Samsung gets smarter

Apart from the financial results that emanated last week from many of the major international ICT companies, it was a quiet week, with the sell-off by Alcatel-Lucent of its Genesys unit one of the other key stories.

* Good interim numbers from Ansys, with revenue up over 10% and profit up considerably.
* A positive trading update from ConvergeNet Holdings.
* Pinnacle Technology made a further R3.5 million investment (49%) in Explix, a distributor of Sharp's multifunction printers, thus taking its shareholding up to 100%.
* Avanade debuted in SA. This is a joint venture between Accenture (80%) and Microsoft (20%), and is a multinational IT consulting and software company that develops business software from a Microsoft products platform. The local operation will be headed by Manoj Bhoola.
* Mandla Ngcobo was named chairman of Broadband Infraco.
* The precautionary suspension of Phineas Moleele, CEO of the Universal Service and Access Agency of SA.

* France Telecom acquired 51% ($10 million) of Congo Chine Telecom, a stake that was held by China's ZTE.
* Dimension Data made an additional investment (29%) in Internet Solutions' Kenyan unit.
* The appointments of Abdul Ismail as CEO of MTN Zambia; and Karl Toriola as CEO of MTN Cameroon.
* The resignation of Farhad Khan, CEO of MTN Zambia.
* The retirement of Philippe Vandebrouck, CEO of MTN Cameroon.

Worldwide enterprise spending is set to reach $2.7 trillion in 2012.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Ariba bought b-process, a privately-held provider of France's largest electronic invoice network.
* Carlyle, a US buy-out investor group, purchased an 85% stake in Telecable de Asturias, in a transaction that values the Spanish broadband group at EUR400 million ($552 million).
* Cisco acquired BNI Video, a company in which the former was an early investor, for $99 million. The deal will help improve its technology for delivering television over the Internet instead of by more traditional ways.
* HTC purchased Zoodles, a kid-friendly browser, designed to give children a safe browsing experience.
* Lexmark bought Netherlands-based Pallas Athena, a provider of managed print services, for $50.2 million.
* Oracle acquired Endeca Technologies, a provider of data management and Web commerce products.
* Permira, a private equity group, purchased Alcatel-Lucent's Genesys unit, for $1.5 billion.
* The Wall Street Journal reported that Samsung shipped more smartphones (20 million units) in Q3 than Apple, which was previously the market leader.
* Level 3 Communications has transferred its listing to the NYSE, following the completion of its acquisition of Global Crossing.
* Microsoft Corporation is being sued for allegedly using its monopoly position in computer operating systems to block the PC-sharing business of MiniFrame, a small Israeli technology company.
* Very good quarterly figures from Apple, Intel, Riverbed Technology and VMware.
* Good quarterly numbers from Check Point Software Technologies, eBay, EMC, Informatica, Intel, Polycom, Shaw Communications and Western Digital.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from China Mobile, Ericsson, IBM, Maxim Integrated Products, Microsoft and Verizon Communications.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Altera, AT&T, Xilinx and Yahoo.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Compuware, with revenue up but profit down; Etisalat, with revenue up but profit down; Flextronics, with revenue up but profit down; HCL Technologies, with revenue up but profit down; Idea Cellular, with revenue up but profit down; Juniper Networks, with revenue up but profit down; Millicom International, with revenue up but profit down; Patni Computer, with revenue up but profit down; SanDisk, with revenue up but profit down; and Seagate Technology, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Acer, Freescale Semiconductor, LG Display and Nokia (revenue also down).
* The retirement of Michael Laphen, CEO of CSC.

* International:
* The IPO of Groupon, which is now scheduled for 4 November.
* Further developments regarding the future of Research in Motion.
* Africa:
* A possible bid by MTN for Vodacom's operations in the DRC.
* South Africa:
* The outcome of the Competition Tribunal's of hearing regarding allegations of anti-competitive behaviour by Telkom.

* Worldwide enterprise spending is set to reach $2.7 trillion in 2012, up 3.9% from the $2.6 trillion in 2011, according to Gartner.
* The EMEA PC market contracted 3.8% in 3Q11, with HP reclaiming its number one position over Acer, according to IDC.

* JSE All share index: Up 1%
* Nasdaq: Down 1.1%
* Top SA share movements: Cape Empowerment (-9.1%), Ifca Technologies (+11.1%), Sekunjalo (+17.2%) and Zaptronix (+50%)

Every year since 1982, US-based Software Magazine publishes its annual ranking of the world's largest software and services providers, ie, its Software 500. From a technology perspective, the top five places are occupied by IBM, Microsoft, HPO, Oracle and Accenture.

However, the following statistics are of particular interest:

* RIM had the highest growth in revenue in the >$1 billion category, ahead of Google;
* Kofax had the third highest growth in revenue in the $100 million to $1 billion category and was in 10th position overall;
* Check Point Software Technologies came in at number seven regarding the 'revenue per employee' ratings; and
* IBM was the company with the most employees, followed by Hitachi, HP and Accenture.