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More MTN suitors emerge

The list of parties interested in some form of deal with MTN continues to grow.
Paul Booth
By Paul Booth
Johannesburg, 26 May 2008

The international ICT world was quiet last week, except for renewed noises from Microsoft re Yahoo.

At home, the list of potential interested parties in some form of deal with MTN continued to grow.

Key local news

* Satisfactory interim figures from Spescom, with revenue up nearly 12% and profit up 7%.
* Mediocre interim numbers from UCS, with revenue up 11% but profit down 7.5%.
* The proposed acquisition by UCS of Computer Software Consultants, a provider of secure payment technologies, services and solutions.
* The sell-off by MTN of 50% of its stake in MTN Cyprus to Amaracos, a Cyprus-based investor.
* The chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee announced that 2009 would see the licensing of a fourth mobile operator and a third fixed-line operator.
* SAB&T Ubuntu's shares were suspended, following its acquisition by Simeka.

Key African news

* The resignation of Mugo Kibati, CEO of East African Cables (Kenya).

Key international news

According to IDC, Accenture and EDS tied for second place in the 2007 ranking of the top 10 service providers.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Accenture acquired ATAN, a Brazilian provider of IT and solutions.
* Microsoft said it had put a new Yahoo deal on the table.
* Time Warner is to spin-off Time Warner Cable in a deal valued at $9.25 billion.
* Excellent quarterly results from salesforce.com.
* Very good quarterly figures from Steria (a French IT services company).
* Good quarterly numbers from HP, Intuit and Lenovo.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Blue Coat Systems, CA (back in the black), Sanyo (back in the black) and Telefonica.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Cable & Wireless and CSC.
* The appointment of Richard Nottenburg, chief strategy and technology officer at Motorola, as CEO of Sonus Networks, a maker of equipment for Internet-based telecom networks.

Look out for

* The acquisition of Aptara, a US-based provider of integrated content transformation solutions, by either Infosys Technologies or Tata Consultancy Services.
* The final outcome of the shuffles taking place with the various Chinese telecommunications companies. The shares of the major players were suspended last Friday ahead of this activity. (A full report will be covered in next week's column.)

Research results and predictions

* According to IDC, Accenture and EDS tied for second place in the 2007 ranking of the top 10 service providers, but well behind IBM. Capgemini rose to seventh position.
* Q1 2008 worldwide server shipments grew 8% over last year, although revenue grew only 4%, says IDC. However, HP has overtaken IBM for the top spot.

Stock market changes

* JSE All share index: Down 0.5%
* Nasdaq: Down 3.3%
* Top SA share movements: Ansys (+11%), Dialogue Group (+19.7%), Dynamic Cables (-32.8%), Ifca technologies (-31%), Paracon (+12.2%), Spescom (-12.8%), UCS (-11.9%) and Zaptronix (-29.4%)

Final word

BusinessWeek has published its latest Infotech 100 listing, which factors into consideration return on equity, return on growth, revenue, profit, etc. Staying at number one was Amazon.com. New entrants included LG Electronics at 20, MTN at 12 and Western Dig at five. Other notable entries are China Mobile at seven, Bharti Airtel at 21, Maroc Telecom at 24, Millicom International Cellular at 29 and Mobinil (Egypt) at 36.

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