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Steve Ballmer steps down

Steve Ballmer has resigned from the Microsoft board.

Paul Booth
By Paul Booth
Johannesburg, 25 Aug 2014

The international ICT market was dominated by the acquisition involving Infineon Technologies, and the resignation of Steve Ballmer from the Microsoft board.

At home, the financial results from Adapt IT and Blue Label Telecoms seemed to have the most visibility during another very quiet week from an ICT perspective.

Key local news

* Very good year-end figures from Adapt IT, with revenue up 33.5% and profit up 58.1%.
* Satisfactory year-end numbers from Blue Label Telecoms, with revenue up 2.2% and profit up 5.3%.
* A negative trading update from Pinnacle Holdings.
* Huge Group acquired the IP relating to fixed wireless routers, which will enable it to manufacture a fixed cellular router at a significant discount to its current cost of purchasing similar equipment.
* Takealot.com bought Superbalist, a designer online marketplace.
* A withdrawn JSE cautionary by Morvest Business Group.

Key African news

* Kirusa, a leader in voice messaging and social media mobile apps in emerging markets, acquired Saya Mobile, a Ghana-based provider of instant messaging apps geared specifically for African consumers.
* Surfline Communications has launched Ghana's first 4G network.
* SAP is investing $500 million into African growth through 2020.
* The appointment of Trevor Coetzee as McAfee's regional director for SA and sub-Saharan Africa.

Key international news

RBS has settled its copyright lawsuit with Complex Systems.

* Daktronics bought Data Display, an Irish transportation-focused display company.
* Google purchased Gecko Design, a mechanical engineering and product design company.
* Murata Manufacturing (Japan) acquired Peregrine Semiconductor for $471 million.
* Infineon Technologies bought International Rectifier, a manufacturer of power semiconductors, for $3 billion.
* Samsung purchased Quietside, an air-conditioner firm, as part of the former's move to strengthen its 'smart home' business.
* Sensata Technologies Holding (Netherlands) acquired Schrader International, a producer of tyre-pressure monitoring sensors, for $1 billion.
* Shanghai Zhongji Investment Holding bought a gaming subsidiary of FunPlus, a Chinese gaming company, for $960 million.
* VMware purchased CloudVolumes, a cloud start-up.
* Vodafone acquired a majority stake in Hellas Online, a Greek broadband provider, for EUR72.7 million.
* Zensar Technologies bought Professional Access, a major Oracle partner.
* RBS has settled its copyright lawsuit with Complex Systems.
* Good quarterly numbers from International Rectifier (back in the black) and Marvell Technology Group.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from ScanSource (back in the black) and Synopsys.
* Satisfactory half-year figures from Swisscom and ZTE (although profit up over 300%).
* Mediocre quarterly results from CACI International.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Brocade Communications Systems, with revenue up but profit down; HP, with revenue up but profit down; Inventec, with revenue up but profit down; Mentor Graphics, with revenue up but profit down; and MTS (Russia), with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Intuit and Salesforce.com.
* The appointments of Anthony Bettencourt as president and CEO of Imperva; and Garrett Pierce as chairman of Kulicke & Soffa.
* Steve Ballmer has resigned from the Microsoft board.
* A planned IPO by Rocket Internet, one of Europe's most successful and controversial technology firms.

Research results and predictions

South Africa:
* According to Telkom's COO Brian Armstrong, SA's telecoms, media, and IT market in 2019 will be very different to that of today, with mobile data, basic and managed data services, mobile devices, data centres and Internet advertising being some of the significant growth areas. Two of the areas where a decline is expected over the next five years are mobile and fixed voice services.

EMEA/Africa:
* 'Third platform' technologies will feature prominently in the coming years, as pressure on the MEA government sector intensifies, according to the IDC's Annual Middle East and Africa Government CIO Survey 2014.
* Africa will be a key investment destination going forward, as witnessed by the discussions at the recent US-Africa Leaders Summit, according to IDC.

Worldwide:
* Consumer 3D printing is more than five years away, according to Gartner.
* Worldwide information security spending will grow almost 8% this year to $71.1 billion, with the data loss prevention segment recording the fastest growth at 18.9%, according to Gartner.
* The worldwide software-defined networking market is expected to reach $8 billion by 2018, at a CAGR of 89.4%, according to IDC.
* The worldwide hardcopy peripherals market declined 2.3% in Q2 to 25.5 million units shipped, according to IDC.

Stock market changes

* JSE All share index: Down 0.1%
* Nasdaq: Up 1.7% (highest weekend close this year)
* NYSE (Dow): Up 2%
* S&P 500: Up 1.7% (highest-ever weekend close)
* FTSE100: Up 1.3%
* Top SA share movements: Adapt IT (-7.5%), ConvergeNet Holdings (+17.6%), Ellies (+12.6%), Morvest Business Group (+13.6%), Pinnacle Holdings (+15.9%) and Poynting Holdings (-10%)

Look out for

International:
* The acquisition by Vodafone of a Brazilian mobile operator, possibly Telecom Italia's local unit.
* The buy-out of Shutterfly by a private equity group, which is likely to be Bain Capital or Silver Lake Partners.
* The winner of the race for Viom Networks, a telecommunications tower company that is 54% owned by Tata Teleservices. American Tower seems to be the front-runner.

South Africa:
* Further developments regarding the investigations involving Pinnacle Holdings.

Final word

Each year, CRN presents the 'Top 100', its annual list of the IT industry's foremost leaders. The list starts by honouring the 25 most influential individuals of 2014, a collection of those who had the biggest impact on the technology industry in the last 12 months. The top five in this category are:
* Edward Snowden
* Meg Whitman, chairman, president and CEO of HP
* Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo
* Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP
* Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell

Next, CRN highlights the Top 25 Innovators of 2014, which includes those who are setting the technology course and successfully responding to the rapidly changing marketplace. The top five in this category are:
* Tom Reilly, CEO of Cloudera
* Werner Vogels, CTO and VP of Amazon
* Scott Guthrie, executive VP, Cloud and Enterprise Group at Microsoft
* David DeWalt, CEO of FireEye
* Jeff Storey, president and CEO of Level 3 Communications

After that, CRN lists the executives who shook up the IT industry, with the Top 25 Disrupters of 2014. The top five in this category are:
* Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon
* Jayshree Ullaln, president and CEO of Arista Networks
* Steven Sinofsky, board partner at Andreessen Horowitz
* Sanjay Mehrotra, president and CEO of SanDisk
* Nir Zuk, founder, CTO of Palo Alto Networks

Lastly, CRN honours the Top 25 Channel Sales Leaders of 2014, the channel sales executives who went to bat for their partners and brought them success, as competition in the channel heats up. The top five in this category are:
* Gregg Ambulos, senior VP, Global Channel Sales at EMC
* Brooks McCorcle, president, Emerging Business Markets at AT&T
* Sue Barsamian, senior VP, GM at Hewlett-Packard
* Chris Frey, VP, North America Commercial Channel at Lenovo
* Bob Skelley, executive director, North American Channel Sales at Dell

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