Speculation surrounds Telkom

Last week saw much speculation surrounding the investments Telkom may make.

* The battle for control of Vodafone`s Japanese interests ended with a win for Softbank with a bid worth about lb8.9 billion.
* Telefonica will buy-out the 7.5% stake in Telefonica Moviles SA it doesn`t already own for EUR3.46 billion.

* Excellent interim numbers from Pinnacle with revenue up nearly 100% and profit up nearly 200%.
* Satisfactory year-end figures from Control Instruments, with revenue up a little and profit up about 13.5%.
* Positive trading updates from Bytes Technology Group, EOH, Jasco, Metrofile and MTN.
* A negative trading update from Idion.
* Control Instruments acquired US-based Tripmaster, a provider of fleet management products.
* Dynamic Cables bought Capensis, an asset holding company.
* Datanet was appointed as the local distributor for Belden CDT.

* Vodafone bought an additional 9% of Kenya`s Safaricom, raising its shareholding to 49%.
* Nokia opened an office in Nairobi.

* Quanta Computer and Sanyo Electric formed a joint venture for LCD manufacture.
* IBM bought out Language Analysis Systems.
* Google acquired @Last, a maker of 3D software.
* Unisys will sell its stake in Nihon Unisys.
* Job loss announcements from Lenovo and Mercury Computer Systems.
* Planned IPOs from GrenTech, a China-based manufacturer of wireless

telecommunications equipment; and InfoCare A/S, an IT services vendor.
* IPO filings from Himax Technologies, a maker of semiconductors for flat-panel displays.
* An IPO on London`s AIM by MTI Wireless Edge.
* A satisfactory IPO on Nasdaq by iPCS.
* A temporary suspension on London`s Aim of the shares of Future Internet Technologies, which is in the throes of a reverse take-over by Advance Global Communications.

If Telkom SA is successful in a consortium that is bidding for Portugal Telecom, it immediately has inroads into many other countries across the continent and elsewhere.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Telkom SA`s possible involvement in the possible take-over bid for Portugal Telecom.
* Comcast`s acquisition of the 40% of E! it doesn`t already own.
* The winner of the auction for the assets of Riverstone Networks, with Ericsson and Lucent Technologies being the two frontrunners.

* The storage software market grew to $8.9 billion in 2005, with EMC and Symantec holding the top two places in market share, with 29.2% and 19.7% respectively, says IDC.

* JSE All share index: Up 5.7%
* Nasdaq: Up 2%
* Top SA share movements: Alliance Data (+11.1%), Altron (+9.4%), Beget Holdings (-16.7%), Dimension Data (+13.3%), Faritec (+14.3%), ISA (-20%), Jasco (+11.4%), Square One (-12.5%), Stella Vista (+18.2%) and Synergy (-25%).
* Top international share movements: Actions Semiconductor (+33.6%), Avanex (+28.9%), CellStar (-26%), Com21 (-50%), Digital Lightwave (+29.7%), Lattice Semiconductor (+23.4%), SONICblue (+173.3%), TNS (+23.8%), TranSwitch (+24.6%) and Vimicro International (+26.8%).

If Telkom SA is successful in a consortium that is bidding for Portugal Telecom, it immediately has inroads into many other countries across the continent and elsewhere.

Portugal Telecom has investments/partnerships with Companhia Santomense de Telecomunicacőes, Cape Verde Telecom, Guin'e Telecom, Kenya Postal Directories, Mascom Wireless (Botswana), M'edi T'el'ecom (Morocco), Teledata LTM (Mozambique) and Unitel Multitel Elta (Angola), with many of these countries of specific interest to Telkom SA. In addition, Portugal Telecom has interests in Brazil, China, East Timor, Hungary and Macau.