Juniper to buy Peribit, Redline

Last week was quiet both locally and internationally, with the latter dominated by the flood of quarterly results.

Juniper Networks is to spend $496 million to acquire Peribit Networks and Redline Networks, providers of WAN optimisation and application acceleration technologies, as part of a strategy of putting more application intelligence into the network. Peribit makes systems that speed up WAN application traffic by cutting protocol overhead, compressing and caching. Redline makes application acceleration appliances that handle TCP/IP connections, compress HTTP and speed up SSL processing at the data centre. Juniper will create a new Application Products Group to umbrella the acquisitions.

* A full-year loss from Bytes Technology Group, although revenue up a little over 10%.
* A positive trading update from Datatec.
* Xantium acquired Sifikile Procurement Services and Simeka Consulting.
* Telkom SA`s CEO, Sizwe Nxasana, will not renew his contract when it expires at the end of 2005.
* MIB Technology`s 6% investment in Malaysian technology solution provider, Nitcom.
* MTN opened an office in Iran.
* The JSE publicly censured Elexir following the company`s sell-off of one of its business units without first consulting its shareholders.

* Gateway Communications acquired Link Africa, a subsidiary of Celtel.
* Mauritius Telecom is to sell 1% (1.9 million) of its shares to employees.
* The signing of a partnership agreement between Internet Solutions and Orient Telecommunications Networks.
* The purchase of the first satellite by any African nation with Nigeria`s Chinese bid for a launch in 2007.
* Channel Data was appointed as Perebit distributor in sub-Saharan Africa.

Juniper will create a new Application Products Group to umbrella the acquisitions.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* The EEC`s possible imposition of daily fines on Microsoft, unless it complies with the anti-trust rulings that were imposed last year.

* Deloitte & Touche LLP settled some class litigation re Adelphia Communications: Arthur Anderson LLP re WorldCom and KPMG LLP re Xerox.

* Nortel Networks acquired PEC Solutions.

* The appointments of Paul Ciandrini as president of Plumtree Software, Dave Habiger as president and COO of Sonic Solutions, Bill Leighton as president and CEO of Avici Systems, Terry Lierman as chairman of Smartpaper Networks, Jo Major as chairman of Avanex, Perry Nolan as president and CEO of Xybernaut, Charles Swoboda as chairman of Cree, John Wyatt as COO and president of Cigital, Robert Young as president and CEO of Callidus Software, Marc Ginsberg, Harry Soyster and William Tuttle as co-chairmen of Xybernaut, and Steve Zhang as CEO and president of AsiaInfo.

* The resignations of Paul Gudonis as president and CEO of Centra Software, Christopher Paisley as chairman of Silicon Image, and Xingsheng Zhang as CEO and president of AsiaInfo.

* Analyst upgrades for Adaptec, Alcatel, Alliance Imaging, Apple, Altera, Business Objects, California Micro Devices, Cascade Microtech, Ciena, Cirrus Logic, Cogent Communications, First Data, Gartner, Genesis Microchip, Identix, Infineon Technologies AG, Integrated Circuit Systems, Intersil, Ixia, Juniper Networks, Komag, Kronos, Kyocera, LSI Logic, Micron Technology, MicroStrategy, Netflix, Netgear, Network Appliance, OSI Systems, Pixelworks, RSA Security, SigmaTel, Telmex and Zoran.

* Analyst downgrades for ACS, Alaska Communications, Altiris, Ask Jeeves, ASMI International, Bisys Group, Brocade Communications, Flextronics, GTSI, Hyperion Solutions, InfoSpace, Lexmark, NetEase, Packeteer, PEC Solutions, Plantronics, SI International, Silicon Image, Silicon Labs and Sony.

* Positive results announcements from Sharp.

* Negative result warnings from OSI Systems, Siemens and TeliaSonera.

* Stock repurchase announcements from CDW, DiamondCluster International, Ebix, Hifn, IBM, Matsushita Electric and Open Solutions.

* Job loss announcements from Solectron and Xybernaut.

* Private funding obtained for Arena Solutions, a provider of lifecycle management software; Egenera, a blade server company; Path 1 Network Technologies, a producer of video transport products; and Website Pros, an ASP.

* A share split announcement from Agere Systems (reverse 10:1).

* Planned IPOs on London`s AIM by Hamsard Group, an IT software and services vendor, and Red-M Group, a wireless security and management provider.

* A planned IPO on Nasdaq by Paetec, a provider of network services to large and medium businesses.

* A planned IPO on the NYSE by New Skies Satellites Holdings.

* IPO filings from Website Pros, a Web site design and e-commerce company.

* A good IPO in Bombay by 3i Infotech, an IT software and services company.

* A buyer for Auna, the Spanish telecommunications group.

* The final outcome of the battle between Qwest Communications and Verizon Communications for control of MCI.

* The resolution of the debt issue that is casting doubts on the SunGard Data Systems leveraged buyout by a US consortium for $11.3 billion.

* The possible privatisation of Sun Microsystems.

* The worldwide storage management software industry grew 12% in 2004 to $5.6 billion in new licence revenue, says Gartner.

* The consumer semiconductor market is set to double between 2004 and 2009, reaching almost $30 billion by that date, says IDC.

* JSE All share index: Down 1.5%
* Nasdaq: Down 0.05%
* Top SA share movements: DataPro (-20%), Elexir (-50%), Gijima AST (+11.1%), Metrofile (+15.4%) and Zaptronix (-13.3%).
* Top international share movements: AXS-One (-30.4%), Baldwin Technology (+29.4%), DA Consulting Group (+100%), Gresham Computing (-27.9%), iTouch (+25.5%), Marconi (-48.1%), NetB2B (+40.4%), Peerless Systems (+25.8%), Ultimate Electronics (-32.4%) and Wavecom (+39.8%).

The latest Fortune 1000 listings show Google at number 541 after its superb IPO debut last year and InVision Technologies topping the 100 fastest growing companies list.