Microsoft, Nokia hook up

The international and local ICT markets were very quiet last week. Making the headlines was the news about the alliance by Microsoft and Nokia, which is intended to provide a version of Microsoft's Office suite of software on Nokia cellphones.

* Excellent interim numbers from Tencent Holdings (Hong Kong), a company in which Naspers has a 35.5% stake.
* Positive trading updates from Blue Label Telecoms.
* Negative trading updates from Business Connexion and GijimaAst.
* France-based Trusted Logic has opened an African subsidiary, based in Cape Town. Trusted Logic is a provider of open, secure software for smart cards, terminals and consumer devices.

* Satisfactory half-year figures from Telecom Egypt, with revenue up 8% and profit up 41%.
* Safaricom (Kenya) acquired WiMax operator, Packet Stream Data Networks.
* Two new operators are to launch in Nigeria. They are Expresso (Sudan's Sudatel that recently bought a 70% stake in Intercellular) and O-Mobile (Prestel Satellite Communications that was operating in Edo state).
* Tarek Tantawy was appointed CEO of Telecom Egypt.
* Akil Beshir resigned as CEO of Telecom Egypt.

Worldwide mobile phone sales were down 6.1% in Q209, although smartphone sales were up 27% to 40 million units, according to Gartner.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Daisy Group (UK), a communications provider, purchased the telecommunications unit of Redstone (ie, Redstone Telecom, including its subsidiary Symphony Holdings), for £17 million. Daisy was formed two months ago when Freedom4 Group and Pipex Communications, two telecommunications companies, reversed into a cash shell. Prior to this deal it had already acquired AT Communications Eurotel, and two telecommunications companies that were in administration (UK's equivalent of Chapter 11).
* BMC Software bought MQSoftware, a provider of software in the middleware management and enterprise application transaction management markets.
* Facebook acquired FriendFeed, a social sharing service.
* MphasiS (India), HP's services subsidiary in India, purchased AIG Systems, the Indian-based software services unit of US-based insurer AIG.
* France-based Publicis acquired Razorfish, Microsoft's marketing and communications agency unit, for $530 million.
* Scailex, an Israeli mobile phone importer, bought Hutchison Telecommunications' controlling stake in Partner Communications, the second largest cellular provider in Israel. The deal was worth $1.38 billion.
* VMware purchased SpringSource, a business and Web application developer, for $362 million.
* Microsoft and Nokia announced an alliance that will make a version of Microsoft's Office suite of software available on Nokia cellphones.
* Good quarterly numbers from CACI International.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Singapore Telecom, Telstra and Trend Micro.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Swisscom (revenue down, but profit up).
* Quarterly losses from Applied Materials, Hutchison Telecom, Intelsat, Nortel Networks, and Nuance Communications.
* The appointments of Jim Bidzos as executive chairman of VeriSign; John McCain (ex-HP services head) as CEO of Keane, a technology services company; and Mark McLaughlin as CEO of VeriSign.
* Mike Zafirovski resigned as CEO of Nortel Networks.
* Fortinet, a network security company, has made a planned $100 million IPO.

* International:
* The sell-off by the Chinese Academy of Sciences of a 29% stake in the parent company of Lenovo, Legend Holdings.
* The acquisition by Singapore Telecom of Eircom, an Irish telecommunications company.
* Africa:
* The sell-off by the Rwandan government of its 10% stake in MTN Rwanda, in which MTN has a 55% holding.
* South Africa:
* Further progress on the MTN/Bharti situation.

* Worldwide mobile phone sales were down 6.1% in Q209, although smartphone sales were up 27% to 40 million units, according to Gartner.

* JSE All share index: Down 1%
* Nasdaq: Down 0.7%
* Top SA share movements: Datatec (-8.9%), Huge (-12.1%), Ifca Technologies (+16.7%), Metrofile (-9.1%), MICROmega (-16.7%), Spescom (-8.3%) and Stella Vista (+100%)

Telecoms.com has published its 'Top 40 people to watch in mobile' list. Some of these interesting characters include Wang Jianzhou of China Mobile, Didier Lombard of France Telecom, Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Enterprises, Michael O'Hara of the GSM Association, K Shin of Samsung Mobile and Ren Zhengfei of Huawei. All of these will have an impact on our telecommunications market, as well as that of Africa, and are therefore worth tracking.