MTN says it will have to start investigating options to improve cash returns meaningfully to shareholders as the emerging market telecommunications sector matures.

That’s the shock assessment of the cellular group’s outgoing president and CEO Phuthuma Nhleko. Nhleko will address the company’s annual general meeting on Thursday afternoon, giving shareholders a peek at what they can expect to see at its interim results presentation next month.

Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda has dismissed allegations in a newspaper report that he may suspend department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala as “false, spurious and malicious”. Nyanda’s spokesman Tiyani Rikhotso says in a statement that the minister “exercises political oversight over the department and gives it policy direction in line with his statutory and constitutional mandate”.

Johannesburg- and London-listed technology group Datatec is on track to produce revenues of between US$4,1bn and $4,2bn by the end of its financial year. In an interim management statement released to shareholders on Thursday, the company said the recovery of global markets had driven an improved half-year for the technology business over the same period last year.

The proposed acquisition of Dimension Data by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) is more about the Japanese telecommunications group than about the SA-based IT firm. That’s the view of consulting company Frost & Sullivan, which says NTT has embarked on a “fairly aggressive acquisition drive over the past two or three years”.

Africa’s largest mobile phone operator MTN is planning to sell 4% of the company’s equity to black investors in what could prove to be the largest broad-based empowerment deal in SA’s telecommunications industry. MTN’s empowerment deal was expected to happen last year with the unwinding of the Alpine Trust-owned investment company Newshelf 664.

The proposed acquisition by Japan’s Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) of Dimension Data will give the SA-headquartered IT group’s Internet Solutions (IS) division access to one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies. IS MD Derek Wilcocks, reacting to the news of the proposed R24,4bn all-cash deal, says it’s “incredibly positive” for IS as it will make the Didata unit part of one of the “strongest global networks, with data centres around the world”.

Japanese telecommunications group, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT), is buying SA IT group Dimension Data for £2,1bn (R24,4bn). The offer represents a R5bn premium to Didata’s value on Wednesday, before the offer was announced. Didata has already received commitments to support the deal from more than half its shareholders, including Didata directors, Venfin and Allan Gray.

Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda is planning to suspend department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala, according to a newspaper report. Business Day reports on Thursday that Nyanda may suspend Mohlala following “repeated disagreements over tenders she refused to sign”.

Reuben September’s decision to step down early as CEO of Telkom wasn’t unexpected. All eyes are now on the board, which must appoint his successor. Will it make the right choice? Or will the decision be political? It was probably inevitable that September didn’t stick around at Telkom until his con- tract ended in November. When the board elected not to renew his contract, the long- serving Telkom executive took it badly, say company insiders.

In a development laced with irony, Symantec’s World Cup 2010 website has fallen victim to the same spam threats it’s constantly warning its own customers about. The company unveiled its 2010 Net Threat site just before the start of the soccer spectacle, using it to detail a variety of World Cup-related information security threats.