Manager moves

Oracle`s 'final` bid for PeopleSoft and another massive loss from MCI dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications last week.

At home, the flood of new local country manager appointments stole much of the local ICT headline space during a quiet week.

* We saw good full-year numbers from Set Point Technology Holdings (revenue and earnings both up); and

* A full-year loss from Bryant Technology (revenue static).

Other local news included:

* ICL SA changed its name to Fujitsu Services;

* A global partnership agreement was signed between Vodacom and Vodafone;

* Prism Holdings was honoured as the winner of the Technology Top 100 enterprise category for companies operating in the ICT software, services and solutions sector;

* ICASA issued the first four underserviced area licences; and

* The appointments of Johnathene Beyers as country GM for 3Com, Bheki Nkomo as MD of UUNet SA and Jacques van Schalkwyk as southern African country manager for Intel.

New local distributorships included that of VMware by Workgroup.

Furthermore, on the local front look out for the possible de-listing of Labat Africa.

* Oracle revised and bettered its offer for PeopleSoft;

* BellSouth and SBC created an Internet yellow-pages service; and

* Two joint ventures were created by Toshiba and TCL, one for manufacturing and one for marketing appliances.

Additionally, look out for an acquisition and share offering by UK-based iTrain and the possible merger between the UK`s two main cable companies, Telewest Global and NTL.

Other international news included:

* The appointments of Trenton Brown as president and CEO of Proficiency, Winifred Burke as president and CEO of CanyonBridge, Eva Chen as CEO of Trend Micro, Michael Doumas as CEO of FP Mailing Solutions, Jean-Louis Gassee as chairman of PalmSource, Wang Jianzhou as president of China Mobile, Arthur Mesher as CEO of Descartes Systems Group, Stephen Newberry as CEO of Lam Research, David Peterschmidt as CEO of Openwave, Tim Thayne as president of Advanced Wireless Comms, Chang Xiabing as president of China Unicom and Wang Xiaochu as president of China Telecom;

* The resignations of James Bagley as CEO of Lam Research, Steve Chang as CEO of Trend Micro (stays on as chairman), Richard Forman as co-founder of Register.com, Wang Jianzhou as president of China Unicom, Larry Turner as CEO of FP Mailing Solutions and Wang Xiaochu as president of China Mobile;

* The retirements of the presidents of China Mobile and China Telecom; and

* Job loss announcements from AOL, Credence, Eastman Kodak and SBC.

Next Monday should see Sun Microsystems launch its much-anticipated Solaris 10 Unix operating system for UltraSparc, Sparc64 and x86 platforms.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

Excellent* figures from Aware (back in the black), Axcelis Technologies (back in the black), Citadel Security Software (back in the black), CommScope, DRS Technologies, Intelligent Systems (back in the black), Perficient, Rudolph Technologies, Semitool (back in the black), Sonus Networks (back in the black), SRA International and Superior Essex (back in the black).

Very good* numbers were posted by Alvarion (back in the black), Artisan Components, Axsys Technologies, CallWave, Cogent Systems, Coherent (back in the black), CryptoLogic, Document Sciences (back in the black), Golden Telecom, iPayment, IXYS (back in the black), Jupitermedia, Keithley Instruments, Key Tronic, LaBarge, Maxim Integrated Products, NCO Group, NDS Group, NetEase.com, Orbotech, Qualcomm, Radiant Systems (back in the black), Univision Comms and ViaSat.

Good figures* were recorded by Agilisys (back in the black), Amdocs, Ansys, BearingPoint (back in the black), Bogen Comms (back in the black), Bsquare (back in the black), Calian Technology, CGI Group, Comms Systems, Comtech group, Dialog Group (back in the black), Digi International, DTS, GCI, Globecomm Systems (back in the black), Insightful (back in the black), Kronos, MRO Software, NCO Group, Ness Technologies, Nice Systems, Perot Systems, Quality Systems, Siliconix, Singapore Telecom, TechTarget, Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Telex Comms, TransNet, Unova (back in the black) and Vishay Intertechnology.

Satisfactory* figures were posted by Alliance Imaging (back in the black), BMC Software (back in the black), Business Objects, Cognigen Networks (back in the black), eFunds, IAC, KPN, Madison River Comms (back in the black), Mapics, Metrocall Holdings, Nvidia, Pacific Internet, PCCW, Per-Se Technologies, Primus Telecomms, Software AG, TDC (Denmark) and TeleTech.

Mediocre* returns came from Acer, Adtegrity.com, BCE, Bull SA, CAE, DG Systems, EasyLink Services, eSpeed, Evolving Systems, Hector Comms, hongkong.com, Hutchinson Technologies, InVision Technologies, Itron, Macrovision, Magic Software, Netsmart, O2Micro, PC Mall, Perceptron, Quanta Services, SPSS, Sykes Enterprises, Talk America, Time Warner and Valor Computerized Systems.

Very poor results* were posted by AML Comms, Captaris, CCC Information Services Group, Halifax, Key Technology, SPX and Suntron (but back in the black).

Losses* came from 24/7 Real Media, 3D Systems, Allin, American Superconductor, Analex, API Electronics Group, Atari, Avanex, Axeda Systems, Axesstel, BackWeb Technologies, Belden CDT, Charter Comms, chinadotcom, Citizens Comms, Clarus, CompuDyne, Conexant Systems, Copper Mountain Networks, Corteleo Systems, Cray, Danka Business Systems, Digital Angel, ECTel, eGain Comms, Emcore, Endwave, FiberNet, Fisher Comms, Genus, Gilat Satellite Networks, Glenayre Technologies, GoRemote iGate, InfoNow, Infowave Software, Innotrac, InteliData Technologies, InterNAP Network Services, Internet Comms, Interwoven, Iteris, LanOptics, Loudeye, Merisel, MetaSolv, MCI, Microvision, NaviSite, NetRatings, Network Engines, Orckit Comms, Pac-West Telecomm, Path 1 Network Technologies, PCTEL, Pro Tech Comms, Qwest Comms, QSound Labs, Rainmaker Systems, RiT Technologies, Roxio, SANZ, Savvis Comms, SCM Microsystems, Simtek, Somera, SumTotal Systems, Superconductor Technologies, Syniverse Technologies, Telecomm Systems, Tier Technologies, Time America, TMNG, Tvia, US Unwired, Verso, VerticalNet, VitalStream Holdings, Wireless Facilities, Zap.com, Zix and Zomax.

Other financial news included analyst upgrades for Alliant Systems, CCC Information Services Group, Cognos, Digi International, Excelon, iGate, Leadis Technology, Manhattan Associates, MCI, Nice Systems, Nokia, Nvidia, SPX, SRA International, West and Zoran; analyst downgrades for Artisan Components, Asyst Technologies, Borland, Brooks Automation, chinadotcom, Cognizant Technology, Conexant Systems, Cree, CSC, Electronic Arts, FileNet, Internet Security Systems, Intrado, iPayment, Kronos, LTX, Network Appliance, PalmSource, Pemstar, PeopleSoft, Rainmaker Systems, Research in Motion, Rogers Wireless, Superconductor Technologies, Tekelec, Tellabs, Ultimate Electronics, Univision Comms, Verint and Wind River Systems; private funding obtained for Acopia, Linux Networx, Nitro Data Systems, Peregrine Semiconductor, Qualte and Voyence; and share buy-back announcements from Gateway and Powerwave Technologies.

There were positive results/profit warnings from Acer, Axsys Technologies, CGI Group and Northgate Information Solutions; negative results/profit warnings (often veiled) from Business Objects, Caminus, Chartered Semiconductor, Citrix Systems, Cray, Ditech Comms, Dot Hill Systems, LTX and National Semiconductor; and share split announcements from FreeStar (reverse 7:1) and Ontus Telecomms (3:1).

Locally

Beget (+50%)
ERP.com (+11.5%)
Faritec (+35%)
Jasco (+23.4%)
MGX (+20%)
Pinnacle (+18.8%)
Sethold (+12.2%)
Square One (-33.3%)
Vesta (-40%)
Zaptronix (-25%)

Internationally

Asyst Technologies (-27.4%)
Butler Group (+34.6%)
Commerce One (+38.5%)
Com21 (-50%)
Enherent (+162.3%)
Entrada Networks (+150%)
Micro Component Technology (-25%)
SEMX (+30%)
Warthog (-43%)
Wavecom (+28.8%)

In terms of indices, the Nasdaq was up 3.2% and the JSE up 3.5% for the week.

Next Monday should see Sun Microsystems launch its much-anticipated Solaris 10 Unix operating system for UltraSparc, Sparc64 and x86 platforms.

This announcement is probably the most important Solaris announcement since Sun was founded in 1982. It is undeniably the most important Unix release from Sun since Solaris 2 was launched in 1991 and propelled the company into the SMP server market.

Solaris 10 will be the first Solaris operating system that supports 64-bit operations on both Sparc and x86 architectures (including Xeon-64 chips from Intel and Opteron chips from AMD, but not Intel`s Itanium 2 chips).

While Solaris 10 will be the star of all the announcements planned for that day, Sun is also expected to make server and workstation announcements. Furthermore, in addition to the commercial Solaris 10 operating system, which Sun is expected to charge for under traditional perpetual software licences, Sun is expected to announce a new annual subscription model for commercial Solaris 10 that is akin to how commercial Linux distributors sell support for the open source Linux platform as well as Open Solaris, the open source implementation of Solaris that Sun will not charge for.

Finally, IDC`s latest Information Society Index (ISI), which ranks 53 countries, features Denmark as the top consumer of information and IT, covering computers, telecoms and the Internet. In second slot was Sweden, with the US at number three.

Denmark managed to edge Sweden from the top spot, with IDC noting that the latter`s consistently strong ISI showing was attributable to cooperative programmes between the public and private sectors, university and government investment. The UK was rated at 10, France at 19, Germany at 17 and SA at 34.

* 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.