Japan`s Access snaps up PalmSource

The international scene was very quiet except for the acquisition of PalmSource and the HP jobs cuts in Europe. At home, the raft of financial results stole much of the local ICT headline space.

* PalmSource was acquired by Japan`s Access, a mobile software developer, in a $324.3 million deal. Access sells the NetFront Internet browser for mobile devices and consumer-electronics products, including digital TVs and Internet-linking functions in cars, called telematics. PalmSource`s operating system powers more than 39 million mobile devices, including Palm handheld computers and mobile phones. PalmSource has been an independent software company for less than two years, having been spun off in October 2003 from Palm, which makes Treo Smartphones, Tungsten handhelds and other devices.

* Excellent annual numbers from VenFin with revenue more than double and net profit up more than 150%.
* Very good year-end numbers from Digicore with revenue up over 25% and earnings up over 65%.
* Very good year-end figuresfrom Pinnacle with revenue up nearly 50% and profit up over 50%.
* Mixed numbers from some of VenFin`s technology investments with GenuOne still in the red and Psitek producing mediocre figures, while Tracker showed an excellent performance.
* Very poor interim results from Square One with revenue up over 50% but only just back in the black.
* The JSE`s formal notification to Elexir, Eureka and Labat Africa re the late submission of their annual reports, which could lead to the suspension of their listing on the JSE if the situation is not rectified by month-end.
* Positive trading updates from BTG, Cape Empowerment Trust and Interconnective Solutions.
* A negative trading update from Datacentrix.
* The de-suspension of the shares of Dynamic Cables.
* Arch Equity acquired 30% of Orion Telecom.
* The merger of African Legend Indigo and African Legend Solutions under the African Legend Technologies brand and headed-up by Michael Jacobus.
* A statement from the Independent Communications Authority of SA saying it is in the process of issuing a licence to the second national operator.
* The formal resignation of Sizwe Nxasana as CEO of Telkom SA.
* The appointments of CentraVoice as the distributor for the Philips OPHO IPK system in SA and TVR Computers as the distributor for Albatron.

* The appointment of i-Security as the southern African distributor for Tumbleweed Communications.
* UUNet SA announced MCI`s investment in the local infrastructure and forecasts that an empowerment deal will be forthcoming soon. A new country manager is expected to be named soon and the company is seeking partners for other neighbouring states, excluding Botswana, Namibia and Zambia.
* Retrenchments at Namibia Telecom.

UUNet SA announced MCI`s investment in the local infrastructure and forecasts that an empowerment deal will be forthcoming soon.

Paul Booth, MD

* Japan cut its stake in NTT to 33.7%.
* The appointments of Dave Dougherty as president and COO of Convergys, Lothar Pauly as CEO of T-Systems International GmbH, and Steven Shaw as co-CEO of Volt Information Sciences.
* The resignation of Kathy Vrabeck as president of Activision.
* Analyst upgrades for Arrow Electronics, Avid Technology, Business Objects, CheckFree, Cisco, Dell, EFI, Ericsson, F5 Networks, Harte-Hanks Communications, HP, Internet Security Systems, Macrovision, Novell, Open Text, Palm, Quest Software, Red Hat, RightNow Technologies, Tibco Software, Unova and Ulticom.
* Analyst downgrades for Adtran, Amdocs, BCE, Exar, Intellisync, PalmSource, SiRF Technology, Synplicity, Take-Two Interactive Software, THQ, Ultimate Software, Verint Systems and Vyyo.
* Positive results announcements from EFI and Texas Instruments.
* Negative result warnings from Chartered Semiconductor, ComputerLand, Maxtor, Micro Focus International, Newport Networks, Telstra and TTP Communications.
* A stock repurchase announcement from National Semiconductor.
* A job loss announcement from HP (6 000 in Europe).
* Private funding obtained for Akoya, a business intelligence software provider; CollabNet, a collaborative software development provider; Enterprise DB, an open source database developer; LeftHand Networks, a storage systems company; Quellan, an analogue processing semiconductor developer; and Vendavo, a deal management software maker.
* Planned IPOs from Eutelsat Communications, a pan-European satellite operator; I-Mate, a smartphone company; NCI, a provider of IT services and solutions; and India-based network integrator, Tulip IT Services.

* eBay`s possible acquisition of Skype Technologies.

* JSE All share index: Up 0.8% (highest ever weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Up 1.6%
* Top SA share movements: Alliance Data (+22.2%), Beget Holdings (+25%), Cape Empowerment Trust (+21.6%), CompuClearing (-13%), Datacentrix (-14.1%), Eureka (+12.5%), Idion (-11.8%), Labat Africa (-10%), Metrofile (-17.6%) and Pinnacle (+18.5%)
* Top international share movements: Atlantic Global (-25.5%), DA Consulting Group (+50%), Eicom (+40%), Enherent (+23.5%), Entrada Networks (+25%), Intelligent Environments (+27.8%), Micro Focus (-34.9%), NCDI (-25%), PalmSource (+68%) and Scan-Optics (+98%)

Fortune Magazine has published its latest Hot 100 listing. It makes interesting reading, with Yahoo at number one. Other well-known technology names are SanDisk at eight, eBay at 35, Packeteer at 60, Symantec at 65, and Websense at 81.

I am in the UK this week so my next column will be published on 26 September.