Profits and losses

Last week`s key international acquisitions included Informix swallowing Ardent Software and Sybase taking over HFN; while at home the merger of Spicer and IQ Business Group stole local headlines.

• a full-year loss by Conlog Holdings (revenue also down on 1998);
• satisfactory year-end results from Sekunjalo Investments (it has an IT portfolio within the group);
• good interim numbers from Omni Media (telecomms interests buoyant) and Y2KTec (but attributable income only about 10% of prospectus year-end forecast);
• an interim 12-month loss from USKO (but revenue up some 40%);
• an interim loss from Stantronics (revenue also down on the similar period in 1998); and
• satisfactory interims from Hicor, which recently transferred to the IT section of the JSE, when comparing like for like.
• Additionally, Mustek has released figures for Q1, which show very good revenue and income growth, and Infiniti seems to have run into some problems regarding the disposal of FSA.

[Local]

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

Local Cautionary Notices (see attachment).

Local Listing calendar (see attachment).

Other local news included:

• the opening of a local office for Lawson Software; and
• the appointments of Wendy Luhabe as the non-executive chairman of Vodacom, Jan Coetzee as country manager for PeopleSoft SA, and Sas du Toit and Johan Roets as the executive chairman and CEO respectively of the newly merged Spicer/IQ Business group.

• the appointment by the US Justice Department of a financial advisory firm to help it explore possible remedies in the Microsoft anti-trust case;
• the announcements by BEA Systems that it is reorganising into four separate units and that Microsoft is merging its consumer and business Windows group into a single division; and
• the news that controversial discount PC dealer Microworkz had been closed.

[International]

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

Other international news included:

• the appointments of Brian Keane, the son of founder and chairman John Keane, as CEO of Keane, Carl Yankowski as the new CEO at Palm Computing (3Com), and Peter Alexander as president and COO of Pointe Comms; and
• the resignation of Timothy Mann as CEO at Acsys.

Excellent figures from 4Front Technologies and Brocade Comms Systems (back in the black).

Losses from Anacomp, ARI Network Services, Certicom, Eltek, IPC Comms, SoftNet Systems, Systems Software Associates, Trintech Group and Worldwide Wireless Networks.

Good numbers were recorded by Analog Devices, Atos SA, Catalyst Semiconductor (back in the black), Comtech Telecomms, Comverse Technology, Manchester Equipment, Redstone Telecom (maiden interims), Software AG and TDS Informationstechnologie AG.

Satisfactory results were reported by Cable Design Technologies, Centigram Comms (back in the black), Singapore Telecomms and Tech Data.

Mediocre returns came from ADC Telecomms, Deutsche Telekom, Hummingbird Comms, MPSI (back in the black), Teltrend and Wave Technologies; while very poor results came from JD Edwards.

Other financial news included profit warnings from Compaq (Q1), Deutsche Telekom, SCT and Tech Data, and share split announcements from Infosys Technologies, Inktomi and TriQuint Semiconductor.

There was also a very successful debut on Nasdaq by digital watermark company, Digimarc; a good debut in Frankfurt by German ISP Freenet.de; and the announcement that Yahoo! has been added to the S&P 500 index.

Locally

Bryant (-21.7%)
C-Tech (+220%)
Connection Group (+28.6%)
Elexir (-20%)
Infiniti (-30%)
ITech (-30.6%)
PentaCom (-22.2%)
PTH (-25%)
Streamworks (-22.2%)
Synergy (+36.1%)
UAM (+42.9%)
USKO (-27.5%)
Whetstone (-28.6%)
Y2Ktec (-46.7%)

Internationally

Aspen Technology (+44.5%)
Computron (+50%)
Documentum (+37.7%)
Diamond Technology Partners (+30.9%)
ESAT Telecomms Group (+41.5%)
HNC Software (+35.4%)
i2 (+42.6%)
Inprise (+41%)
Magic Software (+42.3%)
MIPS (+48.4%)
Open Market (+31.6%)
OSI (+74.3%)
Sema Group (+28.4%)
Scan-Optics (+70%)
Sapiens International (+26.2%)
Staffware (+51.4%)

This is the last Booth`s Bites for 1999. However, I will be back in the new year (10 January) with a summary of key happenings over the festive season and year-end, and some new additions to my weekly column.

Next week, there will be a brief synopsis of 1999, covering those events and happenings, both locally and internationally, that I believe have been particularly significant.

Finally, for the readers of my column, thank you for your support; I hope you have found it both informative and of value. I would like to wish you the very best over the festive season and a very prosperous year 2000.