What to do with Yahoo?

The fate of Yahoo dominated the international ICT market last week, with rumours abounding as to the likely winner in the bid to acquire the company.

At home, ICASA's weak stance and procrastination on the unbundling of the local loop dominated the ICT media space.

Bharti Airtel has signed up its 50 millionth mobile customer in Africa.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Very good full-year numbers from PBT, with revenue up over 100% and profit up 23.3%.
* Mixed interim numbers from Naspers, with revenue up 16.7% but profit down 40.8%.
* Mixed year-end figures from ConvergeNet, with revenue up 31% but profit down 15%.
* Mediocre interim numbers from Labat Africa, with revenue down 39.1%, although back in the black.
* Mediocre full-year figures from Huge Group, with revenue down 22.9% and profit down 71.4%.
* Full-year losses from Ideco, although revenue was up 9.5%; and Stella Vista, with revenue down 36.1%.
* Positive trading updates from Labat Africa and Stella Vista, although still a loss for the latter.
* Paracon's shares were suspended from trading on the JSE.
* Softline, part of the Sage UK Group, acquired Alchemex, a business intelligence company, for £6.5 million.
* Du Pont Telecom invested in Konica Minolta Corporate Solutions.
* Dealify, an e-commerce company in the group buying space, closed down. The move follows close on the heels of the demise of Zappon, a similar business.
* Chris Radley was appointed MD of Nashua Mobile.
* Grenville Andrews resigned as chairman of Paracon.

* Bharti Airtel has signed up its 50 millionth mobile customer in Africa.

* Autodesk purchased Horizontal Systems, a 3D design, engineering and entertainment software company.
* Electronic Arts acquired KlickNation, a small social games company. This is its second significant purchase this year in an effort to bolster its social gaming business.
* Facebook bought WhoGlue, a start-up that develops software for membership organisations.
* NewNet Communications purchased the WiMax businesses of Nokia Siemens Networks.
* Nice Systems acquired Merced Systems, a provider of service and sales performance management solutions.
* Synopsys bought Magna Design Systems, a rival company that also designs computer chips. The deal was worth $505 million.
* Twitter purchased Whisper Systems, a start-up that makes software to improve security and privacy for smartphones.
* Verizon Communications acquired spectrum from a group of cable companies that included Comcast and Time Warner. The deal was worth $3.6 billion.
* Vodafone Global Enterprise bought Bluefish Communications, an IT communications consultancy.
* Xerox (ACS) purchased The Breakaway Group, a company that offers cloud-based services that help healthcare professionals.
* Yandex acquired SPB Software, a developer of software for smartphones and tablets.
* Quarterly losses from Mitel and Sycamore Networks.
* The appointments of Cheng Tien Chong as CEO of Foxconn International Holdings; Xavier Drilhon as CEO of Oberthur Technologies; and Didier Lamouche as CEO of ST-Ericsson.
* The resignations of Gilles Delfassy, CEO of ST-Ericsson; and Chin Wai Leung, CEO of Foxconn International Holdings.
* A planned IPO on Nasdaq by Zynga later this month.

* International:
* The possible $2 billion acquisition by TE Connectivity of Deutsch Group SAS, a maker of electronic connectors for harsh environments.
* The possible acquisition of Yahoo's US operations by Thomas H Lee Partners.
* The possible acquisition of Yahoo by a private equity-led consortium that could include Alibaba.com.
* The possible IPO by Facebook in Q2 2012, in a deal that could assign a value to the company of over $100 billion.

* Africa:
* The possible purchase by Digicel, a Caribbean and Pacific mobile network operator, of the mobile network assets owned by Libya-based Lap Green Networks.

* South Africa:
* Some small acquisitions by Jasco.
* The reverse listing of ConnectNet Broadband Wireless into the suspended cash shell Intertrading.

* Worldwide shipments of servers in Q3 grew 7.2%, according to Gartner, while revenue increased 5.2% to reach $12.9 billion. Overall, Dell showed the largest growth in this quarter, at 6.3%, and HP lost its number one position to IBM.
* Businesses worldwide will spend $140 billion on managed telecoms services in 2012, according to Insight Research.
* Worldwide external storage systems posted 10.8% growth in Q3 to just under $5.8 billion, according to IDC, with EMC extending its lead even further over IBM, NetApp and the others.
* Google's Chrome Web browser overtook Mozilla Firefox in November to become the number two browser behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer, according to StatCounter.

* JSE All share index: Up 4.8%
* Nasdaq: Up 7.6%
* Top SA share movements: African Cellular Towers (-20%), Amecor (-17.5%), ConvergeNet (+20%), EOH (+10.6%), Huge Group (+40%), Ifca Technologies (-11.1%), MICROmega (+11.3%), Morvest (+9.5%), SecureData (+25%) and Zaptronix (+50%)

This is my final column for 2011, although my 'review of the year' will appear next week. My column will resume on 16 January and will fully cover the intervening period.

A big thank you to all my readers for your support this year; I wish you well over the festive season and a great 2012.