Apple, HTC reach surprise agreement

The patent settlement between Apple and HTC, and a handful of minor acquisitions, including ones by Cisco and Dell, were the main international ICT stories last week.

At home, the delay regarding the digital TV switch-on date and the publication of Vodacom's interim results stole much of the local ICT headline space.

* Good interim numbers from Amecor, with revenue up 85.6% and profit up 19.5%; and MiX Telematics, with revenue up 20.3% and profit up 77%.
* Satisfactory interim numbers from Vodacom, with revenue up 8.4% and profit up 39.4%.
* A positive trading update from Naspers.
* A negative trading update from Telkom SA.
* Morvest Business Group sold off its stake in SAB&T Business Innovations Group for R20 million, although it will retain the outsourcing business.
* The Department Of Communications has announced that switch-on of digital TV has been postponed, pending the outcome of a legal wrangle over set-top box controls.
* A joint venture, IB Technology SA, was announced between DVT, a local software development group, and IB Technology (India), a global IT software solutions, services and consulting company.
* Sky Vision has set up a local office and teleport in SA.
* The appointments of Alexandra Fraser, business development manager of Invenfin, as chairman of Silicon Cape; Jabulane Mabuza as chairman of Telkom SA; and Attila Vitai as MD of Telkom Mobile.

* Satisfactory quarterly figures from Telecom Egypt, with revenue up 5.6% and profit up 3.3%.
* Sweden-based Flexenclosure, a specialist developer of intelligent power management systems and modular data centres for the telecommunications industry, has opened a new office in Lagos, Nigeria, its second one on the continent. The other office is in Nairobi, Kenya.
* The Metro Ethernet Forum has opened an African office in Johannesburg.
* Isil Yalcin has been appointed president of Ericsson's North East Africa unit.

Switch-on of digital TV has been postponed, pending the outcome of a legal wrangle over set-top box controls.

* Akamai Technologies acquired Verivue, a provider of content delivery network technology.
* CACI International bought Emergint Technologies, a provider of emerging technologies focused on the data-driven needs of national health organisations.
* Cisco purchased Cloupia, a data centre management software company, for $125 million.
* Dell acquired Gale Technologies, an automation software company, in a deal that has subsequently allowed Dell to establish an enterprise unit specialising in delivering technology to enterprise customers.
* Descartes Systems Group bought Exentra Transport Solutions, a provider of SaaS driver compliance solutions, for £10.7 million.
* j2 Global purchased media company Ziff Davis for $167 million.
* Nokia acquired Earthmine, a 3D map-technology maker, in a move designed to win back customers from its rivals, such as Apple.
* Qualcomm Technologies bought the assets of EPOS Development, a digital positioning technology innovator.
* Intel and Red Hat have invested in 10gen, a database start-up.
* Motorola Solutions has invested in TRX Systems, a provider of precise, infrastructure-free tracking systems.
* Kodak has arranged $793 million in financing in order to exit bankruptcy as a commercial printing company.
* Apple and HTC have settled their patents dispute.
* Excellent quarterly results from Alibaba.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Cisco and Olympus (back in the black).
* Mediocre quarterly results from Autodesk, Dell, Marvell Technology Group, SFR and Vivendi.
* Mixed quarterly figures from NetApp, with revenue up but profit down; and VimpelCom, with revenue down but profit well up.
* Quarterly losses from Alvarion, Applied Materials, Aruba Networks and Intuit.
* A half-year loss from Vodafone (revenue also down).
* The appointments of Kal Raman as COO of Groupon; and Lars Reichelt (ex-CEO of Cell C) as CEO of MagtiCom, Georgia's largest telecommunications operator.
* The resignation of Steven Sinofsky, head of Microsoft's Windows unit.
* A planned listing on the Taiwanese Stock Exchange in December from ASMedia Technology, an Asustek Computer subsidiary.
* A re-launch of its planned IPO in London by Megafon, the Russian mobile operator.
* A planned IPO on UK's AIM from Fusionex, a Malaysian software company.
* A disappointing IPO on the NYSE by Ruckus Wireless, a maker of WiFi products.

* International:
* The possible $378 million investment in Sharp, by Intel and Qualcomm.
* The possible investment in Telecom Italia and SFR by Egypt's Naguib Sawiris, who recently sold his stake in VimpelCom.
* A possible IPO by Telefonica of its Latin American operations. It recently floated its German subsidiary on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
* Africa:
* Resolution of Vodacom's dispute in the DRC.
* South Africa:
* A new digital TV switch-on date.
* The appointment of new directors at Telkom SA.

* Sub-Saharan Africa is the fastest growing mobile market in the world, with an average growth rate of 44% since 2001, according to the latest GSMA report.
* The number of mobile subscriptions will exceed 750 million this quarter and reach 1 billion before the end of 2015, according to Informa.
* IT spending in EMEA will reach $1.154 trillion in 2013, a 1.4% increase from 2012, and should reach $1.247 trillion by 2016, according to Gartner.
* Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser (37.8% of users), followed closely by Google's Chrome (36.5% of users), according to Kaspersky Labs. Firefox was in third place, with 19.5% of users.
* Worldwide enterprise IT spending is forecast to total $2.679 trillion in 2013, a 2.5% increase of this year's projected number, according to Gartner.
* Worldwide sales of mobile phones decreased 3% in Q3 and reached 428 million units, while smartphone sales increased 46.9%, according to Gartner. Samsung and Nokia accounted for over 40% of the market, with RIM slipping down to number eight.

* JSE All share index: Down 1.4%
* Nasdaq: Down 1.8%
* Top SA share movements: Amecor (+14.8%), ConvergeNet Holdings (-9.1%), Digicore (-9.4%), Gijima (-11.4%), Prescient (-7.7%), Stella Vista (-25%) and Telkom SA (-7.5%)

CRN magazine recently published its 'Emerging Vendors' list for 2012. From a technology perspective, the following have been included (part two of three):

* Centrix Software: provides products that bridge the gap between existing static IT asset-management tools and wider application-delivery platforms.
* ClearSlide: a provider of a fully Web-based sales communications platform designed for the communication needs of sales teams.
* Datameer: a company that offers data analytics solutions built on Apache Hadoop, designed to help business users access, analyse and use large amounts of data.
* Delphix: a provider of database visualisation software that replaces physical copies with virtual databases, which operate in one-tenth the space, but with full functionality and performance.
* Exoprise: a company that helps companies assess, choose and migrate to cloud platforms through analysis of its existing environment.
* GreenBytes: a company that offers high-performance, energy-efficient inline data deduplication storage solutions based on solid state disk technology.
* Iron Stratus: a company that offers an enterprise-class management and governance platform for cloud applications, allowing customers to centrally manage on-demand apps, users and data.
* KnowledgeTree: a provider of solutions that drive productivity by working smarter with business documents.
* Leapfactor: a provider of software that helps build mobile applications that are robust and secure, yet as easy to use as consumer applications.
* LockPath: a provider of software that helps companies of all sizes address the issues of regulatory compliance and risk management.