Tech stocks take a dive

The massive share price drops of technology stocks on Nasdaq and other stock exchanges, together with Telstra`s $3 billion investment in Hong Kong`s Pacific Century CyberWorks dominated the internationalworld of IT and telecommunications last week.

ICL announced it would sell-off non-core assets and list its training business, KnowledgePool, on Nasdaq and the LSE prior to its own IPO later this year.

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At home, the profit warning from CCH and the trade update from Datatec made local headlines, along with the general weakness of local IT and telecommunications stocks.

• Square One Solutions listed in the IT sector of the JSE (just holding above listing price with very little trading), the first IT listing of 2000,

• full-year losses came from Jasco and Jem Technology Holdings;

• good interims from MB Technologies;

• an interim loss by ValueCom Holdings;

• a profit warning from CCH (official); and

• a trade update from Datatec (unofficial - no loss but less than expected profits).

[Local]

[Cautionary]

[Listing]

[Result]

Other local news included:

• the announcement that MB Technologies intends to list its overseas interests offshore;

• OSI, through its joint venture with ACSA, has cemented a strategic alliance with SITA;

• M-Web will launch a $3 million operation in Uganda in June this year; and

• Mario Pinheiro will resign as executive chairman of CCH next month with a management team and Brait acquiring a part of his stake in the company.

ICL announced that it would sell-off non-core assets and list its training business, KnowledgePool, on Nasdaq and the LSE prior to its own IPO later this year; and

BT announced a major restructuring.

[International]

Other international news included:

• the appointment of Larry O`Brien as chairman and CEO of SCS Solars Computing Systems;

• resignations of Edward Gavaldon, chairman and CEO of Peerless Systems, Stephen Jaeger, CEO of Inso and three top executives at Lotus Development; the name changes of Banyan Systems to ePresence, C-C-C Group to CCC Network Systems, Logistix to iLogistix and SalesLogix to Interact Commerce Corporation; and job losses at Solectron.

We saw excellent figures from Actuate, AMD (back in the black), ARM Holdings, Check Point Software Technologies, Cree, Emulex, Foundry Networks, Infosys Technologies (back in the black), Juniper Networks (back in the black and better than expected), KLA-Tencor, Mercury Interactive, Newport, Powerwave Technologies, SonicWALL, Three-Five Systems (back in the black) and Visual Networks.

Losses came from Affinity Internet Holdings, Ariba, Avanex, Broadbase Software, CDSI Holdings, China Telecom Hong Kong, Choicetel Comms, Com21, Datalink, E*Trade Group, EAI, Exabyte, eXcelon, HEI, Ibis Technologies, Interactive Intelligence, Intraware, JSB Software, Master Graphics, Mitsubishi, Omtool, MMC Networks, Navidec, Networks North, Orckit Comms, Rambus, Redback Networks, Robocom, Rogue Wave Software, Saba Software, Stamps.com, StarMedia, Storage Computers, Teletouch Comms, USinternetworking, Vimpel-Comms and Xceed.

Good numbers were recorded by Accrue Software, Altera, Anaren Microwave, Apex, C-COR.net, Dallas Semiconductor, E-TEK Dynamics, Easy Software AG, Electronics for Imaging, FileNET, Gateway, InterVoice-Brite, Iomega, Iona Technologies, Latitude Comms, Liberty Media Group, Madison River Comms, Motorola, Natural Microsystems (back in the black), PairGain Technologies, PMC-Sierra, Research in Motion, SAS, SBS Accounting Systems, Splash Technology Holdings, Sun Microsystems, Thomson Multimedia SA and Tollgrade Comms.

Satisfactory figures came from Computer Research, Computer Services, GTech, Rogers, Seagate Technology Terayon Comms Systems and VISX.

Mediocre returns were reported by CanWest Global Comms, GartnerGroup, RSA Security, Seagate Technology and Unisys.

Very poor results came from Astrex (but back in the black), Trident Media Group (but back in the black) and USV Telemanagement (but back in the black).

Other financial news included profit warnings from Compuware, Continuous Software, GenRad, Merant, Motorola and Peerless Systems, and share split announcements from Juniper Networks, Liberty Media Group, Rambus and Xeta.

There was a successful IPO from Nuance Comms (voice-interface software), and a postponed IPO from AltaVista. Additionally, World Online International BV, which was floated very recently, is floundering with shares well down on the original listing price. As a result, the chairman, Nina Brink, has resigned; and MicroAge has started its voluntary restructuring under Chapter 11.

Locally

C-Tech (-28.2%)
Datatec (-44.2%)
Elexir (-25%)
I-Solution (-33.3%)
ITI (-27.8%)
JemTech (-40%)
Micrologix (-25%)
Paradigm (+40%)
PentaCom (-26.8%)
PTH (-33.3%)
SecData (+100%)
Stella (-35%)
UAM (+30%)
Y2KTec (-62.5%)

Internationally

Applied Micro Circuits (-50.7%)
Baltimore (-50.3%)
CacheFlow (-65.8%)
Clarus (-54.7%)
Digital Lightwave (-54%)
Digex (-56.6%)
Descartes Systems Group (-52%)
Elcom International (-51.6%)
Exchange Applications (-52.1%)
Informatica (-50.6%)
Input Software (-51.2%)
Integral Systems (-62.5%)
Internet.com (-50.5%)
Madge (-51.1%)
ORCT (-51.2%)
Proxicom (-53.4%)
Phone.com (-60.7%)
Quest Software (-52.5%)
Redback Networks (-63.8%)
SSA (-52.1%)
VerticalNet (-52.5%)

As next week is Easter and there are several other public holidays, the next Booth`s Bites will appear on Tuesday, 2 May. During these next two weeks, we will see the majority of the quarterly results being released by US companies; and it seems the stock markets are likely to be extremely turbulent if the pundits are to be believed.