Merger and acquisition boom

During Easter, as during the Christmas holidays, we saw an unprecedented level of international mergers and acquisitions; maybe trying to clear the decks before the relevant quarterly reporting period, the latest of which will start in about two weeks.

* HP appointed Mark Hurd, CEO of NCR, as its new president and CEO. Hurd joined NCR in 2003 and transformed the company from a loser to profitability; a task similar to the one he now faces at HP.

* IAC/Interactive acquired Ask Jeeves for $1.85 billion in deal designed to provide a search capability to boost the growth of the advertising revenues of the new enlarged entity.

* The $11.3 billion buy-out of SunGard Data Systems. This leveraged takeover by Silver Lake partners and six other buyout companies is the largest leveraged acquisition since that of Nabisco in 1989.

* There has been much in the media re Telkom, specifically related to the issues associated with the undersea cable linking West Africa with the rest of the world; possible increases in local call costs; its interests in increasing fixed-line markets in Africa; and its intentions in the Kenya and Nigeria telecommunications markets.

* Kuwaiti`s Mobile Telecommunications (MTC) acquired Celtel for $3.4 billion. This deal scuppers Celtel`s expected listings in London and Johannesburg. However, MTC is now likely to strengthen its thrust into Africa via some acquisitions and could still be in line as a candidate for SA`s fourth cellular operator licence.

* Alliance Data listed on the AltX.

* Excellent year-end numbers from Cape Empowerment Trust.

* Good year-end figures from Dynamic Cables. Revenue and earnings both up and back in the black. It seems the share trading suspension on the JSE could be lifted as soon as the share issue debacle dating back to February 2002 has been resolved.

* Very poor year-end results from Square One Solutions Group. Revenue up substantially but attributable profit just in the black.

* Interim losses from AST (revenue was down about 15%) and Integrear (revenue was down about 20%).

* A positive trading update from Connection Group.

* Xantium Technology acquired Waymark Consulting (51%).

* Sekunjalo Investments bought into XN Corp Africa, a subsidiary of UK-based XN Checkout.

* The appointments of Ike Moroe as chairman and CEO of IT Intellect and Logan Pather as country manager for Nortel Networks.

* Tellumat was appointed as the South African distributor of call centre technologies from UK-based Inter-Tel.

* Vision Solutions, a subsidiary of Idion, was named as a global distributor for Perebit Networks.

* Software Colors was appointed as the distributor of Session, a management system from German group, Somacos.

Mark Hurd joined NCR in 2003 and transformed the company from a loser to profitability; a task similar to the one he now faces at HP.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* The appointments of Jose dos Santos as MD of Vodacom Mozambique and Romeo Kumalo as MD of Vodacom Tanzania.

* Psitek entered the Kenyan market with its payphones.

* The creation of a joint venture, Sematel, between Lucent Communications of Tanzania and the DRC public telephone company, for telecommunications investments and expansion in the DRC.

* The continuing saga of AppsTech Cameroon vs MTN Cameroon, where the former has won the latest round of judgements re some outstanding invoice payments.

* Systemsfusion was named as the African distributor for SlipStream Data.

* African Legend Indigo was appointed as a sub-Saharan distributor for BEA Systems.

* SecureData was named as a southern African distributor for St Bernard Software.

* Oracle outbid SAP for Retek following a long and protracted battle. Some analysts believe Oracle may have overpaid for this new `asset` that strengthens Oracle`s retail capability.

* IBM settled its dispute with Compuware for $400 million.

* A joint venture was created between Sony and Toyota Industries for the manufacture of LCDs for use in digital cameras and camcorders.

* Telefonica won the race to take a 51% stake in Czech`s Cesky Telecom, the country`s dominant carrier.

* Software Productivity Consortium changed its name to Systems & Software Consortium.

* TeliaSonera bought a major stake in Turkcell for $3.1 billion, although a dispute is likely over a bid from Russia`s conglomerate, Alfa Group.

* A group of US-based investors poured $350 million in China`s Lenovo Group.

* Philips Electronics sold off its remaining 37.1% stake in Navteq for $1.3 billion.

* The appointments of Lynn Davis as president and COO of August Technology, Steven Dussek as CEO and president of Dobson Communications, Mark Hurd as president and CEO of HP, Yuichi Kawakami as president and CEO of NEC Electronics America, Rick Spur as CEO of Zix, Arthur Swift as CEO and president of Transmeta, and Eric Tom as CEO of Broadband iTV.

* The resignations of Mark Hurd as president and CEO of NCR, Matthew Perry as CEO and president of Transmeta, Menahem Tirosh as CEO of TTI Telecom International, and Greg Williams, chairman of Intersil.

* Analyst upgrades for Accenture, Acxiom, Ask Jeeves, Au Optronics, BEI Technologies, BellSouth, Brightpoint, Brocade Communications, Business Objects, Check Point Software Technologies, Cincinnati Bell, Cogent, Cognos, Compuware, Comverse Technology, Credence Systems, Cypress Semiconductor, Ditech Communications, EchoStar Communications, EMC, Entegris, HP, Identix, InfoSpace, Intellisync, Lexar Media, Marvell Technology, Microchip Technologies, Motorola, National Semiconductor, Novell, Open Text, Red Hat, RightNow Technologies, Semitool, SemTech, Symantec, Titan, United Microelectronics, Verint, Visteon and Western Digital.

* Analyst downgrades for ACS, Adaptec, Avanex, Electronic Arts, Chordiant Software, InFocus, Insight Communications, Intersil, j2 Global Communications, Lucent Technologies, Micron, National Semiconductor, NCR, Network Equipment Technologies, PC Connection, Sanmina-SCI, Solectron, SunGard Data Systems, Synnex, Telefonica, Verity and Viisage Technology.

* Positive results announcements from Tessera Technologies and Western Digital.

* Negative result warnings from C-COR, Electronic Arts, Konica-Minolta, National Instruments, Network Equipment Technologies, PC Connection, Silicon Storage Technology and Tetra Tech.

* Stock repurchase announcements from Applied Materials, BEA Systems, Digital Angel, FEI, I-Sector, IAC/InterActiveCorp, Intergraph, Red Hat, SPX, SRS Labs, Symantec, Tech Data, Transact Technologies and Yahoo.

* A job loss announcement from Transmeta.

* Private funding obtained for Brix Networks, a provider of telephony monitoring technologies; Contact Networks, an enterprise search company; Exagrid, a start-up providing a grid-based NAS system; Occam Networks, a supplier of communications equipment to telecommunications companies; GroundWork Open Source Solutions, an open source software vendor; Kiva Systems, a provider of inventory tracking systems; NewScale, a provider of service delivery management software; Provigent, a provider of system-on-a-chip technology; QlikTech International AB, a business intelligence software maker; Roaming Messenger, a provider of mobile messaging technology; Siperian, a data integration vendor; SOYO Group, a manufacturer of computer components; TelASIC, a company specialising in chipsets and ICs; Telcontar, a location-based software provider; Verilink, a provider of broadband solutions; Valen Technologies, a developer of predictive analytics software; and Xeround Systems, a developer of software for VOIP carriers.

* A private of placing of stock by Endwave and SwitchCore AB.

* Stock offering announcements by Aladdin Knowledge Systems and DreamWorks.

* A share split announcement from Cogent Communications (reverse 20:1)

* Planned IPOs on London`s AIM from UK-based IT services group, FDM Group and digital security systems provider, Visual Defence.

* A planned IPO on Nasdaq from NeuStar, a provider of services for telecommunications carriers.

* A good IPO by Jupiter Telecommunications in Tokyo.

* A liquidation filing by Nortem NV, formerly Metron Technology NV.

* A possible buyer for SunGard Data Systems, a financial services technology company.

* AOL Latin America`s possible bankruptcy filing.

* A possible buy-in to Lenovo Group by several US private equity firms.

* The sale of Tiscali`s French unit to Telecom Italia.

* Analysys International predicts the Chinese IT market will grow to $31.1 billion in 2005, up 14.5% from 2004.

* Gartner says the worldwide BPO sector is projected to reach $133.7 billion this year, up 8% from 2004.

* The number of mobile subscribers in the SADC and East African Community is expected to rise from about 30 million today to 55 million by 2009, says BMI-TechKnowledge.

* The worldwide telecommunications market is set to double to $282 billion by 2010, according to Research & Markets.

* Information-Tech Research Group predicts a 35% growth in storage spending this year.

* JSE All share index: Down 1.2%

* Nasdaq: Down 1.1%

* Top SA share movements: Beget (+12.5%), Cape Empowerment Trust (+135.3%), Elexir (+33.3%), Infowave (-17.5%), Jasco (-9.9%), Square One (+20%), Stella Vista (+40%), Trematon (+14%), Y3K (-12.5%) and Zaptronix (+150%).

* Top international share movements: Eidos (+71.3%), Elcom International (-42.1%), Entrada Networks (-36.7%), Firstwave Technologies (+47.5%), Flightstore Group (-45.5%), Lexar Media (+85.4%), Scan-Optics (-44%), SunGard Data Systems (+38.2%), Ultimate Electronics (-54.7%) and Ultrasis (+52.4%).

This week sees Business Week publish its BW50 created from an analysis of 10 performance metrics of each company on the S&P 500 list. From a technology perspective, the highest positions are filled by Yahoo at eight, Nextel Communications at nine, Qualcomm at 13, Apple at 14 and Dell at 15. Apart from the above, only six other companies made the list.