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Intel looks to China

The company invests $1.5 billion in a 20% stake in two Chinese semiconductor companies.

Paul Booth
By Paul Booth
Johannesburg, 29 Sept 2014

There was no major story from the international ICT market last week, although there were a number of small acquisitions and investments. Intel's investment in two Chinese semiconductor companies was one of the more noticeable moves.

At home, the Dimension Data/MWeb deal and the Net 1/NCR spat occupied most of the local ICT media space.

Key local news

* A positive trading update from Datacentrix.
* A negative trading update from Altron.
* Internet Solutions, a division of Dimension Data, acquired various assets of MWeb, namely MWeb ISP core network assets, MWeb Business and Optinet from MWeb Connect, and the WiFi assets of MWeb Connect.
* Dimension Data is creating a new joint venture company with MultiChoice, called WirelessCo (made up of Dimension Data with 51% and MultiChoice with 49%). It will build and operate an open access carrier-grade WiFi network.
* According to a recent survey, unlicensed software in SA amounts to over R4 billion, one of the worst offenders in the MEA region.
* A withdrawn JSE cautionary by Amecor.
* The appointment of Ellie Hagopian as chairman of the Wireless Access Providers Association.

Key African news

* Segun Ogunsanya, CEO and MD of Airtel Nigeria, has been named as Nigeria's Telecom CEO of the Year.

Key international news

Half the world will be online by 2017.

* Altruist, an Indian telecommunications technology company, acquired iConnectiva, a mobile fraud management and data analytics start-up.
* Citrix Systems bought Virtual, a start-up that is the provider of a cloud-based virtualisation platform for iOS and Android.
* Dixons Carphone purchased 160 Phones 4U concessions in the UK.
* EE (UK) acquired 58 Phones 4U stores in the UK from the administrator of the collapsed mobile phone retailer.
* Ericsson bought a majority stake in Apcera, an enterprise IT cloud company.
* Huawei purchased Neul, a UK-based Internet of things connectivity specialist, for $25 million.
* Millennial Media, a mobile advertising company, acquired Nexage, an advertising technology firm, for $107.5 million.
* Otter Media, a joint venture between AT&T and The Chernin Group (a global next-generation media and entertainment platform company), bought a majority stake in Fullscreen, one of the largest networks on YouTube.
* Sage Group purchased PayChoice, a US payroll services group, for $157.8 million.
* SK Telecom acquired Shopkick, a shopping loyalty app.
* TTM Technologies bought Viasystems Group, a maker of circuit boards used in electronic devices, for more than $250 million.
* Vodafone purchased 140 Phones 4U stores in the UK from the administrator.
* Intel invested $1.5 billion in a 20% stake in two Chinese semiconductor companies.
* Starboard Value, an activist investor, made a substantial investment in Yahoo. The investor has urged a merger with AOL.
* WPP made a 15% investment in AppNexus, an advertising technology company that is the biggest independent advertising technology group in a sector dominated by AOL, Facebook, Google and Twitter.
* With the release of extra shares, the Alibaba IPO is now ranked as the world's largest, at $25 billion.
* InfiniDB has ceased operations and plans to file for bankruptcy, although its database will live on as open source.
* Very good quarterly figures from Micron Technology.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Accenture.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Progress Software, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from BlackBerry and Jabil Circuit.
* The appointment of Michael Brown as CEO of Symantec (was acting CEO).
* A delayed IPO from Line, a Japanese operator of a smartphone messaging app, until 2015 at the earliest.
* An excellent IPO on Nasdaq by Cyber-Ark Software, an Israeli company that has pioneered a new layer of IT security solutions that protects organisations from cyber attacks.
* A satisfactory IPO on the NYSE by Travelport Worldwide, a travel commerce platform providing distribution, technology, payment and other solutions for the global travel and tourism industry.

Research results and predictions

Worldwide:
* CIOs must actively engage in opportunities to influence IT decisions in business budgets, according to Gartner.
* By 2016, 80% of businesses will find growth constrained from a lack of new data centre skills, says Gartner.
* Global information storage was estimated at 4.4 zettabytes in 2013, but is forecast to grow to 447 zettabytes in 2020, a CAGR of 44%, according to HGST.
* The worldwide integrated infrastructure and platforms market revenue increased 33.8% in Q2 to $2.4 billion, according to IDC.
* Half the world will be online by 2017, according to the latest 'State of Broadband' report just released.

Stock market changes

* JSE All share index: Down 3.5%
* Nasdaq: Down 2%
* NYSE (Dow): Down 1%
* S&P 500: Down 1.4%
* FTSE100: Down 2.8%
* Top SA share movements: ConvergeNet Holdings (-8%), Gijima (-12%), Huge Group (+17.1%), Poynting Holdings (-8.5%) and Telemasters (+7.5%)

Look out for

International:
* The IPO of Rocket Internet (Germany) that is now set for 2 October. The listing was fully subscribed within the first hour of taking orders.
* The possible merger and/or acquisition of EMC, with HP and Oracle being named as possible candidates in this regard.
* A possible EUR7.5 billion stake in Telecom Italia by Sol Trujillo, the former CEO of Telstra.

South Africa:
* Developments regarding the 'spat' between Net 1 UEPS Technologies and the National Credit Regulator.

Final word

Fortune magazine has published its 2014 '50 Most Powerful Women' listing. From a technology perspective, the following are included:

* 1: Ginni Rometty, chairman, CEO and president of IBM
* 6 (was number nine): Meg Whitman, chairman, CEO and president of HP
* 10 (was five): Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook
* 14: Safra Catz, co-CEO of Oracle
* 16 (was eight): Marissa Mayer, CEO and president of Yahoo
* 17 (was 13): Ursula Burns, chairman and CEO of Xerox
* 19: Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube (Google)
* 21 (was 27): Ren'ee James, president of Intel
* 29 (new entrant): Angela Ahrendts, SVP, Retail and Online Stores at Apple
* 33 (was 28): Bridget van Kralingen, SVP Global Business Services at IBM
* 35 (new entrant): Lori Lee, senior EVP, Home Solutions at AT&T
* 45 (was 42): Sondra Barbour, EVP, Information Systems & Global Solutions at Lockheed Martin

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