Three big buys

Internationally, the week was dominated by the HP lay-offs, the restructuring at IBM following disappointing quarterly results and the resignation of the head of its services unit, and the acquisitions by Business Objects, Cisco and Microsoft. At home, the ICT sector was exceptionally quiet.

* Sweden`s Tele2 AB EUR1.34 billion acquisition of Versatel Telecom International NV.

* Net1 UEPS (ex-Aplitec) to list on the Nasdaq. It was already listed on the OTC Bulletin Board.
* Cell C`s major shareholder, Oger Telecom, buys 55% of Turk Telekom.
* Amazon.com opens a development centre in Cape Town.
* The appointment of M Kaplan as chairman of Trematon and the resignation of N Labuschagne as chairman of Trematon.

* The Rwandan government is planning to replace the Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA) with a new ICT body, the National Information Communication Technology, to oversee its broad programme of ICT reforms from 2006 to 2010. RITA was set up in 2001, but according to the state ICT advisor, only achieved around 25% of its objectives, mainly due to a lack of human resources.
* Telkom Kenya puts its staff retrenchment plan on hold.
* Africa`s mobile growth is the highest in any region worldwide, according to latest reports.
* The Kenyan government rejected Vodafone`s bid for a controlling stake in Safaricom.

Last week Fortune magazine published its annual Fortune Global 500 list, with technology companies generally not performing well.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Philips Electronics sells its 15.4% stake in Atos Origin for EUR550 million, following last year`s sale of its stakes in ASML and Vivendi, allowing it to focus more on its key market areas.
* Microsoft acquires FrontBridge Technologies, a provider of secure messaging services.
* IBM restructures its services arm following the departure of its head, John Joyce. The consulting arm will now be run separately to the outsourcing unit with both reporting to the CEO.
* Capgemini sells most of its Japanese operation to NTT Data, the network and IT services arm of NTT.
* Job loss announcements from Eastman Kodak, HP (+/-10%) and NetIQ.
* Planned IPOs on Nasdaq by Consolidated Communications, Eschelon Telecom and SunPower, a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor.
* A planned IPO in India by Reliance Infocomm, an investor in the telecommunications market.

* The possible acquisition of Energis Communications by Cable & Wireless in a deal worth over $1 billion.
* The possible take-over of Amena Movil, the Spanish mobile phone operator, by France Telecom in a deal that could be worth as much as EUR9 billion.
* Misys planning the sale of its Sesame business.

* Worldwide enterprise management software segment licence revenues are expected to grow from $6.2 billion in 2004 to $9.4 billion in 2009, according to Gartner Dataquest.
* PC shipments in Q2 2005 grew by 15%, says Gartner.
* Mobile phone sales will top 1 billion units in 2009, according to research published last week.

* JSE All share index: Up 2% (new all time high)
* Nasdaq: Up 1.1% (highest end of week close for 2005)
* Top SA share movements: Alliance Data (-19%), Beget Holdings (+42.9%), Digicore (+13.3%), I-Solutions (-16.7%), Metrofile (-11.4%), Mustek (+11.6%), Sekunjalo (-7.8%) and Stella Vista (+88.9%).
* Top international share movements: Cirrus Logic (+22.6%), Com21 (-25%), DAT Group (-48%), EGAN (+58.3%), FiberMark (-28.6%), Foundry Networks (+19.7%), Sipex (+43.3%), Vignette (+19.3%), Voss Net (+75%) and Westell Technologies (-36.7%).

Last week Fortune magazine published its annual Fortune Global 500 list, with technology companies generally not performing well. The top names were fairly static with NTT at 18 (was at 16), IBM at 20 (19), Siemens at 21, Hitachi at 23 and Matsushita Electric at 25.

Nextel Communications at 463 and Texas Instruments at 491debuted on the list this year, while AT&T Wireless and Sun Microsystems slipped off the list.

Other significant movements included AT&T at 162 (116), EDS at 274 (232), LG Electronics at 115 (147), MCI at 247 (168), Qwest Communications at 451 (360), Samsung at 442 (493) and Xerox at 381 (339).