Microsoft takes a knock

The international ICT world was dominated last week by the release of many of the latest quarterly financial results, which included a drop in revenue by Microsoft. At home, the official 'go live' launch of the Seacom cable stole much of the local ICT media space.

* Positive trading updates from Altech and Vodacom.
* A negative trading update from Altron.
* UK-listed Avisen acquired Quadrum Consulting, an IBM Cognos business partner, for R2.6 million.
* Metrofile bought Innovative Document Management, an image processing provider.
* Remgro purchased VenFin, except for the latter's interest in Dimension Data, which has been handled separately.
* Netcash, a payment services provider, made a 20% investment in Payspace, an HR service company.
* The Mineworkers Investment Company made an additional investment in Metrofile, thus raising its shareholding to 32.8%.
* Jaco Laubscher was appointed AMD's new agent representative for South Africa.

* Seacom has 'gone live'.
* Vivendi has halted talks with Zain regarding its African operations.

Vivendi has halted talks with Zain regarding its African operations.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Avaya acquired the 'phone-making' business of Nortel Networks for $475 million.
* BearingPoint's European management team bought the EMEA practice of BearingPoint, for $69 million. The latter went into Chapter 11 last year.
* Ericsson purchased Nortel's profitable but declining CDMA business for $1.13 billion. The business sells key wireless technology to major US carriers. Ericsson beat other bidders, including Nokia Siemens Networks and a private equity company, in an auction.
* Nokia bought Cellity, a German privately-owned mobile software company.
* Oracle purchased GoldenGate Software, a company that focuses on real-time data integration that supports IT performance and enterprise decision-making.
* SAP acquired SAF Simulation, Analysis and Forecasting AG, a global forecasting and replenishment software company for the retail and wholesale industries.
* Very good quarterly figures from Baidu.
* Good quarterly numbers from Apple, Bharti Airtel, LG Electronics and Mobily (Etihad Etisalat Saudi Arabia).
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Citrix Systems, Samsung Electronics, Software AG, TeliaSonera, Vodafone, Wipro and Zain.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Amdocs, AT&T, Broadcom, CA, D-Link, DST Systems, EMC, Juniper Networks, Lexmark, Microsoft, NCR, Qualcomm, Saudi Telecom, Tech Mahindra, Texas Instruments, Tieto, TomTom, VMware and Xerox.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Compuware (revenue down, but profit up), Ericsson (revenue up, but profit down), Etisalat (revenue up, but profit down), F5 Networks (revenue down, but profit up), KPN (revenue down, but profit up), L-3 Communications (revenue up, but profit down), Millicom International Cellular (revenue up, but profit down), Samsung SDI (revenue down, but profit up), SanDisk (revenue down, but back in the black), Sybase (revenue down, but profit up) and Yahoo (revenue down, but profit up).
* Quarterly losses from AMD, AU Optronics, Imation, Logitech, Netgear, Seagate Technology, ST Ericsson and TIM (Italy).
* A very successful IPO by Vodafone Qatar on the Qatar Exchange.

* International:
* The merger of China Mobile's Pakistani mobile operation with that of Telenor Pakistan.
* A joint venture between Sharp and Sony regarding the production of LCD TV screens.
* Africa:
* The outcome of talks between Essar Group (India) and Dhabi Group regarding an expansion of the latter's telecommunications business in Africa.
* The outcome of iBurst Africa's bid for a licence in Nigeria.
* South Africa:
* Fall-out from the 'go-live' of the Seacom cable.

* Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are among the most liberalised telecommunications countries on the continent, according to research from Balancing Act.

* JSE All share index: Up 1.7% (highest weekend close since September 2008)
* Nasdaq: Up 4.2 (highest weekend close since September 2008)
* Top SA share movements: Beget Holdings (-33.3%), Dialogue (+20%), Faritec (+25%), GijimaAst (+16.9%), Ideco (-17.6%), Metrofile (+14.6%), SecureData (+11.1%) and Zaptronix (+50%)

From Fortune magazine's latest Global 500 listing and from a technology perspective, the following were the major changes:

* New entries: China United Communications at number 419 and Google at number 423.
* Drop-outs: EDS (acquired by HP), Korea Telecom, Lenovo, Sanyo and Xerox.
* Major upward movements: Apple (from 337 to 253), China Mobile (from 148 to 99), KPN (from 486 to 434), Oracle (from 462 to 408) and Vivendi (from 264 to 207).
* Major downward movements: Asustek (from 363 to 436), BT Group (from 166 to 210), Motorola (from 200 to 282), Sharp (from 261 to 309) and Sprint Nextel (from 176 to 219).