Vox Telecom does the shuffle

The ICT sector was very quiet last week across the globe. Internationally, Google made a small acquisition. At home, the top management shuffle at Vox Telecom became one of the few local stories to feature in the media.

* A mixed trading update from Metrofile.
* Negative trading updates from Digicore and Reunert.
* MagmaTec, a systems development and consulting company focused on the financial services sector, and ComprehendIT, a software developer for the retail, marketing, health and publishing sectors, merged.
* Datafinity is running independently, after working with and under the name of Quantum Solutions for the last two years.
* Tarsus Technologies was named Dell's third distributor in South Africa.
* Vuli Cuba was appointed chairman of Vox Telecom; Doug Reed was named MD of Vox Telecom (was CEO); and Tony van Marken moves to CEO of Vox Telecom (was chairman).

A judge has ousted SCO Management from the control of the company's bankruptcy proceedings. SCO has been in Chapter 11 for nearly two years.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Google bought On2 Technologies, a creator of advanced compression technologies, for $107 million.
* MTS (OAO Mobile TeleSystems - Russia) acquired Comstar (OAO Comstar United TeleSystems - Russia) to create Russia's largest integrated telecommunications operator. The deal was worth $1.27 billion (51%).
* A judge has ousted SCO Management from the control of the company's bankruptcy proceedings. SCO has been in Chapter 11 for nearly two years.
* Good quarterly numbers from Cognizant Technology Solutions.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Bell Canada, BMC Software, Deutsche Telekom, Inmarsat, Logica and VeriSign (back in the black).
* Mediocre quarterly results from Capgemini, Cisco, Garmin, Gartner, i2 Technologies, NTT, SPSS and Telecom Italia.
* Mixed quarterly figures from ACS (revenue up, but profit down), CSC (revenue down, but profit up), Diebold (revenue down, but profit up), MetroPCS (revenue up, but profit down), Perot Systems (revenue down, but profit up) and Portugal Telecom (revenue down, but profit up).
* Very poor quarterly figures from Atos Origin.
* Quarterly losses from Lenovo, Nanya Technology, Nvidia and Panasonic.
* A planned IPO in Malaysia of Maxis Communications, one of that country's mobile operators.
* A successful IPO on Nasdaq by Avago Technologies, a Singapore-based semiconductor designer.
* A disappointing IPO on Nasdaq by Hong Kong-based CDC Software.

* International:
* The probable purchase by French advertising group, Publicis, of Razorfish, Microsoft's digital advertisement agency.
* A bid for Millicom's Sri Lankan network (known as Tigo network) by Bharti Airtel.
* A bid for MIRS, an Israeli telecommunications company owned by Motorola, by Pelephone, another Israeli mobile operator.
* South Africa:
* The annual results from Business Connexion and Blue Label Telecoms, which need to be released before the end of the month.

* Worldwide PC microprocessor shipments in Q209 declined 7%, with revenue also down 15%, according to IDC.

* JSE All share index: Up 3.3% (highest weekend close since September 2008)
* Nasdaq: Up 1.1% (highest weekend close since September 2008)
* Top SA share movements: Datatec (+13.3%), Dialogue (-16.7%), Faritec (+20%), Metrofile (+14.6%), Poynting (-33.3%), SecureData (+12%), SilverBridge (-18.2%), Spescom (+33.3%), TCS (-14.3%) and UCS (-11.1%)

A recent analysis of the 'top 100' technology companies worldwide shows 45% are based in North America, 20% in Europe, 12% in Japan, 9% in Taiwan and 7% in India. However, the indications are that the profile is changing as the 'move' to the East continues, with countries such as China and South Korea, together with Taiwan and India, figuring more strongly in the years to come.