Windows 7 arrives

The Windows 7 launch dominated international ICT media space last week, despite some surprising and disappointing quarterly results being announced.

At home, it was extremely quiet, with a negative trading update from Vodacom.

* Negative trading updates from Ansys, Paracon and Vodacom.

* BMC Software acquired Tideway Systems, a provider of IT discovery solutions.

* Equinix's $689 million acquisition of its rival, Switch & Data Facilities Company. Both organisations operate data centres on behalf of other companies.

* Sprint Nextel's $831 million acquisition of its wireless affiliate, iPCS.

* Tellabs' $165 million purchase of WiChorus, a provider of Smart 4G Packet Core infrastructure products.

* Very good quarterly figures from Apple and AU Optronics (back in the black).

* Good quarterly numbers from Autonomy, Check Point Software Technologies, Hynix Semiconductor (back in the black), LG Electronics and SanDisk (back in the black).

* Satisfactory quarterly results from China Mobile, Citrix Systems, F5 Networks, Qatar Telecom, Sybase, Tata Consultancy Services and Western Digital.

* Mediocre quarterly results from AT&T, Atos Origin, Broadcom, EMC, Ericsson, Gemalto, Juniper Networks, Lexmark, Logitech, Microsoft, NCR, Texas Instruments and Xerox.

* Mixed quarterly figures from ACS, with revenue up but profit down; CA with revenue down but profit up; China Telecom (nine months), with revenue up but profit down; Compuware, with revenue down but profit up; DST Systems, with revenue down but profit up; Etisalat (nine months), with revenue up but profit down; Millicom Cellular International, with revenue up but profit down; Netgear, with revenue down but profit up; Samsung SDI, with revenue down but profit up; Seagate Technology, with revenue down but profit up; Tech Mahindra, with revenue up but profit down; VMware, with revenue up but profit down; and Yahoo, with revenue down but profit up.

* Quarterly losses from Imation, ST-Ericsson and STMicroelectronics.

* The appointment of Paul Casner as chairman of Micros Systems.

* The axing of Darl McBride, CEO and president of SCO Group.

International:

* The finalisation of the restructuring of the SCO Group, which is currently operating under Chapter 11.

Africa:

* The winner of a 51%-75% stake in Zamtel, Zambia's fixed-line operator. The short list of eight includes an Indian consortium that features BSNL and MTNL; Orascom Telecom (Egypt), Portugal Telecom and Telkom SA.

* Very good half-year figures from Trustco (Namibia), the first company to list on the JSE's new Africa board.

South Africa:

* The appointment of a country manager for HP and a new CEO for Square One.

According to Gartner, worldwide IT spending will decline 5.2% in 2009 but grow 3.3% in 2010.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* According to Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (Taiwan), worldwide netbook PC volume is expected to reach 24.32 million units in 2009, up 117%. By 2014, shipments are expected to reach 47 million units.

* According to Gartner, worldwide IT spending will decline 5.2% in 2009 but grow 3.3% in 2010.

* JSE All share index: Up 3.1% (highest weekend close since August 2008)

* Nasdaq: Down 0.1%

* Top SA share movements: AdaptIT (+42.1%), Ansys (-15.4%), Beget Holdings (+50%), Cape Empowerment Trust (+11.1%), CompuClearing (-22.6%), Dialogue Group (+11.1%), Huge Group (-15.2%), MiX Telematics (-14.8%), TCS (+50%) and TeleMasters (+12.3%)

Deloitte has published its Deloitte Technology Fast 50, one of the UK's foremost technology awards programmes and a ranking of that country's 50 fastest growing technology companies based on percentage growth over five years. This year's number one was Distribution Technology, a software company providing financial planning technology solutions. Also included were unified communications service provider Timico at seven, Web content management provider Auros at 14 and location tracking systems provider Ubisense at 16.