Microsoft harnesses Danger

Last week was again quiet, with no significant local news and a handful of small acquisitions internationally by some of the 'big boys'.

* Satisfactory interim numbers from Faritec, with revenue and net profit up slightly.
* Positive trading updates from Celcom, GijimaAst and Pinnacle.
* Bytes Technology Group's R22.5 million acquisition of UK-based Planflow, a business that sells and services Xerox equipment.
* The acquisition by i5, a Microsoft solutions specialist, of Chameleon Technologies, a Web design studio. Following this deal, the latter will be known as BlackLight and will specialise in developing Web content based on the emerging Microsoft Silverlight technology.
* The 49% investment by Dimension Data in New Zealand-based SQL Services, a provider of Microsoft SQL and Oracle database management and consulting services. Dimension Data now owns 100% of SQL Services.
* The majority investment by Sahara Holdings in the Woodlane consortium, which also has a 25.1% stake in Stella Vista.
* Lightedge Technologies was placed in provisional liquidation by the Cape High Court.

With the latest rumours surrounding Motorola, one wonders what the future holds for the group.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Dell's $155 million acquisition of MessageOne, an e-mail management company.
* Arrow Electronics bought ACI Electronics, an independent distributor of electronic components.
* Microsoft purchased Danger, the company responsible for the software and services powering many popular consumer handsets.
* Yahoo's $160 million acquisition of Maven Networks, an online video platform provider.
* Fujitsu will spin-off its loss-making chip unit in March into a separate company run by Toshihiko Ono, VP of Fujitsu.
* Very good quarterly figures from Acer, Millenium Cellular International SA and Nvidia.
* Good quarterly numbers from Amkor Technology, Capgemini, Ingram Micro and Trend Micro.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Eutelsat Communications.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Applied Materials and Brocade Communications Systems.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Qwest Communications International, with revenue marginally down but income up 89%.
* Quarterly losses from NetSuite and Vonage.

* A possible joint venture that brings together the wireless infrastructure units of Motorola and Nortel Networks.

* The worldwide IT market will grow only slightly less than last year, say Forrester and IDC.
* The handheld device market declined sharply in Q407 to 683 004 units, says IDC. The 2007 full year market was also down significantly.

* JSE All share index: Up 2%
* Nasdaq: Up 0.7%
* Top SA share movements: Beget Holdings (+25%), ConvergeNet (+28.4%), Metrofile (+25.2%), Mustek (-15.5%), SAB&T Ubuntu (+9.1%) and Stella Vista (+14.3%).

With the latest rumours surrounding Motorola, one wonders what the future holds for the group. It seems the handset division will go and now there is talk of a joint venture that involves its wireless infrastructure unit. Is the rest large enough for it to survive alone, or will that also be sold off? The next few weeks could be very telling.