Siltek`s year-end results delayed

The acquisition of Illuminet by VeriSign and the fate of ExciteAtHome dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications last week.

[VIDEO]At home, the continued flow of local results and the Sas du Toit insider trading story took much of the local headline space.

• we saw satisfactory year-end figures from Integrear (revenue slightly down but net profit up, although a very poor second six months);
• mediocre full-year (18 months) figures from UAM;
• very poor year-end numbers from Pinnacle (revenue down slightly but second six months showing a loss);
• a full-year loss from Siltek, Spicer (revenue also well down and is totally off-shore) and Systems Publishers (turnover also down);
• good half-year numbers from Labat Africa (revenue up a little but income more than doubled);
• much improved interims from Synergy (revenue up and back in the black);
• a flat set of half-year numbers from ShawCell (revenue and earnings flat); and
• a half-year loss from Bytes Technology Group (but revenue well up), Cyberhost (very little revenue in past 12 months) and Square One Solutions Group (but revenue well up).
• Additionally, the lifting of the JSE suspension on the shares of Brainware was postponed, as was the disposal by Iscor of its shares in AST.

Siltek`s year-end numbers were also due out last week, but late Friday a cautionary notice was issued indicating a delay until the finalisation of the capital restructuring plan. In the current circumstances, the question on many people`s lips is, "will Siltek survive?" The Siltek share price dropped again last week to close the week at 10c.

[Local]

Other local news included:

• the payment of R4.2 million by Sas du Toit, former CEO of Spicer, as a settlement, after pleading guilty to insider trading;
• the appointment of Rick Rogers as SA country manager for Nortel Networks;
• the announcement that Prism is to sell a stake in its local operations to a black empowerment group and that CS Holdings is also in similar talks;
• the restructuring announcement of its South African operations by Dimension Data; and
• the on-going heated debates during the public hearings of the Telecommunications Amendment Bill.

According to Dataquest, a Gartner unit, growth in worldwide spending on new software in 2001 has slowed to less than half of last year`s growth.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

The new SA structure of Dimension Data consists of three divisions: business solutions, connectivity and integrated services. The business solutions division would include CRM, customer interaction, e-business solutions and services provisions. The connectivity division would include IS and voice, networking and cabling businesses. The integrated services division includes data centres and business applications.

• we saw the shedding of Deutsche Telekom shares by Sonera, the Finnish phone operator;
• the acquisition by Agfa of two companies during the last week;
• the filing of a $1.27 billion law suit by the US Department of Justice against Computer Associates for alleged price fixing; and
• the statements from the new trial judge in the DOJ/Microsoft case, whereby Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly indicated that she had "broad discretion" to levy wide-ranging penalties against Microsoft, who had hoped to narrow the behavioural restraints that could be imposed.

Additionally, look out for the acquisition by Italian ISP, Tiscali, of Spanish ISP, Arrakis, owned by British Telecom; for the buyer of Lucent`s Octel messaging unit, and for developments re the talks between AT&T and Comcast now that a confidentiality agreement between the two parties has been signed.

[International]

Other international news included:

• the appointments of Steve Abely as CFO of Bookham Technology, Robert Callahan as chairman, president and CEO of Ziff Davis Media, Yen Lee as president and CEO of EM3, and Andrew Wrobel as CEO of MeltroniX;
• the resignations of Doug Berlach, CFO of Viasource Comms, Rick Bryson as CFO of Pac-West Telecom, and Jerry Kent, president and CEO of Charter Comms; and
• job loss announcements from Alliance Semiconductor, AMD, AMS, Atmel, BricsNet NV, Brooks Automation, Clarent, CyberOptics, Digi International, Embratel, Enea Data AB, ExciteAtHome, Gauss Interprise AG, HyperFeed Technologies, Logica, Navigant International, Photon Dynamics, TEK DigiTel and Terabeam.

We saw excellent figures from Groupe Steria SCA.

Good numbers were recorded by Capita Group, Resources Connection, Science Systems and Sopra group SA.

Mediocre returns came from Amstrad and Gennum; while very poor results were reported by Audiovox, Corel (but back in the black), Manchester Technologies and Richardson Electronics.

Losses came from Aehr Test Systems, Affinity Internet Holdings, Auxinet, Cadapult Graphics systems, CMGI, CS Communications & Systemes SA, DTS, Enterasys Networks, Financial Models Company, Micron Technology, NaviSite, Paradigm Advanced Technologies, Procom Technology, Saba Software, Telesoft, Teltone, Vari-L Company, Vsource and Wi-LAN.

Other financial news included share buy-back announcements from CDW Computer Center, Enterasys, Innotrac, IXYS, Rogue Wave Software, SAP, SONICblue and STMicroelectronics.

There were also profit warnings from Adept Technology, AES, AMS, AOL, Atmel, British Telecom (investment charges), California Micro Devices, Cendant, Clarent, CyberOptics, Digi International, EMS Technologies, Enea Data AB, Gauss Interprise AG, Gemplus International SA, IDX, Insight Comms, Institnet, Luminent, Maxtor, NEC, Novatel Wireless, Pegasus Solutions, Redback Networks, RM, Signal Spectrum, Sonus Networks, Sony and Telework Systems.

Share split announcements came from Iomega and PLATO Learning; there was a postponed IPO from Immarsat Ventures, and a good debut in Amsterdam by Priority Telecom, the business telephony unit of Dutch cable group United Pan-Europe Comms. Additionally, Exodus Comms has applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and ExciteAtHome could well be heading that way.

Locally

Cyberhost (-50%)
DNA Supply Chain (-30.5%)
Labat Africa (+45%)
Micrologix (+50%)
Prada Technologies (-89.5%)
PTH (+100%)
Sethold (+45.5%)
Spicer (+50%)
Synergy (+166.7%)
UAM (+56.3%)

Internationally

Telecom (-57.3%)
Anacomp (+53.8%)
Atlantic Telecom (+150%)
Cedara Software (+68.4%)
ExciteAtHome (-53.1%)
Excelon (+48.4%)
Global Imaging Systems (+55.8%)
IDT (+78.4%)
Portal Software (+96.1%)
Prodigy (+55.6%)

According to Dataquest, a Gartner unit, growth in worldwide spending on new software in 2001 has slowed to less than half of last year`s growth. The research shows that software spending grew just 6% in the first half of this year compared to 18% in the corresponding period last year. Dataquest expects total software spending in 2001 to be up only 7% over 2000, with new licence revenue of approximately $77 billion.