+13.6%), African Cellular Towers (-16.7%), Ansys (-30%), Cape Empowerment (-16%), Mustek (+13%), Net 1 UEPS (+10%), Poynting Antennas (+31.3%), Simeka (-11.1%) and Zaptronix (-50%)

Bloomberg BusinessWeek has just published its ranking of winning stocks in the S&P 500 index. From a technology perspective, Apple came in at number four; salesforce.com at number five; PMC Technologies at eight; Google at 16; Western Digital at 18 and Red Hat at 22. Also in the top 50 (in alphabetical order) were Amphenol, BMC Software, Cognizant Technology Solutions, HP and Nvidia.