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Bell tolls for Facebook

The company listed on Nasdaq last week, with co-founder Mark Zuckerberg ringing the opening bell.

Paul Booth
By Paul Booth
Johannesburg, 21 May 2012

Facebook's IPO dominated the international ICT market last week, but otherwise it was very quiet.

At home it was also quiet, with Datatec's annual results being one of the main ICT stories.

Key local news of the past week

The [Facebook] deal was the second-largest US IPO of all time, behind Visa's in 2008.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Good year-end numbers from Datatec, with revenue up 17% and profit nearly double.
* Satisfactory year-end figures from Ansys, with revenue up 4.3% and back in the black.
* Positive trading updates from Ideco, Mix Telematics and Poynting Holdings.
* PBT Group acquired Cyberpro Consulting, a Microsoft solutions company.
* Ideco intends to change its name to Muvoni Technology Group.
* Steve Bailey resigned as CEO of Virgin Mobile SA.

Key international news

* Equinix purchased ancotel, a provider of carrier-neutral company-location and interconnection services in Europe.
* LightSquared, a wireless networking venture, has applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
* Good quarterly numbers from Aruba Networks and Satyam Computer Systems (back in the black).
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Autodesk and Intuit.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Applied Materials.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Brocade Communications Systems, with revenue down but profit up; TalkTalk, with revenue down but profit up; and VimpelCom, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Alvarion, CSC, Groupon, Intermec, Renren and Salesforce.com.
* The appointments of Fred Amoroso as chairman of Yahoo; and Ross Levinsohn as interim CEO of Yahoo.
* The resignations of Peter Bauer, CEO of Infineon Technologies; Roy Bostock, chairman of Yahoo; and Scott Thompson, CEO of Yahoo.
* An IPO filing on the NYSE from Intelsat Global Holdings, the world's largest operator of satellite services.
* A disappointing IPO on Nasdaq by Facebook, with the shares originally listing at $38 and changing little by the end of the first day of trading. The IPO valued Facebook at $104 billion and the deal was the second-largest US IPO of all time, behind Visa's in 2008.

Look out for

International:

* The possible acquisition by NTT DoCoMo of Buongiorno, an Italian mobile content distributor.
* The buyout by Bharti Airtel of Qualcomm's India unit.
* The sell-off by Yahoo of part of its stake in Alibaba.
* The investment by Carlos Slim in Telekom Austria.

South Africa:

* The sale by Virgin Mobile SA of a stake to the Friendi Group, a Dubai-based telecommunications company.

Research results and predictions

* Worldwide sales of mobile phones declined 2% in Q1 2012 to 419.1 million units, according to Gartner, with Samsung and Nokia remaining at number one and number two, but Apple taking the number three slot.
* The worldwide supply chain management software market grew 12.3% in 2011 to reach $7.7 billion, according to Gartner.

Stock market changes

* JSE All share index: Down 2.6%
* Nasdaq: Down 5.3%
* Top SA share movements: African Cellular Towers (+50%), Amecor (+7.7%), Ideco (+15.4%), Ifca Technologies (-22.2%), Jasco (-10.1%), MICROmega Holdings (-18.6%), Pinnacle Technologies (-7.4%), Telemasters (-9.1%) and Zaptronix (+50%)

Final word

The latest Barron's 500 has been published, and highlights companies that have done the best job of growing their businesses. From a technology perspective, the following are the highest ranked:

* 2: Apple
* 4: Qualcomm
* 6: Intel
* 12: EMC
* 27: IBM
* 28: Jabil Circuit
* 35: ADP
* 36: Arrow Electronics

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