Last week: Ngcaba resignation

The temporary suspension of Orange`s shares and the reorganisation of IBM`s software operation dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications last week.

Comcast looks like it has concluded a deal under which it will unload up to 100 million shares of Liberty Media that it owns, raising nearly $900 million.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

At home, the resignation of Andile Ngcaba, cabinet approval of the draft Telecommunications Convergence Bill and MTN`s half-year results stole much of the local ICT headline space.

* we saw very good interim numbers from MTN (revenue well up and earnings more than double); and

* an interim loss by Edutech (although revenue up).

Other local news included:

* Vodacom launched its Mozambique operation;

* Cape Town-based Bridge-PT opened offices in France and Italy;

* Keops Altech changed its name to Altech Infomatics;

* the resignation of Andile Ngcaba, director-general of the Department of Communications; and

* FileNet intends to open a South African office in early 2004.

New local distributorships included that of ScanSoft by Square One Solutions.

* IBM announced that it is to reorganise its software business into 12 vertical industry segments;

* the suspension of Orange`s shares in London and Paris, after a shareholder action group blocked France Telecom`s buy-out offer to minority shareholders in Orange (normal trading was resumed by the end of the week);

* KPN NV and Swisscom AG sold off their stake in Cesky Telecom SA for about EUR680 million; and

* the resolution of Immarsat`s fate in favour of the buy-out offer from Grapeclose, a company formed by Apax Partners Worldwide LLP and Permira Advisers.

A new international strategic partnership was announced between NEC and Juniper Networks.

Additionally, look out for the buyer of SchlumbergerSema`s disaster recovery division, part of the company that was not included in the Atos Origin acquisition; and the possible freeze on the merger of ISoft and Torex.

Other international news included:

* the appointments of Richard Baldridge as president of ViaSat, Stephanie DiMarco as CEO of Advent Software, William Hannigan as chairman of AT&T, Leslie Hughes as CEO of ImageState, Thomas Jackson as president and CEO of Exavio, Raul Pupo as CEO of Datatec Systems, Edouard Stern as chairman of Delta, Klass Wagenaar as chairman and CEO of Getronics NV and Arthur Wang as CEO of GigaMedia;

* the resignations of Betsy Bernard as chairman of AT&T, Isaac Gaon as chairman and CEO of Datatec Systems, Mike Gulett as CEO of ARC International and Axel Ruckert as chairman and CEO of Getronics NV;

* the retirement of Tim Buckley as COO of RedHat; and

* job loss announcements from 3M, Corning (following the closure of two plants), Gartner, Merant, ON Semiconductor (plant closure) and Xerox.

We saw excellent* figures from Tundra Semiconductor (back in the black); and very good* numbers from Clarity Commerce Solutions (back in the black), Telecom Plus and Ulticom (back in the black).

Good figures* were recorded by National Semiconductor, OMG (back in the black), Plato Learning and Verint Systems; and satisfactory* ones by ADE (back in the black), Merant (back in the black), Methode Electronics, Sage and Synopsys (back in the black).

Mediocre* returns came from ADC Telecom (but back in the black), American Software, Geac, PPOL, Vivendi Universal SA (but back in the black), Xansa and XETA Technologies; while very poor results* came from Sierra Systems group.

Losses* came from Cirmaker Technology, Comverse Technology, Crossroads Systems, Descartes, Eltek, Finisar, Forgent Networks, McData, Opsware, OTI, Peerless Systems, Plasmon, SCB Computer Technology, SkillSoft, Stratos International and Versata.

Other financial news included analyst upgrades for Cisco, Flextronics, Network Associates, Oracle, Symbol Technologies and Terayon Comms; analyst downgrades for Adobe, Maxtor and TiVo; a share offering from Brooks Automation; share buy-back announcements from Hellenic Telecomms, Pegasus Solutions and Synopsys; an employee stock option exchange programme from Interactive Intelligence; positive results/profit warnings from Chartered Semiconductor (although a loss still predicted), Fairchild Semiconductor, Microgen, Network Associates and Qualcomm; negative results/profit warnings (often veiled) from Corning, Gartner, Intel, LG Electronics, Peerless Systems, Pegasus Solutions, Philips Electronics, Vastera and Warthog; share split announcements from California Software (reverse 1 for10), Lucent (reverse) and Robotic Vision Systems (reverse 1 for 5); a rights issue from Micronas; and a bond issue announcement from Sony.

Additionally, Comcast looks like it has concluded a deal under which it will unload up to 100 million shares of Liberty Media that it owns, raising nearly $900 million.

Locally

AdvTech (+5.7%)
Cycad (-33.3%)
Elexir (+100%)
IST (+5.6%)
MTN (+9.3%)
Reunert (+6.3%)
Sekunjalo (+17.2%)
Stella Vista (+66.7%)
Trematon (-8.9%)

Internationally

Applied Microsystems (-50%)
Auspex Systems (+848.7%)
Com21 (-50%)
DDi (-71.8%)
Leap Wireless International (+68.6%)
NCDI (-33.3%)
Peerless Systems (-30.4%)
Read-Rite (-60.5%)
SONICblue (-66.7%)
Warthog (-33.3%)

In terms of indices, Nasdaq was down 1.1% and the JSE up 0.6% for the week.

This is my last column for 2003, although a review of the year will be published next week. My weekly columns will recommence on Monday, 12 January and the first will include a round up of all the news from the holiday period. To all my readers, may I take this opportunity of wishing you a happy festive season and a prosperous 2004. Thank you for your support during 2003.

* NB

Guidelines for the categorisation of results are as follows and are always in comparison with the equivalent period for the previous year; pro forma numbers are ignored (the terminology may vary slightly from country to country).

* Excellent: Both revenue and net income growth is in excess of 50%.
* Very good: Both revenue and net income growth is in excess of 25%.
* Good: Both revenue and net income growth is in excess of 10%.
* Satisfactory: Revenue is within 10% of previous year and net income is up.
* Mediocre: Either revenue and/or net income is down.
* Very poor: Net income is less than 1% of revenue.