Apple, Samsung back in the ring

Google's share split, Microsoft's top executive shuffle, and various patent activities - again involving Apple and Samsung - stole much of the international ICT limelight last week.

At home, T-Systems' BEE deal and the dismissals of top executives at the Technology Innovation Agency were the main local ICT stories.

* Very good interim numbers from Poynting Holdings, with revenue up 27.4% and profit up 68.7%.
* An interim loss from Gijima, with revenue down 18.6%.
* A positive trading update from Altron.
* A mixed trading update from Datatec.
* T-Systems announced a 30% BEE deal that seems to be unique in its structure.
* Stanchion Payment Solutions has opened a European office based in London.
* Renewed JSE cautionaries by TCS.
* The appointment of Jim Volkwyn as CEO of Naspers' pay-TV division.
* The resignation of Eben Greyling, CEO of Naspers' pay-TV division.
* The 'departure' of Simphiwe Duma, CEO of the Technology Innovation Agency.

* Millicom Cellular International has created a tech incubator in Rwanda to develop new digital solutions.
* Safaricom has walked away from the acquisition of Yu Mobile Network Infrastructure.
* The appointment of Roshi Motman as GM of Tigo Ghana.
* The resignation of Adel El Youssefi, GM of Tigo Ghana.

Smartphone usage in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow 40% each year until 2017.

* Apple acquired Novauris Technologies, a speech recognition firm. This move was done several months ago but not formally announced.
* Descartes bought Computer Management, a provider of air cargo management applications.
* Telefonica purchased eyeOS, a Spanish cloud desktop provider.
* TeliaSonera acquired S'iminn, a Danish IT and systems integrator.
* Alibaba made a $692 million (26.1%) investment in a Chinese department store operator.
* Jack Ma (founder of Alibaba) made a $532 million investment in Hundsun Technologies, a financial software firm.
* The Marvell patent verdict in favour of Carnegie Melon University has grown to $1.54 billion.
* BlackBerry has won a sales ban against a copycat keyboard for Apple's iPhone.
* Apple has filed a patent for its transparent display screen.
* OpenText is seeking an injunction halting the sale of Box's products in a patent lawsuit.
* Apple is seeking $2 billion in a fresh patent battle with Samsung for allegedly copying features of its iPhone.
* Riverbed has lost a patent trial against Silver Peak, one of its competitors.
* Apple and Intertrust Technologies have settled their patent suit.
* Google announced a 2:1 share split.
* Microsoft announced a reshuffle of its senior ranks.
* Vietnam's Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group has secured approval for plans to split off one of the two mobile networks it owns.
* Turkey has partially lifted its ban on Twitter and YouTube.
* Excellent quarterly results from Micron Technology (back in the black).
* Good quarterly numbers from Synnex.
* Satisfactory year-end figures from Huawei Technologies and Hon Hai Precision Industry.
* Mixed year-end figures from Compal Electronics, with revenue up but profit down; and Synnex Technology, with revenue up but profit down.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Quanta Computer, with revenue up but profit down; and Verint, with revenue up but profit down.
* The appointments of Darren Entwistle as chairman of Telus (was CEO); and Joe Natale as CEO of Telus.
* The resignation of Brendan Eich, CEO of Mozilla (he only became CEO last month).
* A planned IPO from Alarm.com, a company that sells interactive home security systems which are controlled by smartphone applications.
* IPO filings from Arista Networks, a maker of network switches; K2 Design & Strategy, an analytics software company; Kingsoft Internet Software Holdings, a Chinese player in the Internet and mobile space; and Materialise (Belgium), a provider of 3D printing software.
* A good IPO on Nasdaq by Five9, a cloud-based software provider for data centres.

South Africa:
* PC shipments to SA fell 18.8% in Q4 2013, according to IDC.

EMEA/Africa:
* Smartphone usage in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow 40% each year until 2017, according to Frost & Sullivan.
* Government IT spending in MEA will reach $11.9 billion in 2014, up 2.3% from 2013, according to Gartner.
* Software spending for the Middle East and North African banking and securities firms will grow 10% in 2014, according to Gartner.
* Thirty-three percent of all new servers shipped in Q4 2013 in EMEA were virtualised, according to IDC.

Worldwide:
* Worldwide IT spending is on pace to grow 3.2% this year to reach $3.77 billion, according to Gartner.
* The worldwide software market grew 4.8% in 2013 to reach $407.3 billion, according to Gartner.
* Worldwide semiconductor revenue grew 5% in 2013 to reach $515 billion, according to Gartner.

* JSE All share index: Up 0.9% (highest-ever weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Down 0.7%
* NYSE (Dow): Up 0.5%
* S&P 500: Up 1.5% (all-time high reached during the week)
* FTSE100: Up 1.2%
* Top SA share movements: Adapt IT (+17.6%), Amecor (+8.3%), Ansys (+26.7%), Gijima (+12.5%), Huge Group (+14.4%), Mustek (+10.1%), Poynting Holdings (+8.2%) and Telkom SA (+10.2%)

International:
* The buy-out of News Distribution Network by Yahoo.
* The outcome of the talks between Apple and others, and Renesas Electronics, a Japanese chipmaker.
* The buyer for IBM's chip-making business. Globalfoundries seems to have emerged as the leading contender, with Intel, however, still in the race.
* The IPO of Weibo that could raise as much as $15 billion and thus the largest Internet IPO since Facebook in 2012.
* The outcome of the continuing battle for Vivendi's SFR stake.

Africa:
* Moves by Telecom Egypt regarding its joint venture with Vodafone if it decides to proceed with its mobile initiative.

South Africa:
* More news regarding the Vodacom/Neotel deal.

Fortune magazine has published its annual "The world's most admired companies" list for this year. From a technology perspective, the following are of interest from the 'Industry Stars' section, which is how the most reputable companies are ranked by their peers:
* Accenture has replaced IBM as number one in the IT services category.
* Comcast has become number one in the cable and satellite providers category (was three).
* Lenovo has jumped to three in the computers category, behind Apple and EMC (was seven).
* Telefonica has jumped to two in the telecommunications category behind Verizon (was four).
* Qualcomm and Cisco remain the top two in the network and other communications equipment category.
* Salesforce.com and Adobe remain the top two in the computer software category.
* Google and Amazon remain the top two in the Internet services and retailing category.

In the 50 All-Stars listing, Apple, Amazon and Google remain the top three, with IBM, Microsoft and Samsung also in the top 25.