Rumours abound

The international ICT market last week was dominated by several, possibly bizarre, rumours that included Oracle buying HP, Kodak applying for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and Alibaba acquiring Yahoo.

At home, the publication of several sets of financial results, including that of Altech, and the profit warning from Telkom SA, stole the local ICT media space.

Motorola Solutions is being investigated regarding bribery allegations associated with some European deals.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Satisfactory full-year numbers from Poynting Antennas, with revenue up 7% and profit up 4%.
* Mixed Q3 numbers from Telemasters, with revenue up 11.5% but profit down 25.8%.
* Mixed interim numbers from Altech, with revenue up 1% but profit down 41%.
* Mixed year-end figures from Jasco, with revenue up 38% but profit down 45.5%.
* Interim losses from Cape Empowerment and the Dialogue Group.
* Negative trading updates from Datacentrix and Telkom SA.
* Exinda, a supplier of WAN optimisation and application acceleration products, has opened an office in SA. It will be headed by Alan Rehbock, who will also be responsible for sub-Saharan Africa.
* The appointments of Febe Potgieter-Gqubule as acting chairman of SITA; and Dean Sparrow as CEO of UCS Group.
* The resignation of John Bright, CEO of UCS Group (takes on a non-executive director position).

* Nigeria's communications and technology minister, Omobola Johnson, said she would like IT, communications and technology companies to emulate Morvest and list on that country's stock market in an effort to boost the economy.
* The appointments of Salia Gbane as Chad's MD for Bharti Airtel; and Marcellin Paluku as Rwanda's country manager for Bharti Airtel.

Digital Design Semiconductors.
* Carlyle Group, a private equity company, bought UK-based ITRS, a company that makes software to monitor bank trading and risk management.
* Intel purchased Telmap, an Israeli location-based services company.
* NetScout Systems acquired FoxReplay NV, a provider of session reconstruction and replay technology in the field of cyber intelligence.
* Reed Elsevier, an Anglo-Dutch publishing group, bought Accuity Holdings, a US online-data business.
* Renren, a Chinese social networking company, purchased 56.com, a Chinese video-sharing Web site.
* Sony acquired US-based Micronics, a developer of diagnostic equipment.
* IBM has topped Microsoft regarding market capitalisation, for the first time since 1996, and becomes the world's fourth-largest company by market value and the second only technology one behind Apple.
* Lenovo has entered into a $300 million joint venture with Compal Electronics (Taiwan), the world's number two laptop maker.
* Motorola Solutions is being investigated regarding bribery allegations associated with some European deals.
* Good quarterly numbers from Accenture and Jabil Circuit.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Progress Software.
* Mixed quarterly figures from SMSC, with revenue up but profit down.
* The appointments of Rick Bergman (ex-AMD) as CEO of Synaptics; and Jesper Ovesen as executive chairman of Nokia Siemens Networks.
* A planned IPO in the US from HiChina Group, a full-service infrastructure service provider and part of the Alibaba Group.

* International:
* The future of Eastman Kodak. Its shares dropped over 60% during the week and its market capitalisation is now only just over $200 million.
* The possible acquisition by Alibaba.com of Yahoo, the latter now having a market capitalisation of $16 billion.
* The remote possibility of Oracle buying HP. HP's market capitalisation is now only just over $44 billion; it is a company in turmoil, and thus, is ripe for such a move.
* A possible buy-in to RIM by Carl Icahn, an activist investor.

* Africa:
* The future of the Zamtel deal that was recently concluded with Libya's LAP Green Networks.
* A new MD of Kenyan Data Networks following the company's recent poor performance. The current MD is only employed on a contractual basis.

* South Africa:
* Further developments/announcements from Business Connexion regarding Orange and the future of its 'A' shares.

* According to the 2011 Economist Intelligence Unit's IT Industry Competitiveness Index, SA has slipped four positions to number 47 in the worldwide rankings.
* Worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending is likely to decline 19.2% in 2012, according to Gartner.
* Worldwide media tablet sales are likely to total 63.6 million units in 2011, a 261.4% increase over 2010, according to Gartner.

* JSE All share index: Down 1.3%
* Nasdaq: Down 2.7%
* Top SA share movements: AdaptIT (+8.3%), Ansys (-13.3%), ConvergeNet Holdings (+18.2%), Ifca Technologies (-22.1%), Jasco (+17.4%), Morvest (-8%) and SecureData (+18.2%)

Forbes magazine has published its first African edition, which lists the 20 most powerful women in Africa. From a technology perspective, Pinky Moholi, CEO of Telkom SA, comes in at number 16, and Irene Charnley, a director of MTN and CEO of Smile Telecommunications, is number 19.

Also, Fortune magazine has published its latest list of the 50 most powerful women in business. It includes Ginni Rometti from IBM at number seven; Ursula Burns of Xerox at eight; Safra Katz of Oracle at 11; and Sheryl McCoy of Facebook at 12. The list was compiled before the appointment of Meg Whitman as CEO of HP.