Political decision

During a very quiet week, Hitachi`s acquisition of IBM`s disk-drive operations dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications.

It`s a shame that politics interferes so much within areas that affect business growth in this country.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

At home, the out-of-court settlement by ICASA and Telkom stole much of the local IT/telecoms headline space.

* we saw a profit warning and job loss announcements from Comparex;

* the suspension of Unihold`s shares following its acquisition by Clidet; and

* the JSE advised that there is an audit qualification on CCI Holdings` annual financial statements.

Local acquisitions, mergers, investments etc (see attachment).

Local Cautionary Notices (see attachment).

Local Result Summaries (see attachment).

Local Major Event Summary (see attachment).

[Local]

Other local news included:

* the suggestion that Comparex is to split into two separate listed companies, Africa and the ROW; and

* the liquidation last month of Durban-based Southern Focus.

* we saw the name change of UltraRF, a subsidiary of Cree, to Cree Microwave;

* the termination of operations by PixTech;

* the sell-off by NEC of most of its stake in Thomson Multimedia;

* the approval by Ericsson shareholders of a $3.09 billion rights issue; and

* the news that 15 000 employee Deloitte Consulting is not going down the initial public offering route but will be the subject of a management buyout that will be finalised by year-end.

Additionally, look out for the buy-out of some of the KPNQwest assets by AT&T; a possible end to the Commerce One/SAP relationship; and the outcome of the battle for Philippine Long Distance Telephone.

International acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures etc (see attachment).

[International]

Other international news included:

* the appointments of Steve Dalton as president and CEO of Gadzoox Networks, Steve Giese as president and CEO of World Data Products, Gary Greenfield as CEO of Peregrine Systems, and David Tacelli as president and COO of LTX; and

* job loss announcements from Alcatel`s Optronics, Corning, HP, IBM, Manugistics, Oracle, PixTech and WorldCom.

We saw excellent figures from Forgent Networks (back in the black) and Take-Two Interactive Software (back in the black).

Good numbers were recorded by Carreker, Proginet (back in the black) and Synopsys.

Satisfactory results were posted by American Software, Logility, National Semiconductor (back in the black), SteelCloud, Verint (back in the black) and Workflow Management (back in the black).

Mediocre returns came from Conolog, Dycom, Formula Systems (but back in the black), Logility and Plato Learning.

Very poor results were reported by Formula Systems (but back in the black - just) and Manchester Technologies.

Losses came from ARS Networks, ASAT Holdings, Claxson Interactive, Comverse Technology, Dataram, IDT, IFX, Loudcloud, Merant, MKS, PCSupport.com, Pilat Technologies International, Prosoft Training, ProtoSource, SeaChange International, Tadpole Technology, Tundra Semiconductor, Ulticom, Versus Technology, Versant and Volt Information Sciences.

Other financial news included share buy-back announcements from Alliance Semiconductor, Crossroads Systems and Zarlink Semiconductor; profit warnings from AirGate PCS, EBay, Flextronics, Harrier Group, HP, IBM, Intel, Manugistics, NaviSite, NetScout, Palm, Rainbow Technologies, RF Micro, Sierra Wireless, Tadpole Technology, Tibco Software and Versant. There was also a share split announcement from Scient; a disappointing IPO from Plumtree Software (portal software); and a good IPO from Veridian.

Locally

Hicor (+25%)

Netactive (-28%)

OneLogix (+28.9%)

Sethold (-16.7%)

Stella Vista (+25%)

Vesta (+40%)

Zaptronix (-25%)

Internationally

Alcatel Optronics (-44.3%)

Alpha Industries (-37.9%)

Bell Canada (-60%)

Conexant Systems (-32.9%)

Dobson Comms (-36.1%)

Geoworks (-33.3%)

Level 8 Systems (-41.8%)

Lucent Technologies (-41.7%)

Millicom International Cellular (-43.9%)

Rural Cellular (-30.3%)

It`s a shame that politics interferes so much within areas that affect business growth in this country. Last week it was the unfortunate compromise between Telkom and ICASA regarding the new phone charges that came into force earlier this year.

As I have said on many occasions, we need substantially more bandwidth in SA, and call charges that are affordable and appropriate in order to encourage business usage, and more importantly, usage by the many individuals who are currently precluded from Internet access or even telephone usage. It is better to have a higher usage with smaller margins of profit than little or no usage with huge margins. This marketing axiom seems to have been conveniently forgotten or deliberately ignored.