IT pace accelerates

The international ICT market has again been active, with numerous small acquisitions by some of the big players such as Adobe, AOL, CA, EMC and VeriSign. However, the local market is still quiet.

* Bain Capital`s $3 billion take-over of TI`s Sensors & Controls business.
* Lottomatica SpA`s buy-out of Gtech Holdings for $4.8 billion.

* Positive trading updates from ISA and Prism.
* The appointments of Oyama Mabandla as chairman of Vodacom, Gary Naidoo as deputy MD of Sahara Group, and JA van Tonder as chairman of Vesta Technology.
* Vodacom announced it is looking for a black empowerment partner.

* Plans for the establishment of a computer assembling factory in Gambia.
* A share split (2:1) from Orascom Telecom Holding SAE.
* The secretariat of The Free Software and Open Source Foundation`s planned move to SA from Kenya.

Over the holiday period, BusinessWeek issued its Global 1 200 Listing, which is calculated by market value.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* The appointments of Robert Bartlett as president and COO of J&B Software, Mark Geene as CEO of InfoNow, Gene Hodges as president and CEO of Websense, Tony Holcombe as president and COO of Syniverse, Jackson Hu as chairman of UMC, Sal Iannuzzi as president and CEO of Symbol Technologies, Patinda Lei as CEO of Nam Tai Electronics, Teck Moh Phey as president and CEO of Pacific Internet, William Soward as CEO of Adaptive Planning, Alexander Tokman as president and CEO of Microvision, and Joe Wright as chairman of Intelsat (after PanAmSat transaction closes).
* The resignations of Craig Brennan as CEO of Tumbleweed Communications, John Carrington as CEO of Websense (remains as chairman), Gene Hodges as president of McAfee, and Richard Rutkowski as CEO of Microvision.

* The retirement of Bruce Claflin as CEO of 3Com.
* The death of Dick Tilanus, CEO of Punch Graphix.
* Analyst upgrades for Apple, AT&T, Broadcom, Charter Communications, Cirrus Logic, Cisco, DiamondCluster International, EDS, Emulex, Entrust, Essex, Hitachi, HP, K2, Mercury Interactive, NMS Communications, On Semiconductor, Quest Software, Qwest Communications, Rambus, Symantec, Synaptics, Tektronix, Telecom Italia, Teledyne Technologies, TiVo, Verizon Communications, Western Digital and Zoran.
* Analyst downgrades for Amazon.com, Anteon, Bell Microproducts, BellSouth, BISYS Group, CACI International, CheckFree, CSC, Cymer, Ericsson, Fiserv, France Telecom, Gtech Holdings, IBM, Informatica, InterVoice, Jabil Circuit, Juniper Networks, KLA-Tencor, Lockheed Martin, LTX, Nextel Partners, Nokia, Novellus Systems, Plexus, Research in Motion, salesforce.com, SanDisk, SI International, Sun Microsystems, Swisscom, Symyx, Telefonica, Tumbleweed Communications, Varian Semiconductor, Veritas Software and Yahoo.
* Positive results announcements from Cray, Oplink, Overland Storage, Planar Systems, Rogers, SAP, ServicePower, Sopheon and Systems Union.

* Negative result warnings from Cognex, Compuware, Elpida, France Telecom, JDA Software, Lucent Technologies, Pervasive Software, Superscape and TeleTech Holdings.
* Private funding obtained for ANTS Software, a database management start-up; Aptela, a hosted VOIP telephony provider; BTI Photonic Systems, a supplier of optical networking solutions; Encirq, a developer of data management software for embedded systems; Intechra Holding, an IT hardware disposal company; QuIC, a provider of risk management and financial analytics software; Razorsight, a financial management software start-up; SilverStorm Technologies, an interconnect solutions start-up; and Softek Storage Solutions, a data replication and migration software company.
* Planned IPOs from Mobile Streams, a provider of entertainment content for mobile phones; Smart Modular Tech; Softek Storage Solutions and Techwell, a video chipset developer.
* Three-Five Systems filed a bankruptcy plan.

* JSE All share index: Up 0.8% (highest weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Up 0.05% (highest weekend close this decade)
* Top SA share movements: Beget Holdings (-12.5%), Dynamic Cables (-10%), GijimaAST (+11.7%), ISA (+9.1%), Labat Africa (-12.5%), Metrofile (+15.8%), Prism (+29.4%) and Stella Vista (+30.8%).
* Top international share movements: BITS (+45.2%), Conexant Communications (+25.7%), DDD Group (+52.1%), Epicus Communications (-45.5%), Pixology (+36.6%), Planar Systems (+33.7%), Rambus (+49.3%), SONICblue (+33.3%), Superscape (-30.9%), Vitesse Media (+45.7%).

Over the holiday period, BusinessWeek issued its Global 1 200 Listing, which is calculated by market value. From a technology perspective, the leaders are Microsoft at number three, Intel at 15 (was 13), Vodafone Group at 18 (11), IBM at 21 (14), Cisco at 28 (21), Samsung Electronics at 32 (48), AT&T at 35 (40), China Mobile at 36 (60), Verizon Communications at 41 (25), HP at 44 (70), Nokia at 48 (42), and Telefonica at 50 (38).

Dimension Data was rated at 1 182 (1 184) but MTN and Telkom SA were missing from the list as SA was not examined. The companies would be at approximately 428 and 582 respectively.