Terminated Telkom talks dominate

The international ICT scene was extremely quiet last week, apart from the changes at Motorola. However, the local scene was dominated by Telkom SA`s announcement that it has called off its discussions with MTN and Vodafone.

* Excellent year-end figures from Stella Vista, with revenue up more than 100% and well back in the black.
* Very good year-end figures from UCS, with revenue up nearly 35% and profit up 85%.
* Mixed full-year figures from Cyberhost, with revenue well up but profit down.
* Excellent interim figures (maiden numbers) from DVT.
* Good interim numbers from Labat Africa and Naspers, with revenue up 19% and profit more than double, although Internet and broadband technologies units still in a loss-making situation.
* Good interim numbers from Tarsus Technologies, although no specific figures available.
* Dialogue Group acquired Sibize, a provider of contact centre services, for R47.5 million (50%).
* Ansys bought Emerging Signals, a railway signalling contracting company, for R15 million.
* Huge Group purchased iTalk Cellular, an airtime and handset dealer based in Durban, for R511 million (59%).
* UCS acquired UK-based Aquitec, a supplier of supply chain software and services, for $6 million.
* Telkom SA announced its discussions with MTN and Vodafone have been called off.
* HP SA opened its business institute, which will focus on graduates in the SME sector, for the development of scarce and critical skills in high-growth areas of the IT industry.
* Labat Africa announced the planned AltX listing of Labat Traffic Solutions, which is scheduled for February 2008 under the name Total Client Services.
* Ingram Micro SA was appointed a distributor for Kingston Technology Europe, and Mustek was appointed the distributor for NEC`s range of server and storage products.
* Motshoanetsi Lefoka was named CEO of SAPO.

* Sudatel (Sudan) acquired (70%) Intercellular, a Nigerian telecommunications operator.
* France Telecom was announced the winner of the 51% stake in Ghana Telecom, which is being privatised.
* Kevin Flynn was appointed GM for Unisys Africa; and Dick Tulley as GM for Unisys AEME regions.

Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end-users in Q307 reached 289 million units, up 15% from Q306.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Dubai International Capital invested in Sony, its first Japanese investment.
* Franco Berbabe was appointed CEO of Telecom Italia, following the investment by Telefonica in the company.
* Greg Brown was appointed CEO of Motorola as Edward Zander resigned; Zander stays on as chairman.
* Matthew Key was named chairman and CEO of O2 as Peter Erskine resigned.
* Peter Erskine, chairman and CEO of O2; and Edward Zander, CEO of Motorola (stays on as chairman), resigned.
* A potential IPO in London of Tiscali`s UK operation early next year.

* The sell-off by Atos Origin of its share of the joint venture it has with NYSE Euronext.

* Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end-users in Q307 reached 289 million units, up 15% from Q306, with Nokia taking a 38.1% market share, according to Gartner.
* Gartner reported worldwide server shipments for Q307 were up 8.7% over Q306, although revenue was only up 2.6%.
* Samsung Electronics has now overtaken Motorola to become number two to Nokia in the cellphone market, according to the latest research.
* The market share for PCs with Blu-ray drives is expected to grow to 10% next year from 1% this year, according to Taiwanese sources.

* JSE All share index: Up 2.4%
* Nasdaq: Up 2.5%
* Top SA share movements: Ansys (+24.3%), Beget Holdings (-20%), Datacentrix (-94%), Paracon (+10%), Stella Vista (+19.5%), TeleMasters (-14.8%) and Telkom SA (-12.6%)

This is my final column for 2007, although my annual review of the year will be published next week. This column will resume on 14 January and will cover the whole of the intervening period.

I would like to thank all my readers for their support and wish everyone a happy and safe time over the festive season, and a successful 2008.