Major telecoms boost

The French government`s French Telecom decision dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications last week.

At home, the Dimension Data SA black empowerment initiative and the news that VOIP will be legal from next February stole much of the local ICT headline space.

We saw mediocre full-year numbers from Mustek (revenue down and profits well down);
A negative trading update from Square One; and
A positive trading update from EOH.

Other local news included:

The announcement that VANS will be able to carry VOIP from 1 February;
Altech`s investment in Econet Wireless;
Ngcaba Holdings` 25.01% investment in Dimension Data SA;
Intervate acquired Lucid Vision`s development team;
Willy Govender, CEO of Bizworks, Data World and Data Matrix, was named as CSSA`s KwaZulu-Natal IT Person of the Year;
The acquisition of ISP Rumba by another ISP, Zazu; and
Kathea Comms will distribute Avaya`s IP Office.

Last week also saw the 2004 Age of Innovation and Sustainability Awards. The Grand Prix winner and the winner in the economic ICT category was Intelleca Voice & Mobile for its SA English Acoustic Model that enables commercially developed software to recognise and respond to South African English.

We saw a planned three-way $1 billion venture, to be set up in January 2005, headed by Hitachi, but also involving Matsushita and Toshiba, that will manufacture LCD panels;
The French government offloaded up to 12.2% of its France Telecoms shareholding that could raise nearly EUR6 billion; and
WorldQuest Networks terminated the acquisition of Ntera Holdings.

It looks as if the French government is 'bailing` out Bull SA yet again, in a new restructuring plan that also includes France Telecom SA and NEC.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

International strategic partnerships were announced between Compuware and Spherion to help customers improve application quality, and between Infotonics and Intellisense, a move aimed at lowering the barriers to entry in the MEMS market.

Other international news included:

The appointments of Dave Alcala as chairman, president and CEO of Pelion Systems, Jean-Yves Charlierhas as chairman of Colt Telecom, Gianfranco Lanci as president of Acer, Kim Mayyasi as president and CEO of Gensym, Thomas Waechter as president and CEO of Remec, JT Wang as chairman and CEO of Acer, and Chris Winslow as president and COO of Pinnacle Data Systems;
The dismissal of Jeremy Coote as president of Manugistics;
Stan Shih retired as chairman of Acer; and
A job loss announcement from Z-Tel.

We saw excellent* figures from Mikros Systems (back in the black) and Tikit Group; and very good* numbers from Dycom Industries and Versata.

Good figures* were recorded by Access Accounts, AFP Imaging, Bolt Technology, China Telecom, Horizon Technology and SkillSoft (back in the black); and satisfactory* ones by Dicom Group, Docucorp, Methode Electronics and Open Text.

Mediocre* returns came from Logica CMG (but back in the black); and very poor numbers from NSB Retail Systems (but back in the black).

Losses* came from Applied Imaging, Centennial Comms, Crossroads Systems, Descartes Systems, Finisar, Marlborough Stirling, Morse, Olicom, Parlex, Portal Software, SCO Group, SofTech, Stratos International, Tactex, Teletouch, TransNet, Versant and Vislink.

Other financial news included analyst upgrades for eBay, Identix, Juniper Networks, Nextel Comms and OSI Systems; analyst downgrades for Alltel, Asyst Technologies, Cohu, Cypress Semiconductor, IDT, Intersil, LTX and Viacom; private funding was obtained for Creation Technologies, M1 Global Solutions, Orion Multisystems, Pelion Systems and Tantalus Systems; share buy-back announcements from Merisel, Micrel and Open Text; a rights issue from Viasystems group; a shareholders rights plan from Callidus Software; negative results/profit warnings (often veiled) from Altera, Catalyst Semiconductor, Intel and Quantum; and proposed IPOs from cellphone company Celtel International and wireless e-mail software maker, Visto.

It looks as if the French government is 'bailing` out Bull SA yet again, in a new restructuring plan that also includes France Telecom SA and NEC. However, since the deal is only due to start in January 2005, they may have successfully found a way to stretch European Commission competition rulings and avoid potential clashes.

This issue of Booth`s Bites is slightly shorter than normal and doesn`t contain share movements etc, as it had to be finished off early to accommodate my departure for Europe. I will be away for two weeks and so the next issue of Booth`s Bites will be published on Monday, 27 September and will cover this whole period.

* 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 in excess of 50%.
Very good: Both revenue and net income growth in excess of 25%.
Good: Both revenue and net income growth 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.
Loss: A loss has been recorded.