Top international news stories last week included the ruling against Apple regarding e-book pricing, and further consolidation in the US telecommunications sector with AT&T's latest acquisition.
At home, the appointment of a new minister at the Department of Communications overshadowed all other news.
Key local news of the past week
* Poynting acquired African Union Communications, a provider of professional products, systems integration, implementation and commissioning services to the broadcast and telecommunications market in Africa. The deal was worth R49.5 million.
* The VAD business of Magix Security was absorbed into SecureData Africa.
* Zaptronix offers a compromise to creditors as an alternative to a proposed liquidation.
* A renewed JSE cautionary by Stella Vista.
* Yunus Carrim was named the new minister of the Department of Communications. Although a change is a welcome move, it would have been more beneficial to the industry to have had someone with a technology background.
* Dina Pule has departed as minister of the Department of Communications (not before time).
Key African news
* Alcatel-Lucent and Surfline Communications have introduced the first LTE network deployment in Ghana, which should be operational in Q1 2014.
Key international news
* AT&T purchased Leap Wireless International, a prepaid mobile service provider, in yet another consolidation move within the US telecommunications market. The acquisition was worth $1.2 billion.
* Avnet bought MSC Investoren, a European distributor of electronic components.
* EMC (RSA division) acquired Aveksa, a provider of cloud-based services that businesses use to verify the identity of people accessing corporate networks and Web-based software.
* EMC purchased ScaleIO, a pioneer in server-side storage.
* Equifax bought TrustedID, a leader in the identity protection market.
* Exar acquired Cadeka Microcircuits, a supplier of analogue and mixed signal semiconductor products.
* IBM purchased CSL International, a provider of virtualisation management technology.
* Kaseya bought Zyrion, a provider of cloud and IT service monitoring software.
* Sharp acquired Copifax, a provider of copying, scanning and photographic business equipment.
* Tsingua Holdings, a state-owned company funded by Tsingua University (China), purchased Spreadtrum Communications, a semiconductor firm, for $1.78 billion.
* Western Digital bought VeloBit, a provider of high-performance storage I/O optimisation software.
* Carlos Slim made a $40 million investment in UK-based Shazam, a smartphone application developer.
* The following patent and lawsuit activity:
- A US federal judge has ruled that Apple conspired to raise prices on e-books.
- Amazon and Apple have ended their 'app store' lawsuit, clearing the way for both companies to use the name.
* Microsoft announced a major restructuring that streamlines the company around devices such as phones, game consoles and services.
* EU officials raided the offices of Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Telefonica over concerns that the European telecommunications groups abused their dominant position in the Internet market to throttle data-heavy services such as YouTube and Skype.
* The Silicon Valley Bank has submitted a request to a court in Israel for the appointment of a receiver regarding its loan to Alvarion.
* The media conglomerates that own Hulu have chosen not to sell the site, but instead to invest $750 million in it themselves.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Infosys.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Adtran.
Look out for
* International:
- The bidders for the postal machines unit of Siemens.
- Further developments regarding the fate of Dell.
* South Africa:
- Further developments regarding the Department of Communications, and in particular, the fate of the current DG.
Stock market changes
* JSE All share index: Up 4%
* Nasdaq: Up 3.5% (highest weekend close this year)
* Top SA share movements: ConvergeNet Holdings (-21.4%), Huge Group (+7.7%), MiX Telematics (+7.8%), MTN (+6.7%), Poynting Holdings (+17.9%), Stella Vista (+50%), TCS (-50%) and Telkom SA (+10.1%)
Final word
Both Gartner and IDC have released their research regarding worldwide PC shipments in Q2 2013, which showed a decline of over 10% from the same period in 2012. However, the batting order of the major vendors have changed in that Lenovo has overtaken HP for the number one slot, and Dell has replaced Acer for the number three position. Asus remained the number five player, with the remaining vendors taking a very similar market share to that in Q1 2012.
The situation in EMEA, however, saw HP retaining the number one position, Lenovo replacing Acer as the number two player, and Dell taking the number four slot from Asus. The other players increased their market share by just over 2% to a position similar to that worldwide.
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