Who will acquire Sprint?

The activities of the leading European telecommunications companies and the speculation as to who will acquire Sprint dominated the international world of information technology & telecommunications last week.

Business Week Global 1000 sees Microsoft losing its No 1 slot and dropping to No 4.

Paul Booth, columnist, ITWeb

At home the continuing third cellular licence saga and the year-end results from Telkom stole the headlines during a very quiet week.

We saw disappointing full-year results from Telkom; a profit warning from Spicer; and the announcement that Autopage is to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Altech and de-list from the JSE, as part of the unbundling of Ventron`s stake in Altron to its shareholders.

[Local]
[Cautionary]
[Listing]
[Result]

Other local news included:

• appointment of Lenore Kerrigan as the new CEO of Oracle SA

• the resignation of the newly appointed CEO of ITI, Frank Arico

• the announcement by Siltek that it had completed a right-sizing exercise and concluded a R200 million financial re-structuring deal;

• the opening of a Botswana office by Lotus Development;

• the release of the financial particulars of the proposed LSE listing of iTouch, an IPO that could raise it lb90 million.

We saw the announcement of a major re-organisation by Micrografx; the rumours that Deutsche Telekom and Cable & Wireless had done a deal; and a flurry of profit warnings prior to the release of quarterly results.

[International]

Other international news included:

• the

  resignations

  of William O`Conner, Chairman and CEO of Gtech, Steven Nowick, President and COO of Gtech and Sheldon Ohringer, president and CEO of FirstWorld Comms;

• the announcement of

  job losses

  by Micrografx (about 33.3%).

We saw excellent figures from Metron Technology.

Losses came from Brio Technology, Greystone Digital Technology, Input/Output and Intrinsyc.

Good numbers were recorded by CanWest Global Comms and the Vega Group Plc; and satisfactory ones by Oc'e.

Mediocre returns came from Alphameric Group Plc (but revenue almost up 100%) and the Anite Group Plc.

Other financial news included profit warnings from Applied Microsystems, Applix, BMC Software, CapRock Comms, Computer Associates, Compuware, Datastream Systems, Davox, Dionex, Entrust Technologies, FirstWorld Comms, GTech, Hauppauge Digital, Informix, Integral Systems, Made2Manage Systems, Mentor, Micrografx, MDSI Mobile Data Solutions, NEON Systems, Poet Holdings AG, Radcom and Visual Networks; a share split announcement from IXYS; the withdrawal of a planned IPO by NETtel Comms; and a very successful IPO from software maker InterVista. Additionally, SCB Computer Technology has had to re-state its results for 1998,1999 and the first three quarters of 2000, which ended on 30^th April 2000; and NEC announced it was considering a listing on the NYSE.

Internationally

Applix (-27.4%)

BMC Software (-36.4%)

BroadVision (-21.3%)

Computer Associates (-39.4%)

Entrust Technologies (-57.8%)

Epicor (+22.4%)

Gilat Comms (+23.1%)

Information Resources (+23.7%)

Informix (-38.2%)

Serena Software (-20.6%)

VA Linux (-23.5%)

Locally

Elexir (+33.3%)

Faritec (-53.8%)

I-Tech (-33.3%)

Labat Africa (+53.8%)

Micrologix (-20%)

Oxbridge (-36.8%)

Pinnacle (-28.6%)]

Prada Technologies (+33.3%)

PTH (-20%)

Stella (+26.7%)

Streamworks (-27.4%)

Following hot on the heels of last week`s lists, the latest Business Week Global 1000 sees Microsoft losing its No 1 slot and dropping to No 4, with Intel now being the top IT/Telecommunications company at No 2, and with Cisco at No 3.

Other key movements include the meteoric rise to No 7 of Vodafone Airtouch (was No 70); Nokia up from 38 to 9; Oracle up from 122 to 13; IBM down from 3 to 14; Ericsson up from 77 to 23; and AT&T down from 7 to 36.

In the Top 200 Emerging-market companies rankings, China Telecom (Hong Kong) is at No 1, while the top SA IT/Telecomms company is Dimension Data at No 56.