Shooting satellites

The ICT market was extremely quiet last week, with a few key appointments and resignations dominating the international news. In Africa, the failure of Nigeria's satellite stole the headlines, and Telkom's repositioning took much of the local ICT headline space.

* Excellent year-end figures from ConvergeNet, with revenue and profit significantly up as a result of the many acquisitions/investments made in the past 12 months.
* Very good interim figures from DTH, with revenue up 29% and profit up 45%.
* Mediocre year-end numbers from Spescom, with revenue slightly down but profit well down.
* Mediocre interim numbers from Telkom SA, with revenue up 9.8% but profit down 2.8%.
* Mixed year-end figures from Vox Telecom, with revenue up 87% but profit down 30%.
* Positive trading updates from Mix Telematics (ex TeliMatrix), Reunert and Sekunjalo.
* A negative trading update from Eureka.
* Telkom plans to become SA's fifth cellular provider next year.

* A nine-month loss from Starcomms (Nigeria), despite revenue being up 84% and subscriber numbers up 134%.
* Mediocre quarterly numbers from Orascom Telecom.
* Millicom International Cellular has won the third national mobile licence in Rwanda, beating competition from Larrycom-Expresso, Telecel Globe and Zain.
* The Nigerian government's first satellite (NIGCOMSAT-1) has failed just 18 months after its launch.
* Riad Gydien was appointed head of operations for SAS in the Middle East and Africa (this is in addition to his role as SA country manager); and Phoday Sisay was appointed acting CEO of Gamtel and Gamcel (Gambia).

Sales of semiconductors are set to drop 5.6% in 2009, the first time a decline has been forecast since 2001.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* IBM acquired Transitive, a company that develops technologies that allow applications written for one type of microprocessor and operating system to run on multiple platforms.
* EMC has created a new company, Decho, by combining its Mozy and Pi businesses into a single unit, aimed at enabling customers to protect and manage personal information in the cloud.
* Good quarterly numbers from Brocade and Salesforce.com.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Logica.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Dell.
* Thierry Breton was appointed chairman and CEO of Atos Origin. Breton was CEO at France Telecom and more recently held a position in the French government.
* Enrique Salem was named president and CEO of Symantec (was COO).
* Jerry Yang, co- founder and CEO of Yahoo, resigned.
* John Thompson, CEO of Symantec, retired (he stays on as chairman).

* The EUR1.5 billion sale by Alcatel-Lucent of its stake (20.8%) in Thales SA to the French Dassault Group.
* The possible splitting of Carphone Warehouse into two units, retail and telecommunications.

* Sales of semiconductors are set to drop 5.6% in 2009, the first time a decline has been forecast since 2001, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.

* JSE All share index: Down 6.9%
* Nasdaq: Down 8.7%
* Top SA share movements: Alliance Mining (-16.7%), Celcom (-23.5%), Faritec (-17.1%), FoneWorx (+23.1%), GijimaAst (-14.8%), Ideco (+76.3%), Jasco (-27.9%), Net 1 UEPS Technologies (-23.6%), Pinnacle (-20.1%) and Reunert (-17%)

Fortune magazine has published its 2008 Accountability Ratings, which ranks the world's largest companies by their effectiveness as managers of corporate social responsibility issues. Vodafone came in at number one, France Telecom at number four, Nokia at six, HP at 11, Deutsche Telekom at 19, Toshiba at 22 and IBM at 25. Also in the top 100 were AT&T, Hitachi, LG Electronics, NTT, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics, Sony, Telefonica and Verizon Communications.