MONDAY, 11.30AM
ONE of the country’s pioneering ISPs, Internet Solution, has been bought out by Dimenstion Data in a deal that valued the company at R400-million. This signals just how seriously the Internet industry is being taken by the information technology industry: Dimension Data bought a 25% stake in Internet Solution last year at a cost of only R12,5-million. “Nobody realised how fast the industry had moved forward,” says IS joint MD Alon Apteker. “And they didn’t realise the extent to which Dimnesion Data’s own competing units would be drawn into the Internet fray. The amount of their commitment to us was limited by that 25% shareholding, and we all realised that if we could harness all those skills and services toward a common goal, we could bring about a more cohesive, single-focused entity.”
A major motivation for the deal was the bright future foreseen for Internet-related technologies, such as intranets and electronic commerce.
Rob Taylor, director of Dimension Datas Software Division, said: “The deal is being driven by market demand. Many companies which have a Web presence – including a large proportion of our existing client base – are looking to derive additional value from the Net.”
BUSINESS BRIEFS
STRONG FOREIGN BUYING FOREIGN traders bought R1,097 billion worth of shares on the JSE last week, despite the global stock market crisis, the JSE said on Monday. In the same week last year, they bought only R162,7 million shares. Foreigners have spent R22,4 billion on the JSE so far this year, compared to R5 billion over the same period last year.
FLOTEL PLAN SINKING PLANS by UK-based Don Robinson group to convert the Canberra cruise liner into a floating hotel anchored in Durban harbour fell overboard with the discovery that the ship has been sold to a Pakistani scrapyard. Don Robinson’s local representative Alec Vituli said the group’s agents in Pakistan are trying to buy Canberra back. He added that the group has been offered another liner if the Canberra deal falls through.
NEDBANK IN MAURITIUS THE Mauritian Central Bank on Thursday approved Nedbank’s acquisition of of 20,1% of the share capital of the State Bank of Mauritius, one of the Indian Ocean island republic’s leading commercial banks.