McNealy moves on

The local ICT market was extremely quiet last week, broken on Friday by the announcement that there was another offer being made for Business Connexion.

From last week`s quarterly results, AT&T and Neoware announced good/excellent numbers, although Ariba, BenQ, NEC Electronics, Sony and Sun Microsystems posted disappointing figures.

* Deutsche Telekom AG sold part of its business to Blackstone Group, a private equity company, for EUR2.68 billion.
* Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems handed over the reins to Jonathan Schwartz.
* Another un-named offer materialised for Business Connexion.

* Good year-end figures from Cell C, with revenue up 34% and EBITDA back in the black, although net profit is still negative.
* Good year-end numbers from Bytes Technology Group, with revenue up nearly 20% and back in the black.
* A negative trading update from Trematon.
* The appointment of Riaan Jacobs as MD of South African Escrow Services.
* The appointments of Esquire Technologies as the South African distributor for the Aztech brand of data communications products from Aztech Systems; and Rectron as the sole distributor for ATen, a company that specialises in the design, development and manufacturing of KVM switch products and solutions. In addition, Rectron has been formally appointed as the South African distributor for Seagate Technology and Xerox.

* Good quarterly numbers from Maroc Telecom, with both revenue and income up about 12%; and from MobiNil (Egypt), with revenue up 14% and profit up 21%.
* Orascom Telecom increased its stake in Hutchison Telecom International.
* Globacom, Nigeria`s second national operator, intends to acquire a stake in an Indian telecommunications operator.
* Mozambique became the first African country to set up a certified WiMax network.
* Investcom increased its ownership in Bashair Telecom (Sudan) to 85% and in its Yemen subsidiary.

With recent consolidations, next year`s Fortune 500 listings are likely to be different.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Sanjay Kumar, former CEO of CA, pleaded guilty to perjury, fraud and obstruction of justice charges stemming from an accounting scandal at the company several years ago.
* Microsoft spun-off Wallop, a new social networking technology company.
* Microsoft acquired Massive, a start-up that places ads in videogames.
* JDA Software acquired Manugistics to create a provider of supply chain/demand optimisation solutions.
* The appointments of Bruce Crair as president and CEO of Interchange, Eric Giler as chairman and CEO of Groove Mobile, John Prisco as president and CEO of Chorus Systems, John Purvis as CEO of Corda Technologies, and Jonathan Schwartz as CEO of Sun Microsystems.
* The resignation of Scott McNealy as founder and CEO of Sun Microsystems (stays on as chairman).
* The retirement of E Van Cullens as president and CEO of Westell Technologies.
* Analyst upgrades for Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Anaren, BearingPoint, Bisys, Chartered Semiconductor, CommScope, Deutsche Telekom AG, eBay, Emulex, Equinix, Fiserv, Hyperion Solutions, iBasis, Keane, Leadis Technology, Lexmark, Manugistics, McAfee, NetIQ, Netgear, Novell, Sanmina-SCI, SonicWALL, SRA International, Sun Microsystems, TTM Technologies, Western Digital, Zebra Technologies and Zoran.
* Analyst downgrades for 3M, Amkor Technology, Artesyn, ASM International, CNET Networks, Cognex, Extreme Networks, France Telecom, Honeywell, Ingram Micro, KLA-Tencor, Komag, Kronos, Micrel, Microchip, Microsoft, Mindspeed Technologies, MPS Group, Openwave, Patni Computer Services, RealNetworks, Siemens AG, Sprint Nextel and TMSC.
* Positive results announcements from Camtek, Forrester Research, Manugistics and TomTom NV.
* Negative result warnings from BearingPoint, CA, NTT DoCoMo and Sony.
* Stock repurchase announcements from Advent Software, Hitachi, j2 Global Communications, Matsushita Electric Industrial and Sybase.
* A job loss announcement from Iomega.
* Private funding obtained for AdaptiveMobile, a mobile security firm; Contactual, a developer of on-demand contact centres, Dblur, a software lens developer; Emdigo, a developer of 3D content and production technology for the wireless industry; Firecomms, a semiconductor manufacturer; mFormation Technologies, a mobile device management software maker; RealOps, an operations software vendor; and Silverback Systems, a developer of iSNAP technology.
* Stock offering announcements by Aviza Technology and Netflix.
* A share split announcement from iVoice (reverse 200:1).
* A planned IPO on London`s AIM by OCZ Technology, a US computer components maker.
* IPO filings from Jazz Semiconductor and Vonage Holdings, an Internet telephone service provider.
* A planned IPO by Italtel Group SpA.

* Handheld devices shipped in Q106 dropped 22.3% from the similar period last year; however, Palm and HP remain the top two vendors as far as market share is concerned, according to the IDC.

* JSE All share index: Up 0.5% (highest ever weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Down 0.9%
* Top SA share movements: Cape Empowerment Trust (+11.1%), Labat Africa (+9.1%), Metrofile (+15%), Pinnacle (+9.6%), Stella Vista (-18.7%), Trematon (+8.2%), Vesta (+8.8%) and Zaptronix (+12.5%)
* Top international share movements: AirNet Communications (-45.7%), Cablevision (-27.4%), Com21 (-50%), Eagle Broadband (-29.6%), Epicus Communications (+55.6%), Exabyte (+38.9%), Primus Telecommunications Group (+27.3%), ProQuest (-30%), Sanmina-SCI (+27.5%) and SONICblue (-33.3%)

Fortune magazine has published its latest Fortune 500 rankings. From a technology perspective, the top 25 includes IBM at 10 (same as last year), HP at 11 (same as last year), Verizon Communications at 18 (was 14), and Dell at 25 (previously 28).

With recent consolidations, next year`s listings are likely to be different. Major movements this year include Agilent Technologies at 319 (was 290), Apple at 159 (263), Ikon Office Solutions at 469 (415), L-3 Communications at 253 (305), Lexmark at 415 (370), Solectron at 227 (164), and Unisys at 372 (343).