US quarterly results flood begins

Apart from some small acquisitions by some of the major software companies, the international ICT world was quiet during the last two weeks.

We saw the start of the flood of quarterly results from the US, with excellent or good numbers from Apple, Google, Tata Consultancy Services and Sony Ericsson. However, Intel, Unisys and Yahoo announced disappointing results.

On the local ICT scene, the last two weeks have been extremely quiet, with the signing of the Electronic Communications Act being the highlight.

* The signing into law and gazetting of the Electronic Communications Act, following the president`s signature. This move was key to further announcements re telecommunications liberalisation/deregulation by the Department of Communications, which should now be forthcoming shortly.

* Good year-end results from Jasco Electronics, with revenue up over 30% and profit up over 60%.
* Good year-end numbers from Datacentrix, with revenue up 17% and profit up about 19%.
* Satisfactory year-end figures from Altech, with revenue up nearly 9% and income up about 14%.
* An interim loss from Sekunjalo, although revenue up about 9%.
* A positive trading update from Reunert.
* The de-listing of VenFin from the JSE following the buyout of its Vodacom shares by Vodafone.
* Altech acquired Linedata Services, a French IT services company.
* Interconnective Solutions` 40% investment in Altonet, a provider of Internet and network services.
* R&V Technology Holdings, previously a subsidiary of VenFin and now part of Newco, has chosen to convert its $100 million convertible bonds in Dimension Data Holdings to 181.2 million shares, 12.2% of the enlarged issued share capital, thus making it the largest shareholder in the group.
* Motswedi IFS formed by the merger of IFS Group SA and Motswedi Technology Group with a 51% and 49% shareholding respectively.

* Starcomms, a private telecommunications operator, has applied to become Nigeria`s third national operator.
* MTC Kuwait, the owner of Celtel, agreed to buy a 65% stake in Nigeria`s Vee Networks that operates under the Vmobile brand, in a deal valued at just over $1 billion. However, it seems Econet Wireless has first refusal on any shares that are up for grabs and is likely to match Celtel`s bid.
* Qtel forms a joint venture with Singapore Technologies Telemedia as a consortium bidding for Egypt`s third GSM licence.

PC shipments in Q106 increased 13.1% over the same period last year with Dell maintaining its number one position, says Gartner.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Sage Group walked away from a counter-bid for Norway`s Visma ASA, having had its bid of $600.6 million trumped by HG Capital, a private equity group, with a bid of $673.3 million.
* CA`s $75 million acquisition of Cybermation, a provider of enterprise workload automation solutions.
* Oracle`s $220 million acquisition of Portal Software, a provider of revenue management software.
* Red Hat acquired JBoss, a maker of open source software.
* A job loss announcement from Business Objects SA.
* Planned IPOs on London`s AIM from Atelis, a developer of telecommunications software; Infoserve, a multimedia company; and Velti, a Greek mobile technology company.
* IPO filings from Alien Technology, an RFID hardware vendor; and Riverbed Technology, a wide area network services company.
* A good IPO in Taiwan by Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board.
* A satisfactory IPO on Nasdaq by Pegasus Wireless.
* A listing on the LSE of Rolta India, an IT services company.
* The entry into the S&P 500 by SanDisk.
* Symantec will pay a possible $1 billion tax bill re its acquisition last year of Veritas Software.
* Birch Telecom emerges from Chapter 11.
* Vitesse Semiconductor`s CEO, Eugene Hovanec, was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into stock option grants.
* The Chapter 11 filing by Verilink, a developer and manufacturer of broadband access products and services.

* The possible acquisition of Eircom by Australian investment company and Eircom ESOP Trustee, worth EUR2.36 billion.
* A possible bid by SanDisk for Lexar Media.
* A possible buyout by Belgacom SA of Vodafone`s 25% stake in the former`s mobile subsidiary, Proximus.
* The buyer for Terabeam`s ISP, Ricochet Wireless.
* The possible sale of Casema, the Dutch cable operator, a sale or merger that could raise EUR2 billion.
* The buyer for Millicom International Cellular. There seem to be several suitors, including China Mobile.

* PC shipments in Q106 increased 13.1% over the same period last year with Dell maintaining its number one position, says Gartner.
* Optical components worldwide markets are expected to grow to $7.6 billion by 2012 from $2.9 billion in 2005, according to Research and Markets.
* Mobile users accounted for 85% of the telephone subscriber base in Africa, says Research and Markets.

* JSE All share index: Up 1.8% (highest ever weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Up 0.7% (highest weekend close since February 2001)
* Top SA share movements: Beget Holdings (-20%), Cape Empowerment Trust (+22.7%), Datacentrix (+23.7%), Dynamic Cables (+40%), Idion (-10.1%), ISA (-10.6%), Labat Africa (-8.3%), Vesta (+12.5%) and Zaptronix (-15.8%)
* Top international share movements: Arel Communications & Software (+36.1%), Bookham (-39.2%), Com21 (+100%), DA Consulting Group (-52%), Elcom International (+29.6%), MRO Software (+35.4%), PixelPlus (-45.1%), PortalPlayer (-42.9%), PlusNet (-25.4%) and Vitesse Semiconductor (-29.5%)

BusinessWeek has published its 2006 list of the World`s Most Innovative Companies. The top 25 contains many technology companies with Apple at number one (same as last year), Google at two (was eighth), 3M at three (was second) and Microsoft at five (was joint third).

Other names in the top 25 include Dell, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Research in Motion, Samsung and Sony.