Quiet week sees mediocre results from Oracle

During an unusually quiet period, the mediocre results from Oracle (although better than its lowered forecast), the acquisition by Liberty Media Group of six regional cable TV companies owned by Deutsche Telekom for over $5.5 billion, and again, the flow of profit/results warnings dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications last week.

[VIDEO]At home, the focus was on the numerous issues relating to Core Holdings and its subsidiary, International Fairs and Exhibitions.

• .         we saw satisfactory full-year numbers from Johnnic Comms (revenue well up but earnings up only marginally);
• .         a full-year loss from Y2KTec (revenue slightly up but earnings significantly down);
• .         a profit warning from Spicer; and
• .         an announcement from the JSE that Dectronic has failed to submit its interim reports within the required timeframe.

[Local]

Other local news included:

• .         the disputes between Core and the CSSA re the Tel.com exhibition and between Telkom and Telcordia, one of its software suppliers;
• .         the restructuring of SalesBid, a commerce solutions provider;
• .         the news that Nedcor is reconsidering its stake in Dimension Data;
• .         the confirmation that Y2KTec intends to turn into a cash shell;
• .         the change of ownership of Cyberhost following its acquisition of Ex-teq Realtime Systems;
• .         the consolidation of Westcon`s distribution interests in SA;
• .         the opening of a new division at Ixchange, Fraxion Software, that will concentrate on electronic authorisation software; and
• .         the news that Affinity Internet Holdings is considering a secondary Johannesburg listing for next year.

• .         we saw the announcement that Netease.com had ceased looking for a buyer and was bolstering its management team and strengthening its range of Internet services;
• .         the name demise of Fujitsu`s UK-based ICL and Canada-based DMR Consulting with these two entities being subsumed into the Fujitsu brand; and
• .         the news that Acer expects its restructuring to be complete by year-end.

A Texas-based investment group has initiated a battle to gain control of Computer Associates.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

Additionally, watch out for a possible merger of Sweden`s Telia and Finland`s Sonera, two leading Scandinavian telecoms companies; the acquisition of Lucent`s fibre optic unit by Ciena; and the possible take-over of TeleDanmark`s German unit by Mobilcom.

Furthermore, a Texas-based investment group has initiated a battle to gain control of Computer Associates. The group is led by Sam Wyly, the former chairman of Sterling Software - a company that was acquired by CA last year.

[International]

Other international news included:

• .         the appointments of Kimmo Alkio as COO of F-Secure, Edward Boykin as president and COO of CSC, Dan Fishback as CEO of DemandTec, and Werner Heid as president and CEO of Iomega;
• .         the resignation of Charles Halle, CEO of Vocalis; and
• .         job loss announcements from Infinium, Level 3 Comms, LSI Logic, Maxtor, PurchasePro and Teradyne.

We saw excellent figures from Research in Motion.

Good numbers were recorded by Red Hat (back in the black); and satisfactory ones by Gtech Holdings and Tektronix.

Mediocre returns came from Dense-Pac Microsystems, Halifax, Jabil Circuit, Oracle, Progress Software and Verity; while very poor results came from California Amplifier and Spectrum Control.

Losses were reported by APW, Cognos, Covad Comms, Data Translation, FSI International, Globus Wireless, Ingenuus, InTechnology, Intrinsyc Software, JetForm, Manugistics, Micrel, Micron Electronics, Micron Technology, On Semiconductor, Plaintree Systems, Riverstone Networks, Sanmina, Scipher, Solectron, Standard Microsystems, Tibco, Unify and Workflow Management.

Other financial news included profit warnings from AMS, Arrow Electronics, Asyst Technologies, Avnet, Bookham Technology, Brightpoint, CyberOptics, DMC Stratex Networks, Elcoteq, Exactech, Exodus Comms, First Consulting Group, iBeam, Infineon, Infinium, Iomega, Level 3 Comms, M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers, Manugistics, Micronas, Misys, PCDI, Psi Technologies, Snap-On, Symantec, Tellabs, Teradyne and Transmeta.

There was also a withdrawn IPO from Lynuxworks, with a satisfactory IPO from Multilink Technology (optical networking), a debut on Nasdaq by Taiwanese semiconductor company ChipMOS, an IPO filing from Lawson Software, and Asia Global Crossing starts trading on Nasdaq this week.

Locally

Core (+200%)
EC-Hold (-26.7%)
Explorer (+50%)
Hicor (-33.3%)
OneLogix (-26.7%)
OSI (+60%)
Oxbridge (-50%)
ShawCell (+31.4%)
Spicer (-33.3%)
Vesta (-25%)

Internationally

AtHome (-28.6%)
Bookham Technology (-29%)
Digex (-26.3%)
Exodus Comms (-63.3%)
OnSpan Networking (-32.6%)
Portal Software (-26.5%)
Quest Software (+38%)
Robocom Systems International (-27.6%)
Tellabs (-28.1%)
Terayon Comms Systems (-29.3%)

I am in New York this week attending Technology Exchange Week New York, which includes PC Expo. As a result, my next issue will be published on 9 July, but will include a review of this event, which has all the indications of being the most important IT/telecoms event in the US, and replacing Comdex in that regard.