Nokia, Microsoft join forces

The international ICT market was quiet last week, with the Nokia/Microsoft strategic partnership dominating the media space.

At home, the launch of Red Bull Mobile was one of the local highlights.

* Satisfactory interim numbers from Digicore, with revenue up 29% and profit up 3%.
* A positive trading update from Pinnacle Technology.
* A negative trading update from AdaptIT.
* Calico Investments made a 45% investment in Virgin Mobile SA. This is a disinvestment by Cell C of its 50% stake; the remaining 5% being acquired by the Virgin Group.
* AOC, a Taiwanese monitor manufacturer, has opened a South African office that is headed up by Tony Yu.
* T-Systems will offer cloud services in SA.
* Red Bull Mobile was unveiled in SA, which is a joint venture between Cell C and Red Bull.
* Wayne Borcher was appointed SA country manager for Sybase; Rudie Raath was named HP Technology Consulting country manager; Justin Spratt was appointed CEO of Quirk, a digital marketing agency; and Graham Vorster was named HP Networking country manager.
* The departure of Alan Cowley as SA country manager for Sybase.

* Mixed year-end figures from East African Cables, with revenue up but profit down.
* Namibia said the WACS cable has landed in that country. The WACS cable is expected to be operational mid-year, about 12 months earlier than previously anticipated.
* Alan Cowley was named SVP of Sybase's EMEA region.

Red Bull Mobile was unveiled in SA.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* AOL acquired Huffington Post, a Web operation, for $315 million.
* HTC bought Saffron Digital, UK-based mobile video specialist, for £30 million.
* HTC made a $40 million investment in OnLive, a company that offers console-style games over the Internet.
* A broad strategic partnership between Nokia and Microsoft was announced, which will see the former adopting the Windows platform as its primary smartphone operating system.
* Harbinger Capital has sold its remaining 14% stake in Inmarsat.
* Very good quarterly figures from Cognizant Technology Solutions.
* Good quarterly numbers from Alcatel-Lucent, Dassault Systemes, Gartner, Millicom International Cellular, Netgear and Sharp.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from BCE, DST Systems, Etisalat, Ingram Micro, Kofax, McAfee, Pitney Bowes and Telus.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Cisco, with revenue up but profit down; Epicor, with revenue up but profit down; Forrester Research, with revenue up but profit down; Patni Computer Systems, with revenue up but profit down; and Telenor, with revenue up but profit down.
* Mediocre quarterly numbers from Asustek.
* Quarterly losses from Nuance Communications and Sprint Nextel.
* The death of Ken Olsen (84), the founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, and its CEO for many years.
* An IPO filing by Freescale Semiconductor that is expected to raise $1.5 billion.

* International:
* A tie-up between Nokia and Microsoft.
* The 'winner' in the take-over battle for Conexant Systems, a US-based semiconductor maker. The current contenders seem to be SMSC and Golden Gate Private Equity.
* Africa:
* The establishment of tower companies by Bharti Airtel in the African countries where it has a presence.
* South Africa:
* A possible tie-up between Infraco and Sentech.

* Tablet PC shipments are likely to reach 55.7 million units in 2011 and 503.4 million units by 2014, according to DisplaySearch.
* Smartphone shipments surpassed PC shipments in Q4 2010, reports the IDC.
* Worldwide handset sales to end-users rose 32% in 2010 to 1.6 billion units, says Gartner.
* Global spending on IT last year grew by 8% to more than $15 trillion at constant currency, according to IDC. Including telecommunications services, the total ICT market grew 6% to almost $3 trillion.
* Worldwide mobile device sales reached 1.6 billion units in 2010, according to Gartner, with Nokia and Samsung retaining the top slots. Sony Ericsson slipped to number six and Motorola to number seven.

* JSE All share index: Up 0.2% (highest-ever weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Up 1.4% (highest weekend close since November 2007)
* Top SA share movements: African Cellular Towers (-9.1%), Ansys (-12.5%), FoneWorx (-8.3%), MICROmega (-11.7%), Net 1 UEPS Technologies (-8.8%), Poynting Antennas (+85.7%) and Stella Vista (-14.3%)

Fortune Magazine has published its latest '100 best companies to work for' listing. From a technology perspective, SAS remains at number one, with Google at number four, NetApp at five and Cisco at 20. Also in the top 50 are, in alphabetical order, Intuit, Qualcomm and Shared Technologies, now part of Arrow Electronics.