Jail for Adelphia executives

The sentencing of the Adelphia Communications executives is the first of many likely over the next few weeks and will hopefully serve as a lesson for many others whose activities might be suspect. On the home front, it was a quiet week.

* EDS is to sell its AT Kearney consulting operation rather than have a management buyout by the division`s 300 partners. The Monitor Group has been cited as a possible buyer, but at a price below the $600 million EDS paid for it in 1995.

* A positive trading update from Pinnacle Holdings.

* The JSE`s potential suspension of the shares of Elexir and Labat Africa on 30 June if the relevant overdue financial reports are not forthcoming before the end of the month.

* Cell C gets the nod from ICASA re the disposal of 15% of its shares.

* Metrofile Holdings changed JSE sector. It is now in the support services - business support services rather than the IT sector.

* Persetel Q Data Africa Holdings becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Real Africa Holdings.

* Y3K changed its name to ISA Holdings.

* The retrenchment of Bheki Nkomo, CEO of UUNET SA, and the announcement of further job losses at the company.

* Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig slated the Convergence Bill.

* Jorge Borralho was appointed as the new head of Compuware SA.

* IT provider Terracom Communications has taken over the management of state-owned Rwandatel, in a deal worth $20 million. The deal gives Terracom 99% of Rwandatel`s shares.

* The Zambian government abandoned plans to privatise Zamtel.

* Vodafone has offered Kenya $100 million for a controlling stake (51%) in Safaricom, a company in which it already has 40% stake.

* MTN entered into agreements to acquire stakes in two mobile network operators in the Ivory Coast (51% in Loteny Telecom that trades under the name Telecel Cote d`Ivoire) and Zambia (100% in Telecel Zambia).

* Philippe Llorens was appointed as VP for Compuware`s Southern, Middle East and Africa region.

EDS is to sell its AT Kearney consulting operation rather than have a management buyout by the division`s 300 partners.

Paul Booth

* The sentencing of ex-Adelphia Communications executives for fraud. John Rigas (80), the original founder, received 15 years in prison and his son, Timothy, the ex-CFO, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

* The appointments of Jeffrey Graves as CEO of C&D Technologies, Gregory Maffei as president and CFO of Oracle, James Malone as CEO of Cenveo, Michael Neuman as president and COO of EchoStar Communications, Larry Timlick as president of Xten, and Carl Vogel as vice-chairman of EchoStar Communications.

* The resignations of Gregory Maffei as chairman and CEO of 360Networks, and Lars Marcher as president and COO of Dataram.

* Analyst upgrades for Cablevision Systems, Cognos, Ingram Micro, MicroStrategy, NTN Communications, Syntel and Tech Data.

* Analyst downgrades for Altiris, BT Group, CNET Networks, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Conexant Systems, Deutsche Telekom, DiamondCluster International, Gartner, Global Signal, HP, OmniVision Technologies, VeriSign and Viisage Technology.

* Negative result warnings from ATI Technologies, DiamondCluster International, Eastman Kodak and Merix.

* Private funding obtained for Elemental Security, a security software developer; HelloSoft, a creator of networking software; Softricity, an application virtualisation developer; and Teledvance Communications, a communications company.

* A private placing of stock by Ipix, an imaging technology company.

* A stock offering announcement by Photronics.

Planned IPOs on Nasdaq by e-Future Information Technology, a supply chain software vendor; and Silicon Motion Technology, a manufacturer of flash memory device controllers.

* The privatisation of Cablevision Systems following a proposal from the Dolan Family Group worth nearly $8 billion.

* LG Electronics selling off part of its stake in LG Philips LCD.

* The market for RFID software, hardware and services will reach $2.195 million in 2005, up 68% from 2004, according to Datamonitor.

This week`s column is shorter than normal as I flew to New York on Friday, prior to the information becoming available. Share movements/changes will be updated in my next column, which will appear on Monday, 11 July, and will include all relevant news from the intervening period.