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EMC hits the shops

The company acquired CloudScaling, Maginatics and Spanning.

Paul Booth
By Paul Booth
Johannesburg, 03 Nov 2014

The international ICT market was very quiet last week, despite a raft of quarterly results. There were also many small acquisitions, including three by EMC.

At home, FoneWorx's move to the main JSE board, and Adapt IT's acquisition, stole much of the local ICT media space.

Key local news

* Very good interim numbers from MICROmega Holdings, with revenue up 30.1% and profit up 123%.
* A positive trading update from Sekunjalo.
* A negative trading update from Reunert.
* Adapt IT acquired AspiviaUnison, a company that provides software solutions that help clients manage telecommunications billing information, for R200 million.
* Metrofile bought Dubai-based eFile Masters, a document storage provider.
* MICROmega Holdings purchased Rdata, a provider of enterprise management systems, for R12.57 million.
* ConvergeNet Holdings made an additional investment in Digicore.
* FoneWorx said the JSE approved the application for its listing to be transferred from AltX to the JSE main board, under the name Cognition Holdings, as of 3 November.
* Webroot, a cyber security specialist, has entered SA for the first time via a distribution agreement with Sovaton.
* A new JSE cautionary by Ansys.
* A renewed JSE cautionary by Ellies.
* A withdrawn JSE cautionary by Adapt IT.
* The appointments of Henry Ferreira as CEO of Pinnacle Micro; Sello Mmakau as CIO of ACSA; and Ashley Tugendaft as acting chairman of Pinnacle Holdings.
* The resignation of Daphne Mashile-Nkosi as chairman of Pinnacle Holdings.

Key African news

* Mixed quarterly figures from Maroc Telecom, with revenue up 4.3% but EBITDA down slightly.
* A quarterly loss by Bharti Airtel, although revenue up 2%.

Key international news

Twitter purchased the Twitpic domain and its extensive photo archives.

* Amazon acquired Rooftop Media, an online comedy service.
* EMC bought CloudScaling, a provider of OpenStack-powered IaaS; Maginatics, a cloud technology provider; and Spanning, a provider of subscription-based backup and recovery applications and data.
* RFI purchased Polymeric Imaging's thermoforming ink technology.
* Engility acquired TASC, a professional services provider.
* Lockheed Martin bought Systems Made Simple, a health information technology solutions provider.
* NetApp purchased Riverbed Technology's SteelStore product line for $80 million.
* New Call Telecom, a UK-based ISP, acquired a 70% stake in Nimbuzz (India), for $175 million.
* Rogers Communications bought Source Cable, a cable business, for C$160 million.
* Twitter purchased the Twitpic domain and its extensive photo archives.
* Softbank made a $627 million investment in Snapdeal, an online retailing marketplace.
* Softbank acquired Ola Cabs, an Uber competitor, for $210 million.
* InterDigital has won its mobile phone patent fight with ZTE.
* Level 3 Communications has become part of the S&P 500 Index.
* Excellent quarterly results from Cognex, Cray (back in the black) and Facebook.
* Very good quarterly figures from Arris Group, ASM International, Baidu, GoPro (back in the black), Silicon Motion Technology, TriQuint Semiconductor and Vasco Data Security.
* Good quarterly numbers from Akamai Technologies, American Tower, ASE, Aspen Technology, Belden, Bharti Infratel, Corning, EA (back in the black), Etisalat, F5 Networks, IPG Photonics, Monolithic Power Systems, Plantronics, RF Micro Devices, Sanmina, Synchronoss Technologies and Ultimate Software.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Advent Software, Amkor Technology, Arrow Electronics, AU Optronics, Bharti Airtel, Cavium (back in the black), CDI, Diebold, Digital River (back in the black), Dow Corning, DST Systems, Engility, Equinix, Fiserv, Flextronics, Forrester Research, Innolux, Insight Enterprises, Intelsat, International Rectifier, LG Electronics (profit nearly double), Newport, Pitney Bowes (back in the black), PMC-Sierra (back in the black), Quantum (back in the black), TE Connectivity, Tech Mahindra and Verisk Analytics.
* Mediocre quarterly results from CACI International, Canon, Harris, Harte-Hanks (although back in the black), InterDigital, Intersil (but back in the black), KPN, L-3 Communications, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, Software AG, STMicroelectronics (back in the black) and UMC.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Anixter International, with revenue up but profit down; AVX, with revenue up but profit down; Black Box, with revenue up but profit down; BT Group, with revenue down but profit up; CommVault Systems, with revenue up but profit down; Epiq, with revenue down but profit up; FEI, with revenue up but profit down; FIS, with revenue up but profit down; IDT, with revenue up but profit down; Integrated Silicon Solutions, with revenue up but profit down; Iron Mountain, with revenue up but profit down; Microchip Technology, with revenue up but profit down; ScanSource, with revenue up but profit down; Seagate Technology, with revenue up but profit down; Telenor, with revenue up but profit down; Time Warner Cable, with revenue up but profit down; Vishay Intertechnology, with revenue up but profit down; and Western Digital, with revenue up but profit down.
* Very poor quarterly figures from Cirrus Logic and Ntelos.
* Quarterly losses from Alcatel-Lucent, Anadigics, Applied Micro Circuits, Bottomline Technologies, Ciber, ClickSoftware Technologies, Entegris, Extreme Networks, FormFactor, Garmin, Groupon, Imperva, JDS Uniphase, Kofax, LinkedIn, MicroStrategy, Silicon Graphics, Sony, T-Mobile US, Take-Two Interactive Software, Telesat, Twitter and Westell Technologies.
* The appointment of Mike Slessor as CEO of FormFactor.
* The resignation of Tom St Dennis, CEO of FormFactor (stays on as chairman).
* The retirement of John McAdam, president and CEO of F5 Networks (by the end of 2015, although will stay on as chairman).
* The death of Donald Pels, a telecommunications entrepreneur and benefactor.

Research results and predictions

Worldwide:
* Global notebook shipments are expected to decline 2.1% this year and a further 1.7% in 2015, according to Digitimes Research.
* Worldwide shipments of 3D printers will reach 217 350 units in 2015, up from 108 151 in 2014, according to Gartner. It forecasts that 3D printer shipments will more than double every year between 2015 and 2018, by which time worldwide shipments are forecast to reach more than 2.3 million.
* Global semiconductor revenue in 2017 will reach $400 billion, up from $290 billion in 2012, according to the Global Semiconductor Alliance.
* Shipments of sensors used in wearable devices will rise from 67 million units in 2013 to 466 million units by 2019, according to IHS.
* Worldwide smartphone shipments increased 25.2% in Q3 to 327.6 million units, with Xiaomi claiming number three position, ahead of Lenovo and LG Electronics, according to IDC.
* Worldwide tablet shipments grew 11.5% in Q3 to reach 53.8 million units, according to IDC. Samsung closed the market share gap on Apple to just 4.5%.
* The global financial industry will spend $6.57 billion on credit risk management software this year, 17.9% of the total investment on all risk management software and services, according to IDC.

Stock market changes

* JSE All share index: Up 3.9%
* Nasdaq: Up 3.3% (highest weekend close this year)
* NYSE (Dow): Up 3.5% (highest weekend close)
* S&P 500: Up 3.3% (highest weekend close)
* FTSE100: Up 2.7%
* Top SA share movements: Adapt IT (+24.6%), Ansys (+7.7%), FoneWorx (+11.5%), Huge Group (+12.5%), MICROmega Holdings (+20%), Naspers (+9%), Net 1 UEPS Technologies (+7.6%), Pinnacle Holdings (+7.3%), Poynting Holdings (+22.5%) and Sekunjalo (+67.4%)

Look out for

International:
* The possible private equity buyout of Portugal Telecom.
* The buyout of Slack, a developer of a workplace collaboration tool and a one-year-old start-up that is now valued at over $1.1 billion.
* The possible acquisition by Softbank of some of Am'erica M'ovil's wireless assets.
* The buyer of Idea Cellular and Vodafone's Indian tower assets.

Africa:
* The entry of Vietnam-based Viettel into the Tanzanian market as the eighth cellphone operator in that country.

South Africa:
* Acquisitions in Africa by MTN.

Final word

Fortune magazine has released its annual '40 under 40' list of the most influential young people in business. From a technology perspective, they include:
* 2: Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook
* 5: Jan Koum, co-founder and CEO of WhatsApp
* 6: Marissa Mayer, president and CEO of Yahoo
* 8: Kevin Systrom, co-founder and CEO of Instagram
* 11: Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Square and Twitter
* 11: Ben Silbermann, co-founder and CEO of Pinterest
* 12: Nick Woodman, founder and CEO of GoPro
* 14: Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of SnapChat
* 14: Emily White, COO of SnapChat
* 21: Rahul Sharma, co-founder and CEO of Micromax
* 24: Tan Yang, founder and CEO of Momo
* 25: Kevin Chou, co-founder and CEO of Kabum
* 25: Kunal Bahl, co-founder and CEO of Snapdeal
* 28: Vijaya Gadde, general counsel, Twitter

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