Disasters impact IT sector

The international ICT market was dominated by the spate of quarterly results that emanated from various quarters, and showed very clearly for the first time how much the recent Japanese disasters have impacted this sector.

At home, the announcement by government regarding the loss Telkom sustained in the Multi-Links fiasco was the key ICT media story.

Telkom lost more than R7 billion with its Multi-Links 'adventure'.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* A positive trading update from Remgro.
* Pinnacle Technology made an R11.35 million investment in CGI's 39.2% stake in Centrafin, which will give the former a 90.2% stake in the company.
* Government announced Telkom lost more than R7 billion with its Multi-Links 'adventure'.
* The appointments of John Holdsworth as non-executive chairman of ECN Telecommunications (was CEO); and Andy Openshaw as GM of ECN Telecommunications.

* Mediocre half-year figures from Maroc Telecom.
* A half-year loss from Mobinil (Egypt).
* Dan Veitkus was appointed VP and GM for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Progress Software.

* CA Technologies acquired Watchmouse, an innovator in SaaS-based monitoring for cloud, mobile and traditional Web applications.
* CACI International bought Paradigm Holdings, a provider of cyber security and enterprise IT solutions.
* Google purchased about 1 000 technology patents from IBM that included ones for the fabrication of microprocessing chips, and architecture of online search engines.
* Qualcomm acquired certain IP assets regarding gesture recognition technology from GestureTek.
* Xerox (Global Imaging Systems) bought Xerographic Solutions, a Xerox sales agent and dealer that provides managed print and network services.
* Excellent quarterly results from Baidu and Netflix.
* Very good quarterly figures from Arrow Electronics and Netgear.
* Good quarterly numbers from ADP, Akamai Technologies, Alvarion (back in the black), ARM Holdings, Broadcom, Citrix Systems, Infineon Technologies and SAP.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Alcatel-Lucent (back in the black), BMC Software, Iron Mountain, Lexmark, LSI, Motorola Solutions, Rogers Communications, Softbank, STMicroelectronics, Symantec and Websense.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Canon, Diebold, DST Systems, France Telecom, Hitachi, KPN, Kyocera, LG Electronics, RF Micro Devices, Sharp, Telefonica and Texas Instruments.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Amazon, with revenue up but profit down; Amdocs, with revenue up but profit down; BT Group, with revenue down but profit up; Fiserv, with revenue up but profit down; Forrester Research, with revenue up but profit down; Idea Cellular, with revenue up but profit down; Ingram Micro, with revenue up but profit down; Juniper Networks, with revenue up but profit down; Maxim Integrated Products, with revenue up but profit down; NTT DoCoMo, with revenue down but profit up; Patni Computer (India), with revenue up but profit considerably down; Samsung Electronics, with revenue up but profit down; Sanmina-SCA, with revenue up but profit down; Toshiba, with revenue down but profit slightly up; and TSMC, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Ariba, AU Optronics, Eastman Kodak, Fujitsu, Imation, Logitech International, Motorola Mobility, NetSuite, Panasonic, Quantum, Sony, Sprint Nextel, Tellabs, Unisys and VeriSign.
* The appointments of Jim Bidzos as CEO of VeriSign (was a founder of the company and is also currently the chairman); Andy Bryant as chairman of Intel (as of May 2012); Guerrino De Luca as interim CEO of Logitech International; and Xi Guohua as vice-chairman of China Mobile.
* The resignations of Mark McLaughlin, CEO of VeriSign; and Gerald Quinlen, CEO of Logitech International.
* The retirement of Jane Shaw, chairman of Intel (as of April 2012).
* A good IPO on Nasdaq by Tangoe, a provider of communications software and services.

* International:
* RIM's future strategy following the drop of its stock value below $26, the first time it has been this low since 2005.
* Africa:
* The sell-off of Rwandatel in a move that would enable its creditors to be paid.
* The privatisation of Guin'e Telecom (Guinea Bissau).
* South Africa:
* The new CEO for Cell C and further developments regarding the unbundling of the local loop.

* The worldwide mobile phone market grew 11.3% year-over-year in 2Q11, according to IDC, despite a weaker feature phone market, which declined for the first time since 3Q09.

* JSE All share index: Down 2.5%
* Nasdaq: Down 3.6%

Fortune Magazine has released its 2011 Global 500 listing, and there have been many changes in the top technology names in this latest publication. In the top 50, there are seven technology players, and an additional eight in the top 100.

Samsung Electronics is now the leading company, and comes in at number 22. Also in the top 50 (alphabetically) are AT&T (30), Hitachi (40), HP (28), NTT (31), Panasonic (50) and Verizon Communications (41). All these companies have annual revenue in excess of $100 billion.

In positions between 51 and 100 are (alphabetically) China Mobile (87), Deutsche Telekom (75), Hon Hai Precision Industries (60), IBM (52), Sony (73), Telefonica (78), Toshiba (89) and Vodafone (92). None of these have annual revenue in excess of $100 billion.

Further interesting analysis will be highlighted in my next column.

I am currently overseas and will be on leave for a couple of weeks, so my next column will appear on 22 August, but will fully cover the intervening three weeks.