Merger mania

The merger of AOL with Time Warner, in a deal valued at over $180 billion, and the stepping down by Bill Gates as Microsoft CEO was top international news last week.

Locally, the news that Spicer is to pay more for the IQ business Group was the major headline in an extremely quiet week.

The AOL/Time Warner merger, the largest in corporate history, will create the world`s largest Internet and media giant. The new entity, to be called AOL Time Warner Incorporated, will have a market capitalisation of over $350 billion, revenues of more than $30 billion and a paying subscriber base in excess of 100 million. Some reaction from its two main competitors, Yahoo! And Excite AtHome, is likely over the next few weeks, and further acquisitions and mergers should therefore be expected.

The Connection Group came in with reasonable interim results. These were back in the black again after the sell-off of its local training operation, but its revenue figures were well down.

[Local]

Local acquisitions, mergers, investments etc (see attachment).

Local Cautionary Notices (see attachment).

Local Listing calendar (see attachment).

Local Result Summaries (see attachment).

Local Major Event Summary (see attachment).

The announcement by Bell & Howell that it will break up into two units, one being its information and publishing services, which includes its Internet-oriented interests and the other its traditional imaging and mail processing business.

[International]

International acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures etc (see attachment).

Other international news included:

• the

  resignations

  of Bill Gates as CEO of Microsoft, with Steve Ballmer taking over, Jim Mooney the CFO at Baan, Jennifer Bergantino, VP of Marketing & Strategic Planning at Progress Software, and the president and COO of Merisel, James Illson;

• the

  appointments

  of Mary Coleman, the ex-CEO of Baan, as the new MD of Internet Capital Group and Ted Meisel as CEO of GoTo.com; and

• the

  announcement

  that IBM has disposed of its Internet division.

Excellent figures from Actuate, Applied MicroCircuits, KLA-Tencor (back in the black), Spectrum Control, Visual Networks, Vitesse Semiconductor and Yahoo!

Losses came from Ariba (better than expected), Broadbase Software (better than expected and revenue well up), Calico Commerce, Concentrex, CSP, DecisionOne Holdings, E.Piphany, InterActive, Juno Online Services, Lap Power AB, MCMS, Network Equipment Technologies, Network Systems, Read-Rite, Robocom Systems, Rogue Wave Software, Seagate (better than expected), Silknet Software and Xceed.

Good numbers were recorded by Alpha Industries, Best Software, Com21, E-TEK Dynamics, Infosys Technologies, Intel (better than expected), Microchip Technology, MIPS Technologies, Northstar Computer Forms, Photon Dynamics (back in the black), Rational Software and TESSCO Technologies.

Satisfactory results were reported by ATI Technologies, Dallas Semiconductor and Financial Models.

Mediocre returns came from Anite, CanWest Global Comms and Gartner Group; while very poor results came from ITG Group (although revenue well up).

Other financial news included profit warnings from Align-Rite International, Ancor, Gensym, Microsoft (settlement charges re Caldera), Groupe Bull SA, Quantum and SCO; and share split announcements from ADC Telecomms, Ditech Comms, Globix, Solectron, TMP Worldwide and Yahoo!.

Locally

Accord (+39.5%)
Altron (+26.2%)
Bryant (-28.6%)
Bynx (-24%)
C-Tech (+28.6%)
Casey (+41.7%)
Connection (-26.5%)
I-Solution (+130.8%)
I-Tech (+30.4%)
JemTech (+75%)
M-Cell (+26.5%)
M-Web (+40%)
OSI (+40%)
Paradigm (+25.3%)
Pinnacle (+61.9%)
PTH (+120%)
Seartec (+36.4%)
ValueCom (+50%)
Y2KTec (+25%)

Internationally

Adaptive Broadband (+43.7%)
Applied Imaging (+81.3%)
Brooks Automation (+33.7%)
Concentric (+39.2%)
Epicor (+38.2%)
Globecomm Systems (+37.2%)
Group 1 Software (+42.6%)
ICG Comms (+43.1%)
Indigo NV (+56.5%)
JDA Software (+30.7%)
KLA-Tencor (+31`%)
Larscom (+65.6%)
Logica (+30.7%)
LTXX (+36.6%)
MEMC Electronic Materials (+42.2%)
NCD (+35.1%)
PSINet (+31.5%)
Rational Software (+30%)
Scan-Optics (+61.4%)
SBA Comms (+36.4%)
Telefonica de Argentina SA (+36.8%)
Trident Microsystems (+35.8%)

The talk this week is all about the potential break-up of Microsoft into three separate companies: one looking after operating systems, the second responsible for office application software, and the last having the remaining interests of Microsoft, which are mainly Internet-oriented.

I will be in the US this week and therefore my next column will be on 31 January, but it will cover the full two-week period.