Mozilla CEO steps down

In international news last week, acquisitions by LinkedIn and Twitter were highlighted, as well as the resignation of Mozilla's CEO.

At home, the short-listing of MTN for a licence in Myanmar, and the return to work of the DOC's DG, albeit with reduced powers, were the key local stories.

* Mediocre Q1 numbers from Telemasters, with revenue down 40.4% but back in the black.
* Negative trading updates from Altech, Altron, ConvergeNet Holdings and Telkom SA.
* Richard Came, a former Dimension Data director, made a 10% investment in Conduct Telecommunications, a last-mile fibre player. Came is also a shareholder in Dark Fibre Africa.
* MTN has been short-listed for a telecommunications licence in Myanmar.
* The JSE said the listing of the shares of Zaptronix will be terminated at the end of the month, due to the company's failure to comply with listing requirements.
* SA has slipped to number 70 out of 114 countries in the World Economic Forum's latest global IT report.
* Rosey Sekese, the suspended communications department DG, has returned to work following her 'enforced' special leave that started in mid-January.
* Renewed JSE cautionaries by Gijima and Huge Group.

Rosey Sekese, the suspended communications department DG, has returned to work.

* Avago Technologies acquired CyOptics, an optical chip and component supplier to the Datacom and telecoms markets.
* Ericsson bought Microsoft's Mediaroom business.
* Fujitsu purchased RunMyProcess, a French cloud computing company.
* LinkedIn acquired Pulse, a news reader and mobile content distribution platform.
* PayPal, a part of eBay, bought Iron Pearl, a start-up that includes 'growth hackers' Stan Chudnovsky and James Currier, in a move intended to help the online payments service expand more quickly.
* Shaw Communications purchased Enmax Envision, which is Enmax's high-speed data communications subsidiary, operating one of Calgary's largest fibre-optic networks. It specialises in providing large bandwidth solutions to businesses that require a dedicated Internet connection or need to connect multiple locations over private networks. The deal was worth $225 million.
* Tata Consultancy Services acquired Alti, a French technology services firm, for EUR75 million.
* THL, a private equity company, bought CompuCom, an IT services company, for $1.1 billion.
* Twitter purchased We Are Hunted, an Australian music streaming start-up.
* ViaSat acquired LonoCloud, a start-up that focuses on cloud networking software.
* Carlos Slim invested in America Movil, in a move that raises his stake in the company to almost 31%.
* CA Technologies has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against AppDynamics, a provider of SaaS-based application performance management software.
* VirnetX will continue to push for a new trial in its patent infringement case involving Cisco.
* Apple paid $53 million to settle some class action warranty claims regarding its iPhones and iPads.
* Satisfactory year-end figures from Huawei Technologies.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Hon Hai Precision Industry.
* Mixed quarterly figures from ADTRAN, with revenue up but profit down; and Infosys, with revenue up but profit down.
* The resignations of Gary Kovacs, CEO of Mozilla; and Hezi Lapid, president and CEO of Alvarion.
* A good IPO on the NYSE from Rally Software, a company that makes Agile software development tools.
* A possible IPO by Telefonica's Columbian arm.

International:
* The outcome of anti-trust claims made against Google to the EU by FairSearch, an advocacy group backed in part by Expedia, Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle and TripAdvisor.
* The outcome of the submission to the EU by Google regarding the former's anti-trust probe against the company.
* The buyer for BMC Software that now looks like a two-way battle between a consortium led by KKR, which also includes Thoma Bravo, and one led by Bain Capital, which also includes Golden Gate Capital.
* A possible tie-up between KPN and Telefonica regarding their German businesses.
* The consolidation by America Movil (controlled by Carlos Slim) of its various operations in Brazil, which include fixed phone and mobile phone companies and a cable TV operation.
South Africa:
* Further acquisitions by MTN in Africa, Middle East or Asia.
* A possible acquisition in SA by Mahindra Satyam.
* Resolution of the FoneWorx/Kirsh row regarding the integration of the former with Kirsh's Value+ business that includes Opengate Technologies.

* Worldwide PC shipments dropped 11.2% in Q1 2013 to 79.2 million units, the lowest levels since Q2 2009, according to Gartner. HP just held off Lenovo for the number one position by a market share 0.1% larger. Dell, Acer and Asus filled the next positions. In EMEA, the order was HP, Acer, Lenovo, Dell and Asus.

* JSE All share index: Up 0.3%
* Nasdaq: Up 2.8% (highest weekend close for over 12 years)
* Top SA share movements: AdaptIT (-7.6%), FoneWorx (-22%), Gijima (-16.7%), ISA (-7%), Labat Africa (+11.1%), Poynting (+7.9%) and Sekunjalo (+9.6%)

Fortune Magazine recently published its annual 'The World's Most Admired Companies' list for 2013. The 50 all-stars are those companies named the best by 3 800 executives, directors and analysts.

From a technology perspective, this list includes:

* 1: Apple
* 2: Google
* 3: Amazon
* 6: IBM
* 17: Microsoft
* 35: Samsung Electronics
* 42: Intel
* 44: Accenture
* 47: eBay
* 48: Facebook
* 49: Cisco