Small buys for big firms

The ICT world both internationally and locally was quiet last week. Internationally there were a few small acquisitions by some of the major players and the announcement from Bill Gates about his future, while locally, the holiday week took its usual toll.

* Bill Gates will leave his full-time role at Microsoft in 2008.

* Mixed interim numbers from Stella Vista, with revenue marginally down but profit up 19%.
* Positive trading updates from Faritec and Simeka BSG.
* The resignation of Ntsundeni Madzunya, CIO of the SA Post Office.
* Pinnacle acquired the remaining 50% shareholding in Explix that it did not already own. Explix owns IT distributor Workgroup.
* US-based Austin Logistics, a provider of analytic solutions, entered SA via Grapevine Interactive.
* The appointment of World Computer Systems as the sole distributor for Silicon Power.

* Wananchi Online (Kenya) and ISP Kenya have finally merged and will prepare for an initial public offering (IPO).
* Tsohle Technology Holdings, a SA black-owned and managed IT group, formed a joint venture with Geneva-based TATIS SA, known as TATIS Africa, to resell and implement TATIS solutions in Africa.
* The appointment of Rex Chibesa as MD of Telecel Zimbabwe.

Hitachi, Toshiba and Reneasas Technology ended their chip production joint venture.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Applix bought Dutch-based Temetec International, a self-service analysis and reporting software company.
* CA acquired MDY Group International, a provider of enterprise records management software and services.
* Sybase acquired data integration provider, Solande AG.
* Xerox bought Amici, a provider of e-discovery services.
* Hitachi, Toshiba and Reneasas Technology ended their chip production joint venture.
* The dismissal of Martin Higginson, founder and CEO of Monstermob, a mobile content company.
* A job loss announcement from Fair Isaac.
* A satisfactory IPO from Synchronoss Technologies, a provider of e-commerce software.
* An IPO on London`s AIM by Dillistone, a recruitment software company.
* The satisfactory listing on Nasdaq of Verigy, the semiconductor test business hived-off from Agilent.
* The listing of 3 Italia, the telecommunications company owned by Hong Kong`s Hutchison Whampoa, was put on hold.

* According to IDC, worldwide PC shipments in Q106 grew by 11.8% over Q105, although less than in the previous two years.
* The worldwide storage software market grew 10.2% in Q106 to lb2.4 billion, compared to Q105, says IDC. EMC retained the number one slot but with a reduced market share, followed by Symantec and IBM.

* JSE All share index: Up 1.9%
* Nasdaq: Down 0.2%
* Top SA share movements: Digicore (-8.6%), Labat Africa (+9.1%), Stella Vista (+26.7%), Vesta (+14.3%) and Zaptronix (-14.3%)
* Top international share movements: BackWeb Technologies (-25.6%), California Micro Devices (-28.4%), Exabyte (-23.3%), Jabil Circuit (-22.9%), Pegasus Communications (-30.3%), Silicon Graphics (-20.5%) and Silverline Technologies (-43.5%)

The UK`s FT has published its latest Global 500 based on market values. From an ICT perspective, the highest ranked company was Microsoft at number three (same as last year), with Vodafone being the highest rated UK/European company at 29 (was 12) and NTT the highest rated Japanese company at 69 (was 50). The highest ranked ICT newcomer was Mexico`s Amtel at 377, with MTN, also a newcomer, at 469. Key departures from the latest list included AT&T (acquired by SBC Communications), Nextel Communications (acquired by Sprint), Telecom Mobile Italia (acquired by Telecom Italia) and Xerox. Swisscom dropped from 231 to 383, while Corning (392 to 160) and Google (279 to 60) progressed up the list.

I will be away next week and my next column will be published on 10 July, but will contain a roundup of all the events in the intervening period.