SAP pays Oracle $1.3bn

The outcome of the copyright infringement case between Oracle and SAP dominated the international ICT market over the last two weeks. At home, Telkom's decision to pull out of its Multi-Links mobile operation in Nigeria and the formal launch of Broadband Infraco, stole much of the local ICT media space.

* Mixed interim numbers from Huge Group, with revenue down 2.3% but back in the black; and Mix Telematics, with revenue up 1% but profit down 0.6%.
* Mixed full-year figures from Reunert, with revenue up 4% but profit down 2.2%.
* Satisfactory year-end figures from Paracon, with revenue up 10% and profit up 2%; and UCS with revenue up 7% and profit up 22%.
* Mediocre interim numbers from Telkom SA, with revenue down 6.5% and profit down significantly (the Vodacom disposal caused this major change).
* Mediocre full-year figures from ConvergeNet Holdings, with revenue down 20% and profit down 42%.
* A full-year loss from Vox Telecom, with revenues also down.
* An interim loss from African Cellular Towers, with revenue also down.
* A positive trading update from Naspers.
* A negative trading update from TCS.
* Britehouse, a major SAP solutions provider, acquired majority stakes in Swicon360 and BasisOne.
* Broadband Infraco launched as a national, open space, wholesale service provider in the South African telecommunications space.
* Amabubesi Capital made a 30% investment in CSC South Africa.
* Digicore announced a rights issue that has been underwritten by Coronation Asset Management, a subsidiary of Coronation Investment Management, part of the same group that recently invested in 49% of ContinuitySA.
* Progress Software has closed its local office and appointed Rick Parry, the ex-MD of Progress Software SA, as its distributor for sub-Saharan Africa via his company, Albi Investment Group Services.
* At the inaugural Channelwise Awards event, Axiz was voted by resellers as SA's top distributor for 2010, and HP as the resellers' favourite vendor.
* Boyd Chislet was named MD of Autopage Cellular; and Peter Moyo of Amabubesi Capital was appointed chairman of CSC SA.

* Qatar Telecom acquired Orascom's 50% stake in Wataniya Telecom, its Tunisian operation, for $1.2 billion.
* Telkom SA wants to dispose of its CDMA operation in Nigeria, ie, the mobile part of Multi-Links.
* Zain's operations in Africa will be re-branded as Bharti Airtel, following the latter's acquisition of these companies.
* Jon Oliver was appointed Intelsat's new African head; and James Rutherford (ex-Altech group executive for telecommunications) was named Nokia's head in West Africa.
* Flavien Bachabi, head of Intelsat's African operations, resigned.

Telkom SA wants to dispose of its CDMA operation in Nigeria.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Accenture bought CAS Computer Anwendungs-und Systemberatung, a German software company that focuses on managing trade relations and trade promotions.
* Apple purchased Polar Rose, a Swedish start-up that makes facial recognition software.
* Ariba acquired Quadrem, a provider of supply networks and on-demand management solutions, for $150 million.
* Attachmate bought Novell in a deal that includes a Microsoft-led consortium also buying key patents for $650 million. The deal was worth $2.2 billion. Attachmate is owned by an investment group led by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital and Thoma Bravo. It is expected that Elliott Management will also take a stake in Attachmate. At one stage, VMware was rumoured to be buying Novell's Unix interests.
* Broadcom acquired Gigle Networks, a company that develops system-on-a-chip solutions for home networking over power lines, for $75 million.
* EMC purchased Isilon Systems, a data storage company, for $2.4 billion.
* Juniper Networks bought Trapeze Networks, a provider of WLAN systems and management software, for $152 million.
* Juniper Networks acquired the IP assets of Blackwave, an Internet video company.
* Navteq bought PixelActive, a 3D modelling company.
* VeriFone Systems acquired Hypercom, an e-payment company, for $400 million.
* Oracle has been awarded a $1.3 billion payout from SAP for copyright infringement, in the largest settlement of this kind.
* Motorola now expects to do its two-way split in January 2011.
* Excellent quarterly results from Applied Materials and Infineon.
* Very good quarterly figures from Analog Devices, Aruba Networks (back in the black) and NetApp.
* Good quarterly numbers from Autodesk, Dell, MphasiS (India), Sina (China) and Tech Data.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Blue Coat Systems, HP and Salesforce.com.
* Mediocre quarterly results from QAD, Reliance Communications (India) and Satyam Computer Services.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Brocade, with revenue up but profit down; Cable & Wireless Worldwide, with revenue down but profit up; and Nuance Communications, with revenue up but profit down.
* A planned IPO in December from Axiom Telecom on the Nasdaq Dubai.
* A planned IPO by Japan's Elpida Memory, the world's third largest maker of DRAM chips, on the Taiwanese Exchange.

* International:
* A possible buy-out of Groupon by Google. Naspers is an indirect investor of Groupon.
* The possible acquisition of Nuance Communications by Apple.
* France Telecom taking a stake in Iraq's third largest mobile phone operation, Korek.
* South Africa:
* The sell-off by Reunert of its 40% stake in Nokia Siemens Networks.
* The sell-off by Telkom SA of MultiLinks, its Nigerian mobile operation.

* The data centre infrastructure market grew by 6.9% in terms of revenue in Q2 2010, according to IDC.

* JSE All share index: Down 1.6%
* Nasdaq: Up 0.7%
* Top SA share movements: African Cellular Towers (-17.4%), ConvergeNet Holdings (-12.5%), Huge Group (-11.8%), Net 1 UEPS Technologies (+11.3%), Silverbridge (-10.5%), Stella Vista (-40%), TCS (-20%), TeleMasters (-19.3%), UCS (+11.1%) and Zaptronix (-33.3%)

Total Telecom has just announced its winners for this year's 'World Communications Awards'. The following were of particular interest:

* Best Managed Service and Best Project Management: Orange Business Services.
* Best Mobile Operator: Bharti Airtel.
* Best Global Operator: BT Global Services.
* Best Content Service: Turk Telecom.
* Best Operator in a Developing Market: Digicel.
* Best Customer Care: TeliaSonera.

It should be noted that no African-based company figured in the awards, either as a winner or as 'highly commended'. (It's also possible that none of the African operators were entered as candidates.)