Bharti's bid for Zain's African assets dominated the international and local media last week, despite small acquisitions by Google and IBM.
Key local news
* An interim loss from Simeka, with revenue also down.
* Satisfactory year-end figures from KSS Technologies.
* Positive trading updates from EOH and Ifca Technologies.
* The merger of iConnect and Telemetrix, both partners of ECN Communications, under the former's banner.
* The additional 6.8% investment by Tiso in African Cellular Towers, raising its stake to 31.9%.
Key African news
* Bharti Airtel's $10.7 billion offer for Zain's African operations excluding Morocco and Sudan. The operations cover 15 countries and amount to 42 million subscribers, increasing Bharti's subscriber base to over 165 million, should this deal go through. The largest operation is in Nigeria, where there is still an ongoing battle with Econet Wireless, which means the potential deal is fraught with some interesting challenges. Zain originally bought the pan-African Celtel, as it was called back in 2005, for $3.4 billion.
* Digital Solutions Group is partnering with Mikado Communications in the Nigerian market.
* The Malawian Communications Regulatory Authority is to tender for a fourth mobile operator.
Key international news
* Google's acquisition of reMail, a start-up company that makes e-mail search applications for the iPhone.
* IBM bought Intelliden, a provider of intelligent network automation software that enables organisations such as telecommunications companies to configure, manage and scale their networks. It will become part of IBM's Tivoli portfolio.
* Nuance Communications snapped up MacSpeech, a provider of speech recognition software for Apple computers.
* The $1.4 billion (30%) investment by media giant Grupo Televisa (Mexico) in Nextel Mexico, the fourth largest operator in that country.
* Willcom, a Japanese mobile phone company, filed for bankruptcy. Carlyle, the major equity investment group, had a 60% stake in the company, and this places a blot on its otherwise strong record.
The Malawian Communications Regulatory Authority is to tender for a fourth mobile operator.
Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners
* Excellent quarterly results from Applied Materials (back in the black) and Nvidia (back in the black).
* Very good quarterly figures from Analog Devices (back in the black) and NetApp (back in the black).
* Satisfactory quarterly results from HP, Ingram Micro (back in the black), Rogers Communications and TomTom (back in the black).
* Mediocre quarterly results from Capgemini and Qwest Communications International.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Atos Origin, with revenue down but profit up; and Dell, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Aruba Networks.
Look out for:
* International:
o The battle for control of Jupiter Communications, Japan's largest cable TV operator. Earlier this month, KDDI, Japan's second largest telecommunications company, made an offer for a $4 billion 38% stake, while a few days ago, Sumitomo, a trading company, challenged this with a $1.35 billion offer that would raise its stake in Jupiter from 27% to 40%.
* Africa:
o The outcome of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (Nitel) bid. Supposedly, the New Generation Telecommunication consortium was announced as the winner for the 75% stake, with a $2.5 billion bid, but the latter's technical partner, China Unicom, has denied being involved, resulting in a confused situation. However, the reserve winner, Omen International, is still sitting in the wings.
* South Africa:
o MTN may move its group head office to Dubai.
Research results and predictions
* According to the UN telecoms agency, the number of cellular subscriptions worldwide will reach five billion this year.
* There will be more than one billion mobile workers worldwide by the end of this year, predicts IDC.
Stock market changes
* JSE All share index: Up 3.1%
* Nasdaq: Up 2.8%
* Top SA share movements: ConvergeNet (-10%), Ifca Technologies (+16.7%), Jasco (-9.1%), Labat Africa (+51.9%), Mustek (+10.3%), Square One (-34.8%), Stella Vista (+40%) and TCS (-28.6%)
Final word
The Africa Report has published its latest Top 500 African Companies list. Apart from Egypt's Raya Holding for telecoms, there are still no non-South African ICT companies in the list. Key changes include Orascom Egypt going from number 20 to 15; Telkom SA dropping to 27 from seven; Zain Nigeria rising to 77 from 101; and Allied Technologies dropping to 118 from 96.
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