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MYOB Happy Despite $29m Loss

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Australia’s No 1 accounting software company for SMBs, MYOB, now ASX-listed, has reported a net loss of $65.04 million for the half year to June 30, compared with a loss of $29.18 million in the same period of 2014.The latest

figure includes costs associated with MYOB’s relisting on the ASX in

May. The company says underlying profit came in at $19.8 million, while

pro forma EBTDA was put at $721 million, up 14 percent year-on-year.

Revenue for the six months was $161 million, up 8 percent. With

528,000 paying users, MYOB said its numbers are up 10 percent

year-on-year, and well ahead of the prospectus forecast.

Said CEO Tim Reed: “There was always going to be  a lot of attention

put on these first results post our successful IPO and I am delighted that, not

only have we delivered on expectations,  we have exceeded

 them.”

DJs Bets On Online Xmas Stocking

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SYDNEY – Upmarket retailer David Jones delivered a shocking 40 percent net profit slump for FY2012 to $101.1 million – but says it’s now looking to an improvement in online sales to help return it to better times.
DJs chief Paul Zahra said he hopes to have 90,000 unique products available online by Christmas, and intends to open a mobile Web store.

In its results presentation, the company said it would engage in a cost “harmonisation” strategy across most product categories, including electronic brands such as Beats Dr Dre headphones, Bose, Canon and Olympus.

The company, known for its high-pricing strategies, pledged to slash online prices by 20-28 percent.

But would that be enough to beat the likes of Kogan as well as US-based online stores currently favoured by Australian buyers?

We shall just have to wait and see. Hang on, DJs investors – you could be in for a bumpy ride.

Tassie NBN Rollout A ‘Shambles’

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The Tasmanian ICT sector peak body, known as TasICT, says the process for connecting new customers to the NBN optical fibre network is failing.

The Weekend Australian reported that the National Broadband Network rollout in Tasmania has been “so shambolic” and failed “so abysmally” to meet its targets that urgent political intervention is needed.

The newspaper says TasICT has warned there is “no realistic chance” the project will be completed by the end of 2015 as the previous Labor Government had initially promised.

The warnings come as NBN Co prepares a new corporate plan for the $41 billion project.

Senator Fancied As Comms Chief

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CANBERRA – South Australian senator Simon Birmingham is firming as favourite to take the Communications Minister job vacated by Malcolm Turnbull, when Turnbull launched his successful bid to become Prime Minister. Turnbull is expected to announce the new ministry on Monday.Other possibilities for the comms post include Paul

Fletcher, a former Optus executive who has been parliamentary secretary to

Turnbull; and Joe Hockey who appears likely to be moved from the Treasurer’s

job, almost certainly to be handed to Scott Morrison in return for his help in

securing the numbers for Turnbull’s successful coup.

However Birmingham, a former Water Minister and currently Assistant Education

and Training Minister under Christopher Pyne, is seen as having driven a

reduction in dysfunction in Australia’s vocational education system, and may

prove a better choice to tackle the floundering NBN rollout.

Birmingham yesterday told Sky News he has had no conversation yet with Turnbull

about a new role.

“I have no expectations; I love my current role. What this is about is a

better government, an even better government for the Australian people, and

that’s what matters, not what role I have,” he said.

Lenovo Bucks Trend As APac PC Market Slips Another 7.7pc

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PC shipments in Asia-Pacific fell 7.7 percent to 107.6 million units in 2015. This was a steeper contraction from the 5.7 percent year-on-year drop in 2014, according to research from market analyst IDC.

In the fourth quarter of 2015, the APac market fell 6.5 percent year-on-year, reaching 26.9 million units.

According to IDC Asia Pacific, Lenovo easily retained the top spot in the region in 2015 with an estimated 30.7 percent of the APac market, up from 28.4pc in Q4 2014, as it made significant headway into the Australian and New Zealand consumer space (see chart, page 1). 

Despite a drop in its Chinese home base, Lenovo also won a large share in India and Thailand due to a number of education sales.

Dell remained in second place – though a long way behind – by maintaining high YoY shipments to the enterprise sector in 2015.  Dell recorded just 11.4pc percent of the APac market, compared with Lenovo’s 30.7 percent.

H-P came in third with higher YoY public sector shipments in China, also from education project fulfilments in India and Thailand. It had an even 11 percent.

In the minor placings, Asus overtook Acer to take fourth place from higher shipments in China and Indonesia consumer markets, and recording 7.4pc of the market. It also reported higher education shipments to Taiwan and Thailand. Apple doesn’t show up at all in the IDC figures.

However, affected by a depressed retail environment, Chinese consumers failed to show interest in new PC offerings. In Indonesia, the market also came out weak due to lower government IT spending and high inventory in the consumer channels

Cisco Leaps 44% As Business Buys Tech

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SAN FRANCISCO – Networking giant Cisco has reported a massive 44 percent rise in net profit for its fiscal second quarter, ended January 26, leading to speculation that the climate for technology spending by business is improving.Cisco reported net income of $3.1 billion, up from $2.2 billion a year earlier.

Revenue was up 5 percent at $12.1 billion. The group’s bottom line was boosted by $926 million as a result of a tax settlement and reinstatement of a R&D tax credit.

CEO John Chambers told analysts that he sensed “cautious optimism” among technology buyers. He later said that most of Cisco’s US customers are seeing “slow improvement” in spending.

However business remained weak in Europe, where sales and orders fell.Analysts noted that some of the new areas Cisco has been emphasising for future growth showed the best rises.

For instance, its business selling software and equipment for video grew 20 percent to $1.2 billion, thanks partly to its $5 billion acquisition of NDS Group. Cisco’s datacentre business grew 65 percent to $548 million.

But sales of collaboration technology, including Cisco’s high-end videoconferencing units, fell 11 percent to $945 million.- Two other Silicon Valley companies yesterday reported better days in their latest quarters.

Storage group NetApp reported profit up 43pc at $158 million; while graphic chipmaker Nvidia scored a rise in net profit from $116 million to $174 million, reflecting a move into the tablet arena.

Huawei Injects $30 Million Into Australian IT Education

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SYDNEY – Australian higher education students are set to benefit from a $30 million investment by Huawei Australia in a national training and development centre.Huawei’s Australian National Training and Development

Centre in Sydney will train about 2000 people a year in the latest

technologies, including at least 100 Australian university and vocational

education ICT students – as well as Huawei staff and customers currently

trained overseas.

In addition, state-of-the-art technology will be used within the centre’s labs

to test new applications and innovations and undertake R&D locally, Huawei

says.

The new centre will leverage off the Chinese company’s global knowledge base,

including 16 R&D centres and 28 joint innovation centres across the world.

Cabbies, Vigilante Take Uber To Court, Seeking NSW Ban

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Ride-sharing service Uber has been taken to the NSW Supreme Court by a group claimed to represent taxi drivers and a Sydney man who is said to perform citizen arrests on unwitting Uber drivers.

The Australian Taxi Drivers Association and self-styled anti-Uber vigilante Russell Howarth have filed documents asking the court to ban UberX Australia from offering smartphone apps that allow “unaccredited persons” to carry paying passengers within NSW.

The injunction, if granted, would only affect the UberX service, not UberTaxi or UberBlack, which provide services licensed under existing legislation.

Documents filed in the court argue that Uber BV – a Netherlands-registered company that provides Uber’s platform and technology – is aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring a contravention of the Passenger Transport Act.

Qld Cops’ Numberplate Camera System Not Working, Says Auditor

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BRISBANE – Queensland Police have put the rollout of automatic number plate recognition cameras on ice after discovering they correctly clock offences in 19 percent of cases. Only 12 cameras remain in use.The situation has been criticised by the Queensland

Audit Office, which has understandably urged the force to get the system

working correctly.

The cameras are supposed to automatically detect vehicles out of register;

owners of registered vehicles who don’t have a valid driver’s licence; stolen

vehicles; and those suspected of being involved in an offence. 

The high failure rate is said to be due to the character-recognition software,

which it seems has problems identifying the differences between similar-looking

letters, such as O and Q – or maybe A and V.  There are also problems

reading personalised numberplates.

On top of that, the audit office found, the Department of Transport and Main

Roads is behind schedule on integration of key back-end systems.  This

means what’s supposed to be an automatic system requires manual intervention.

 “Until this integration occurs, the ability for police to intercept

unregistered and uninsured vehicles is less than under the previous system,

where a registration label was required to be displayed,”  the audit

office says.

Consequently the rollout of the cameras by Queensland Police is on hold. Among

other things, the report suggests the force fix the faulty software.

Qantas To Trial Inflight Internet

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Qantas is expected to begin trialling in-flight Internet on domestic routes in 2016, according to Australian Business Traveller.

“We are continuing to explore options to introduce on board Wi-Fi,” Qantas head of customer experience Phil Capps told the aviation user Web site.

“We know many of our customers want to stay connected at all stages of their journey, but we want to do it right – so we are in talks with providers, as new satellite platforms could create some fantastic opportunities, particularly on domestic flights,” Capps said.

The Flying Kangaroo is also looking at the options on the fitout of eight new Boeing 787 Dreamliners, the first of which are due around the end of 2017. Each of the red-tailed 787s will be fitted with approximately 250 seats, split between business class, premium economy and economy.