T-Systems scores mega-deal

Microsoft's latest European Union fine dominated the international world of ICT. At home, the awarding of the Old Mutual outsourcing deal to T-Systems stole much of the local ICT headline space.

* Excellent interim results from Digicore, with revenue up over 60% and profit up 54%; and VenFin (only headline earnings available).
* Good interim numbers from GijimaAst, with revenue up 18% and profit up over 300%.
* Satisfactory interim figures from Metrofile, with revenue up 9% but profit up over 70%.
* Mediocre interim numbers from Mustek, with revenue up 3% but profit well down.
* Mixed interim figures from Business Connexion, with revenue up 16% but profit down about 60%.
* A positive trading update from Compu-Clearing.
* Simeka Business Solutions Group acquired a majority stake in Mint, a company that specialises in Microsoft-centric enterprise search, collaboration and content management.
* Square One Solutions Group's R12.5 million acquisition of Structured Infrastructure Solutions, a company that comprises a cabling, communications, consultancy and industrial coding and marking solutions set of businesses.
* ConvergeNet Holdings' additional 19% investment in Structured Connectivity Solutions.
* Business Connexion abandoned its bid for arivia.kom.
* T-Systems SA won a R1.8 billion outsourcing deal from Old Mutual and Mutual & Federal.
* IDC's formal announcement of its presence in SA, including some local research personnel.
* The appointment of Axiz as a distributor for HP's Imaging and Print Group.

* Egypt's National Telecom Regulatory Authority said the auction for Egypt's second fixed licence would close on 19 June. Bidders already indicating they will participate include Etisalat (UAE) and Orascom (Egypt).

It's great to have a credible research organisation in SA with local feet on the ground at long last.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* The $2.4 billion acquisition by Hellman & Friedman, a private equity group, of Getty Images, the world's leader in the creation and distribution of still imagery, footage and multimedia products.
* Motorola acquired China-based Dahua Digital, a developer, manufacturer and marketer of cable set-top boxes.
* Novell's $205 million acquisition of PlateSpin, a company that offers solutions for the management of heterogeneous workloads that encapsulate data, applications and operating systems residing on a physical or virtual host.
* Trend Micro purchased UK-based Identum, an e-mail encryption technology developer.
* The European Union fined Microsoft EUR899 million for failing to comply with the 2004 anti-trust order, bringing the total for the three fines to EUR1.68 billion. Two more cases against Microsoft were opened in January.
* Nortel Networks will cut 2 100 jobs as part of its turnaround efforts.
* Siemens will shed 3 800 jobs from its telecoms unit, as well as shift another 3 000 to partners or other units. Is this move part of its plan to sell-off this unit?
* Sharp and Sony will form a joint venture to make LCD TV panels.
* Excellent quarterly results from salesforce.com.
* Very good year-end figures from Logica.
* Good quarterly numbers from BEA Systems (back in the black).
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Novell (back in the black) and Telefonica.
* Mediocre quarterly results from ASM International NV, Dell and Iron Mountain.
* Quarterly losses from BearingPoint, Borland Software, Deutsche Telekom, Leap Wireless International, MetroPCS Communications, Nortel Networks and Sprint Nextel.

* LogicaCMG's purchase of the remaining 40% it doesn't already own, of Edinfor, the Portuguese IT services company.
* The resignation of Tommaso Pompei, CEO of Telecom Italia.

* Worldwide server shipments grew 7.4% in 2007 to $54.8 billion, with IBM and HP taking 59% of the market between them, says Gartner.
* According to Gartner, mobile phone sales in 2007 exceeded 1.15 billion units, up 16% from 2006.

* JSE All share index: Up 2.8%
* Nasdaq: Down 1.4%
* Top SA share movements: Beget Holdings (-20%), Ifca Technologies (+29.4%), Labat Africa (+28.6%), SAB&T Ubuntu (-10.3%), Sekunjalo (+10.9%), Simeka (+10%) and Stella Vista (+50%)

It's great to have a credible research organisation in SA with local feet on the ground at long last, with IDC formally announcing its local presence. Its latest figures show the local market remains buoyant and a healthy growth this year is predicted.