Alibaba looks to list in US

During the last two weeks, the international ICT market has been dominated by the forthcoming IPO by Alibaba that is likely to be one of the largest ever listings in the US. Vodafone's multibillion-dollar acquisition of Ono also made headlines.

At home, it's been a quiet two weeks, with the additional African acquisition from BCX and the return of Guy Whitcroft to the local scene being a couple of the main stories.

* Very good interim numbers from EOH, with revenue up 38.4% and profit up 51.1%.
* Satisfactory interim numbers from CompuClearing, with revenue up 8.3% and profit up 18.5%.
* Mixed interim numbers from Telemasters, with revenue down but profit substantially up (difficult to get an accurate comparison, as there has been a year-end change).
* A positive trading update from Telkom SA.
* The de-listing of SecureData from the JSE.
* Entersekt is opening an office in Atlanta, USA.
* ICASA will launch an enquiry into the state of competition in the ICT sector.
* Ubuntu Technologies has entered an alliance with Aviat Networks, a global telecoms player, to create a new entity, Aviat-Ubuntu Telecommunications, which will be headed by Allen Tshabangu.
* A new JSE cautionary by Amecor.
* The appointment of Tian Olivier as acting CEO of the SABC.

* Good year-end figures from MTN Ghana, with revenue up 13%.
* Business Connexion acquired Ultimate Solutions Botswana, a POS specialist.
* The appointments of Stephen Kaboyo as chairman of Uganda Telecom; Kabelo Makwane as the Nigerian country manager for Microsoft; and Guy Whitcroft as Southern and East African head of IT4Africa, a subsidiary of CIS.
* The resignation of Ben Mboyne, chairman of Uganda Telecom.

ICASA will launch an enquiry into the state of competition in the ICT sector.

* Adlink Technology bought Penta, a German provider of medical applications.
* Alibaba purchased Hong Kong-listed ChinaVision Media Group, in a move designed to bolster the former's entertainment strategy. The deal was worth more than $800 million.
* Blackstone Group acquired Accuvant, a cyber security firm, for $225 million (80%).
* Fair Isaac bought Centricity, a SaaS-based predictive analytics software company.
* Gartner purchased Software Advice, a company that offers detailed reviews, comparisons and research to assist organisations in products that best fit their current and future needs.
* Lenovo acquired a portfolio of patents from Unwired Planet for $100 million.
* Mentor Graphics bought Berkeley Design Automation, a company that addresses nanometer circuit design challenges via its Analog FastSPICE unified verification platform and vertical-application expertise.
* TeliaSonera acquired Finland-based AinaCom's consumer operations and fixed networks for EUR47 million.
* Vodafone bought Ono, the Spanish cable company, for EUR7 billion, in a move that strengthens its foothold in Europe. In the last two years, Vodafone has acquired UK-based Cable & Wireless Worldwide and Kabel Deutschland in Germany.
* Israel-based Wix.com purchased Appixia, a mobile commerce firm.
* Alibaba made a $215 million investment in Tango, a US-based chat app.
* Tencent made a $214.7 million (15%) investment in JD.com, an e-commerce platform.
* HTC, Huawei and ZTE did not violate FlashPoint patents in their smartphones.
* Toshiba is suing Hynix for the wrongful acquisition and use of its proprietary technical information related to NAND flash memory.
* Unwired Planet is filing a patent lawsuit against Google, Huawei and Samsung for use of six UK patents covering technology fundamental to wireless communications found in mobile devices and network equipment.
* SanDisk has won a $28.5 million patent suit against PNY Technologies.
* A class action lawsuit has been brought against Google that alleges the company didn't do enough to prevent unauthorised appointment purchases by children from its Play store.
* TeliaSonera faces a US probe on Uzbekistan corruption allegations.
* Viacom and Google have buried the hatchet regarding copyright litigation over YouTube.
* BlackBerry has disposed of most of its real estate in Canada, in a move designed to inject cash into the business.
* The World Wide Web turned 25 on 12 March.
* Mt. Gox, once the largest Bitcoin exchange, has filed for bankruptcy protection.
* Turkey has banned Twitter ahead of the local elections in that country.
* Good full-year numbers from China Telecom.
* Good quarterly numbers from QAD.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Oracle and Tibco Software.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Adobe and Engility.
* Mixed quarterly figures from China Mobile, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Jabil Circuit and VeriFone Systems.
* The appointments of Michael Brown as interim CEO of Symantec; Jim Dolce as CEO of Lookout; and John Hering as executive chairman of Lookout (was CEO).
* The departure of Steve Bennett, CEO of Symantec.
* Pat McGovern, founder and chairman of IDG, the technology publisher and parent of the research firm IDC, has passed away.
* A planned IPO by GoDaddy, an Internet company that helps individuals and businesses create Web sites.
* An IPO filing in the US from Sina Weibo, a Chinese messaging service provider.
* A very good IPO on Nasdaq by Paylocity, a payroll and HR software firm.
* A good IPO on the NYSE of A10 Networks, a provider of advanced networking technologies.
* A satisfactory IPO on the NYSE by Q2 Holdings, a provider of secure, cloud-based virtual banking solutions.

EMEA/Africa:
* Public cloud services in the Middle East and North Africa are on pace to reach $620 million in 2014, up 29.1% from 2013, according to Gartner.
* MEA IT infrastructure spending will reach $3.5 billion in 2014, up 4.1% from 2013, according to Gartner.
* ICT spending in Francophone Africa will reach $18.9 billion by 2016, with IT contributing $5.9 billion, according to IDC.
* Thin client shipments in EMEA increased 2.9% in 2013 to 1.85 million units, according to IDC.
* Server revenue in EMEA shrunk 5.2% in Q4 2013, according to IDC.

Worldwide:
* Microsoft has overtaken BlackBerry in the US smartphone market, according to Comscore.
* The worldwide external controller-based disk storage market grew 5% in Q4 2013, according to Gartner.
* Worldwide PC monitor shipments were down 3.8% in Q4 2013, according to IDC, mainly due to declining PC desktop sales. Dell took the number one position from Samsung, which dropped to number three below HP, which remained at number two. LG ousted Lenovo for the number four slot.
* Worldwide security appliance revenue grew 6.8% in Q4 2013, with Fortinet ousting Juniper Networks for the number three slot behind Cisco and Check Point, according to IDC.
* Enterprises worldwide are expected to spend nearly $500 billion to deal with malware in 2014, according to an IDC and National University of Singapore joint study.

* JSE All share index: Down 2.7%
* Nasdaq: Down 1.4%
* NYSE (Dow): Down 0.9%
* S&P 500: Down 0.6%
* FTSE100: Down 2.3%
* Top SA share movements: Amecor (+9.9%), Blue Label Telecoms (-9%), ConvergeNet Holdings (-8%), Huge Group (+17%), Poynting Holdings (+10%) and Telemasters (+35.9%)

International:
* The US IPO in Q3 by Alibaba, in a deal that could raise more than $15 billion.
* The purchase by Charterhouse Capital Partners of Skillsoft, an education software provider.
* A deal between Vivendi and Altice over the latter acquiring the former's SFR business.
* The purchase of Nets, a card payment firm, by Advent International and Bain Capital.
* HP entering the 3D printing market in June.
* A private equity buyout of Compuware.

Africa:
* The winner in the race to acquire Orange Uganda that is nominally up for sale by Orange. MTN and Vodacom both seem interested in the purchase.
* The possible sale by Orange of its 70% stake in Telecom Kenya.
* The listing of Etisalat's Egyptian operation, Misr, which is 66% owned by Etisalat.

South Africa:
* The lawsuit allegedly being prepared by Gijima's chairman, Robert Gumede, against the Independent Newspapers Group for defamation, following an article published by the latter earlier this month.
* Further developments regarding the local arm of Software AG following alleged revelations that it was retrenching staff and closing its African arm.

US-based eWeek recently published its list of 10 technologies it believes will shape the IT industry for the rest of 2014. They are:
* Smartphones
* Tablets
* Wearable computers
* Robotics
* LTE services
* Cloud computing
* 3D printing
* Mobile apps
* Living room entertainment devices
* Video games

The list doesn't seem to contain any surprises, although the rankings might be up for debate!