The ICT industry was extremely quiet last week, with the international scene seeing a handful of acquisitions and some very positive quarterly results. At home it was the annual results from Telkom and its settlement with Telcordia that dominated the local media ICT space.
Key local news of the past week
* Satisfactory year-end figures from Telkom SA, with revenue up 2% but profit up significantly following the disposal of its shares in Vodacom. Profit would have declined if the Vodacom contribution had been excluded.
* A negative trading update from Simeka.
* Telkom SA will pay out $82 million to Telcordia in settlement of their nine-year fight.
* Lesley Mawhinney was appointed MD of Mabili Search.
Key African news
* Safaricom (Kenya) acquired IGO Wireless, a fixed wireless data company, and Instaconnect, an application service provider.
* Orascom Telecom is proposing to list its Zimbabwean unit on the ZSE.
* Telkom SA is to merge its African ISPs, Africa Online and MWeb Africa, into a new unit called iWay Africa.
Key international news
* Alibaba.com purchased Vendio Services, a US-based e-commerce site.
* Arrow Electronics bought UK-based Sphinx Group, a distributor of network and security products.
* HP acquired Melodeo, a music streaming company, $35 million.
* SAS purchased UK-based Memex, a provider of intelligence management solutions.
* Tibco Software bought Proginet for $19.7 million.
* Very good quarterly figures from Oracle.
* Good quarterly numbers from Adobe, Red Hat, Research in Motion and Tibco Software.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Accenture and Progress Software.
* A planned IPO from Smart Technologies, a maker of digital whiteboards.
Look out for
* International:
* The fate of SonicWALL, a communications company, since new bidders have entered the fray following a bid for the firm by Thomas Bravo, a US private equity company.
* The outcome of the talks going on between Vivendi and Reliance Communications.
* Africa:
* Further developments regarding the sell-off/break-up of Orascom Telecom.
* South Africa:
* The CEO appointments for MTN and Telkom SA.
Research results and predictions
Telkom SA will pay out $82 million to Telcordia in settlement of their nine-year fight.
Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners
* Worldwide cloud services market to surpass $68 billion in 2010, according to Gartner.
* The number of mobile payment users will reach 108.6 million in 2010, predicts Gartner.
* Public IT cloud services will grow at more than five times the rate of traditional IT products, according to IDC.
Stock market changes
* JSE All share index: Down 1.8%
* Nasdaq: Down 3.7%
* Top SA share movements: African Cellular Towers (-8%), Dialogue Group (-18.2%), Ifca Technologies (+33.3%), MICROmega (-22.1%) and Poynting Antennas (-42.9%)
Final word
The Financial Mail has just published its annual Top Companies 2010 supplement. From a technology perspective, the following are some of the interesting ratings:
Overall winners:
* MTN at number two
* Altech at number seven
* Dimension Data at 15
Top performers, based on five-year internal rates of return:
* FoneWorx at nine
* Pinnacle Technology at 13
Top five ICT companies by net profit
MTN, Vodacom, Dimension Data, Reunert, and Allied Electronics (Altron)
Top five ICT companies by turnover:
MTN, Telkom SA, Vodacom, Datatec and Dimension Data
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