Major players gobble up small firms

The last two weeks, from an ICT perspective, have been comparatively quiet, apart from the SAP/Oracle legal dispute, with several small international acquisitions from the major players and a handful of local results.

* Oracle sues SAP for "stealing" documents from its Web site.

* Excellent full-year figures from Control Instruments, with revenue up over 95% and profit more than double.
* Good interim numbers from EOH, with revenue and profit both up over 25%.
* Mixed nine-month figures from Celcom, with revenue significantly up but profit down.
* An excellent debut on AltX by TeleMasters, a least-cost routing supplier.
* Positive trading updates from Control Instruments, Datatec, MTN and Square One.
* A share issue by Alliance Data.
* Mustek bought the 34% share of Rectron it did not already own, for about R97 million.
* MTN invested in Spacetel, a Yemeni mobile phone company.
* @lantic Internet Services acquired MJVNET, a Bloemfontein-based ISP.
* Altech purchased Giesecke & Devrient's 11% stake in Altech NamITech.
* Metrofile Holdings bought African Waste Paper.
* The delay in the launch of SA's second satellite, Sumbandilasat, until mid-June.
* Mardia van der Walt-Korsten was appointed as CEO of T-Systems SA (was acting CEO).
* The appointment of Phoenix Software as distributor for Sony Creative Software and Rectron as distributor for LG Electronics.
* The imminent entry into SA of TeleTech, a call centre outsourcing company.
* Microsoft named local IT resellers involved with software piracy.

* Good year-end numbers from Maroc Telecom, with both revenue and profit up over 10%.
* Uganda awarded a fourth mobile licence to Hits Telecom.
* The appointments of Themba Khumalo as CEO of MTN Rwanda, Christopher Lundh as CEO of Terracom (Rwanda), and Tebogo Mogapi as CEO of MTN Swaziland.
* Telkom SA's 75% investment in Nigerian-based Multi-Links Telecommunications, a private telecommunications operator.

Look out for the possible buy-out of AMD, which has experienced a share price drop of over 60% in the past 12 months.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Cisco acquired WebEx Communications, a player in the Web conferencing market.
* HP purchased Tabblo, a developer of Web-based software that makes Web printing easier.
* Microsoft bought Tellme Networks, a company that makes voice technology.
* Oracle snapped up Tangosol, a provider of in-memory data grid software.
* Pitney Bowes acquired MapInfo, a location-based services company.
* Accenture purchased Digiplus SAS, a French provider of mobile content services.
* The death of John Backus, a founder of the Fortran programming language.
* A job loss announcement from Hitachi.
* A planned IPO from AuthenTec, a fingerprint authentication supplier.
* IPO filings from eTelecare Global Solutions, an offshore BPO provider, and McLeodUSA, a communications services provider.
* A good IPO by BigBand Networks, a provider of technology that allows companies to offer video, voice and data services across coaxial, and Glu Mobile, a publisher of games for mobile devices.
* An IPO on London's AIM by ZTC Telecommunications, a Chinese mobile telecommunications company.

* A private equity company and former founder, Darwin Deason, bought ACS for $6 billion.
* The possible buy-out of AMD, which has experienced a share price drop of over 60% in the past 12 months.
* The privatisation of Irish network services group Calyx Group via a management buyout.
* Acer's possible take-over of Gateway.

* 4Q06 worldwide external disk revenue grew 6% to $4.8 billion, says IDC. The total disk storage market grew 4.9% to $6.9 billion.
* The semiconductor industry grew 23% in 2006 to $40.47 billion, says SEMI.

* JSE All share index: Up 3.8% (highest-ever weekend close)

* Nasdaq: Up 2.6%

* Top SA share movements: African Cellular Towers (+10.1%), Alliance Data (-9.9%), Beget Holdings (-25%), DataPro (+12.7%), Datatec (+19.1%), Dialogue (+29%), Digicor (+17.8%), MICROmega (-10.8%) and Zaptronix (-14.3%)
* Top international share movements: BroadVision (+47.7%), CMGI (+29.4%), Glowpoint (-27%), Kronos (+28.6%), MAPS (+49%), On2 Technologies (+29.3%), Pegasus Wireless (+89.5%), SEMX (-50%), Vonage (-28.1%) and Wireless Facilities (-35.8%)

BusinessWeek has published its 2007 Best Performers listing, with technology companies featuring prominently. Google came in at number one, followed by Verizon Communications at seven, Cognizant Technology Solutions at 12, and Adobe Systems at 19. Also in the top 50 list were Apple, AT&T, Linear Technology, Oracle and Paychex.