Telecomms tops the speculation list

The Ariba/Agile Software and the Maxim/Dallas Semiconductor multi-billion dollar acquisitions, and Xerox`s continuing woes dominated the international world of IT and telecommunications last week.

[VIDEO]At home, the excellent Prism results and the growing speculation re the second fixed-line telecommunications winner, stole much of the local headline space.

• we saw excellent half-year figures from Prism (revenue and earnings both up);
• interim losses from Core Holdings (much of which was blamed on the Comdex fiasco), Interconnective Solutions (revenue also well down) and Zaptronix (revenue also well down); and
• a profit warning from Streamworks.

[Local]

Other local news included:

• the news from the Altron Group that the results of a restructuring exercise will be announced today, and that it would involve changes in subsidiaries Fintech, Power Technologies, Altech and Usko.
• Additionally, the Mount Kenya consortium, involving Eskom`s telecomms arm, Zimbabwe`s Econet Wireless International and Dutch telecomms company Royal KPN, have taken a 49% stake in Kenya Telecom;
• Bryan Hattingh and the majority of the other directors of the Bryan Hattingh Group have terminated their services with the group and its holding company, Advtech; and
• Russel Roth, CEO of Y2KTec has resigned.

Watch out for the announcement of M-Cell`s overseas partner for its bid for a fixed-line licence.

• we saw the name change of ZapMe! to rStar Networks;
• the re-emergence of Baan under a new guise, iBaan, with the announcement of a new family of enterprise software products; and
• Novell`s spin-off of some of its products and services into a new company, Volera, an entity in which Nortel Networks and Accenture are minority shareholders, and one that will focus on content-networking software and services.

The telecomms colloquium took place over the weekend. I wonder how much was a genuine listening opportunity and how much was a political exercise.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

Watch out for France Telecom disposing of its 10.8% stake in STMicroelectronics (valued at about $4.2 billion); British Telecom`s ditching of its Yellow Pages division floatation; the sell-off by Filtronic of its chip unit; the tie up of IBM and Unisys, which could be a possible buy-out of the latter, or just IBM licensing Unisys`s CMP multiprocessing server technology; and the sale of some more of Xerox`s assets, as it strives to reduce its enormous debt problem.

[International]

Other international news included:

• the appointments of Alfred Hansen as CEO of EMS Technologies, Robert Randall as CEO of TeraGlobal Comms, Richard Roscitt as chairman and CEO of ADC and Ted Waitt as CEO of Gateway;
• the resignations of Bob Davis, CEO of Terra-Lycos, and Jeff Weitzen, CEO of Gateway; and
• job loss announcements from Amazon.com, Convergent Comms, Elcoteq, GRIC comms, Netpliance, Nokia and Xerox

We saw excellent figures from Cabot Microelectronics, Celestica, Digital Lightwave, Elcoteq, Embercadero Technologies, Forrester Research, Intentia (back in the black), Ixia, Manhattan Associates, Maxim Integrated Products, NDS Group, Opnet Technologies, Optical Comms Products, SafeNet (back in the black), Silicon Storage Technology and Viasystems Group (back in the black).

Good numbers were recorded by Alcatel, Amkor Technology, ASI Solutions, AT&T Wireless, Aware, Business Objects, Chartered Semiconductor, Cymer, Epcos, FEI, General Cable, Insight Enterprises, L-3 Comms, MEMC Electronic Materials (back in the black), Mentor Graphics, Nokia, O2Micro International, ON Semiconductor, PeopleSoft (back in the black), Pioneer-Standard, PSi Technologies, Quality Systems, Reptron Electronics (back in the black), Semitool, Siemens, Silverline Technologies, STATS (back in the black), Swan SA, Synchrony Comms, Tekelec, Thus and Vicor.

Satisfactory results came from Activision, Anixter International, Banta, Comdisco, CompuCom Systems, Conectiv (back in the black), Emerson, Group 1 Software, Hummingbird (back in the black), Infineon Technologies, Rudolph Technologies, RWD Technologies (back in the black) and Verizon Comms.

Mediocre returns came from Advanced Fibre Comms, AOL, APC, ARM Holdings, Avaya, CompX International, Cryptologic, Electronic Arts, FlexiInternational Software, InFocus, Intergraph, Kingston Comms, MasTec, Mechanical Dynamics, Open Text, Pitney Bowes, Snap-On, SpectraLink, Sprint, Storage USA, Sunair Electronics and Timberline Software.

Very poor results were posted by Deltek, John H Harland, IXOS Software AG, Mapics, OSI Systems, SED International Holdings and Witness Systems (but back in the black).

Losses were recorded by About, Accelerated Networks, ActivCard, Advanced Switching Comms, AimGlobal Technologies, Airspan Networks, Alliance Fiber Optic Products, Amazon.com, Anadigics, Aperian, Aris, AT&T, AvantGo, Avid Technology, Avistar Comms, Avocent, AXS-One, Bottomline Technologies, Caliper Technologies, CAM Commerce Solutions, Capri, CellStar, Cenosis, Cidco, ClickSoftware, Concero, Copper Mountain Networks, Corel, Corio, CyberCash, Daleen Technologies, Data Dimensions, Datastream Systems, Datawatch, DiamondCluster International, Digex, Digital Island, Digitas, Docent, Eagle Point Software, EarthLink. eGain Comms, Endwave, Epicor, ePresence, ESS Technology, Exabyte, F5 Networks, Filtronic, Gensym, Genuity, Globecomm Systems, Gray Comms Systems, i3 Mobile, iBasis, iBeam Broadcasting, iBIZ Technology, IDX Systems, iGo, ImageX.com, Indus international, InfoSpace, Innoveda, Input/Output, Integrated Information Systems, IntelliCorp, Interact Commerce, Interactive intelligence, Intershop Comms AG, InterTrust Technologies, Intevac, ION Networks, Komag, Lante, Legato Systems, Lionbridge, Micro Linear, Mitel, MP3.com, Muse Technologies, Net Perceptions, Netergy Networks, netGuru, NetManage, Network Commerce, Network Peripherals, New Focus, NIC, Nuance Comms, ON Technology, Onyx Software, OnLink Comms, Panja, PCTEL, Persistence Software, Pliant Systems, Previo, Primus, Pro Tech Comms, ProBusiness Services, Quest Software, Radcom, RealNetworks, Robotic Vision Systems, Saturn Solutions, Satyam Infoway, SCO, SignalSoft, SilverStream Software, Sonic innovations, StorageNetworks, Structural Dynamics Research, SynQuest, Technology Solutions, Terayon Comms Systems, Terra-Lycos, Tower Semiconductor, Trimble, Tripath Technology, Tut Systems, Unigraphics Solutions, Universal Access, USA Networks, Viador, Viag Interkom AG, Vitria Technology, Vitrix, VocalTec Comms, WebMethods, Wink Comms, Xerox and Zilog.

Other financial news included profit warnings from Alcatel, Altera, Applied Materials, CacheFlow, Cisco, Computer Network Technology, Copper Mountain Networks, Epcos, FastComm Comms, Input/Output, Methode Electronics, National Semiconductor, Network Associates, Nokia, Psion, SAP SI, Silicon Storage Technology, Siemens and Vocalis.

There were share split announcements from ChoicePoint and RSA Security.

Locally

C-Tech (+33.3%)
Core (-50%)
I-Solutions (+31.6%)
M-Web (-25%)
Maxtec (+32%)
OneLogix (+31.1%)
Paradigm (-70.8%)
Pinnacle (-25%)
Pradatech (+31.3%)
Y2KTec (+50%)

Internationally

Dallas Semiconductor (+35.1%)
Encad (+46.7%)
Foster Wheeler (+55.6%)
IKON Office Solutions (+65.9%)
Imagination Technologies Group (-41%)
Information Resources (+36.7%)
Juno (-39.9%)
Portal Software (+30%)
StarMedia Networks (+35.5%)
Ursus Telecom (+34.7%)

The telecomms colloquium took place over the weekend. I wonder how much was a genuine listening opportunity and how much was a political exercise, just to say that such a gathering had taken place. I suspect the latter, and I also believe that the views of those best positioned to independently comment, eg GartnerGroup, will be ignored as usual.