Dell, Xerox splash out

Dell and Xerox dominated the international ICT world during the last two weeks, with buy-outs of two major IT services companies. At home, the MTN/Bharti saga, another Naspers acquisition and a flood of local financial results held centre-stage in the media.

* Good full-year numbers from FoneWorx, with revenue up about 10% and profit up 22%.
* Satisfactory interim numbers from Altech, with revenue up 4% and profit up 14%.
* Mixed year-end figures from MICROmega, with revenue just up, but profit down 63%; and SITA, with revenue up about 10%, but 'profit down by nearly 50%.
* Interim losses from Cape Empowerment Trust, with revenue also down significantly; Dynamic Cables, with revenue also down; and Square One, with revenue also down 42%.
* Full-year losses from Faritec, with revenue also down about 30%; and Poynting Antennas, although revenue up 17.5%.
* The shares of Alliance Mining were suspended on the JSE for non-submission in time of its annual financial statements.
* A positive trading update from Datacentrix.
* Negative trading updates from Datatec, Dynamic Cables and SecureData.
* Datatec acquired Datastor, a New Zealand ICT distribution business with budgeted revenue this fiscal year of $69 million.
* i5 Group, a Microsoft-based technical consulting firm, bought Inobits, in a move that will bolster the former's SharePoint and BI competences.
* Naspers purchased 91% of BuscaPe.com, a Brazilian e-commerce group, which is Latin America's top network for new and used goods and one of the region's best Internet brands. The deal was worth R342 million.
* Reunert made a 60% acquisition of Siemens Enterprise Communications, thus raising its stake in the latter to 100%.
* Dynamic Cables made a R2.8 million (25.4%) investment by in Tri-Invest, a diversified engineering company.
* UCS disposed of its 60% shareholding in TSS Managed Services.
* Sentech is to discontinue its BizNet, MyWireless and VAS services.
* MTN has called off its discussions with Bharti Airtel. It seems the government is the 'fly in the ointment' yet again!
* Westcon has created Comstor Worldwide, a new global business focused on its Cisco solutions offerings.
* SAS Institute's SAS Academy was unveiled in SA, a move designed to address some of the IT skills shortage in this country.
* Marco Lippuner was named MD of Siemens IT Solutions and Services SA.
* Jayne Phiri, chairman of ISA, resigned.

* Altech made an additional $39.5 million investment in Kenya Data Systems, in a move that increases its stake in the latter to 60.8%.
* Uganda's sixth mobile network, I-Tel, was unveiled.
* Niall Moynihan was appointed Blue Coat territory manager for SA and sub-Saharan Africa; and Alain Sainte-Marie was named CEO of Zain Nigeria.
* Bayo Ligali, CEO of Zain Nigeria, resigned.

Dell purchased Perot Systems, an IT services provider with annual revenue in excess of $2.5 billion

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Apple bought Placebase, a small mapping company.
* AT&T purchased VeriSign's global security consulting business.
* AT&T also acquired Plusmo, a provider of cross-platform mobile application solutions.
* Cisco bought Norway-based Tandberg, a maker of videoconferencing products, for $3 billion. Last year, Tandberg had annual revenue of a little over $800 million.
* Dell purchased Perot Systems, an IT services provider with annual revenue in excess of $2.5 billion. The deal was worth $3.9 billion.
* IBM acquired RedPill Solutions, a move by the former to bolster its analytics services.
* Mid Europa Partners, a private equity group, purchased Invitel, a Hungarian telecommunications company owned by TDC, the Danish telecommunications group; in a move that will accelerate the sell-off of TDC next year by its private equity owners. The deal was worth $1 billion.
* Nokia bought Finland-based Doppir Oy, an online community of frequent travellers.
* Oracle acquired HyperRoll, a company that helps improve financial reporting performance, shrink the close cycle and improve visibility of financial data to line management.
* Platinum Equity affiliates purchased Pomeroy IT Solutions, an IT infrastructure solutions company. Platinum Equity has many technology companies in its portfolio, with total revenue in excess of $27.5 billion.
* Prophet equity, a private equity group, bought Plantronics' Altec Lansing business, its audio speaker company, for $18 million.
* Xerox acquired Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), an IT services company with annual revenue last financial year (end June 2009) of over $6.5 billion. ACS is almost exclusively focused on the North American market. The deal was worth $6.4 billion.
* ViaSat, a producer of satellite and other wireless communications systems, bought WildBlue Communications, a satellite broadband service provider, for $568 million.
* A group of investors made a $100 million investment in Twitter, a company which is now valued at over $1 billion.
* EDS is to be re-named HP Enterprise Services.
* Sina has dropped its merger plan with Focus Media, a move that would have created China's largest private sector media company.
* Good quarterly numbers from Red Hat.
* Mediocre quarterly results from 3Com, Accenture, Corel, Jabil Circuit and Progress Software.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Lawson Software, with revenue down, but back in the black; Research in Motion, with revenue up, but profit down; and Tibco Software, with revenue down, but profit up.
* Quarterly losses from Micron Technology and Oc'e.
* Michiyoshi Mazuka was appointed president of Fujitsu.
* Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company (KKR), one of the world's largest private equity groups, listed on the Amsterdam exchange. KKR may also list in New York next April. KKR has interests in many technology companies, including Avago Technologies, Bharti Infratel, Eastman Kodak and Northgate Information Systems.
* A planned IPO from Maxis Communications (Malaysia) for about 30% of its shares. Currently, local billionaire Ananda Krishnan owns 75%, and Saudi Telecom owns 25%.
* Planned IPOs of Reliance Communications' telecom-tower unit, Reliance Infratel and Meditel, a Moroccan telecommunications operator.
* IPO filings from Newegg, an Internet electronics retailer.
* An IPO in November by SK C&C (South Korea), a technology service provider. The 30% stake held by SK Telecom will be used for this purpose.

* International:
* The buyer of Yahoo's unit that hosts Web sites for small companies.
* A joint venture between Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan) and China Telecom System Integration, a unit of China Mobile, to develop information and communications technologies in China.
* A possible merger between T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS.
* A possible Chapter 11 filing for FairPoint Communications that would allow it to restructure its debt, following its $2.3 billion acquisition of Verizon Communications' landlines in New England last year.
* The combining by HP of its printer and PC businesses into one unit.
* Africa:
* The set-up by Oni, a Portuguese Telecommunications company, of a subsidiary in Angola.
* South Africa:
* BEE deals from Altech UEC and Altech Netstar Group.

* Symbian-based handset shipments will reach 180 million by 2014, according to Juniper research.
* The worldwide security market will grow 8% in 2009 to reach $14.5 billion, according to Gartner.
* Worldwide PC shipments are expected to reach 285 million units in 2009, only a 2% decline on 2008, according to Gartner.
* Twenty-five percent of the top BPO providers will not exist in 2012, according to Gartner.

* JSE All share index: Down 4.8%
* Nasdaq: Down 4%
* Top SA share movements: Amecor (+13.3%), Ansys (-20%), Dialogue Group (+17.6%), Dynamic Cables (-16.7%), Ifca Technologies (+14.3%), Labat Africa (-12.5%), Paracon (+16%), Spescom (-24.2%), Stella Vista (-20%) and Zaptronix (+50%)

BusinessWeek has just published its latest '100 Best Global Brands'. From a technology perspective, IBM, Microsoft and Nokia stayed at number two, three and five respectively. Google rose to seven from 10, but Intel dropped from seven to nine. Also in the top 25 were (in alphabetical order) Apple, Cisco, HP, Oracle and Samsung.