Crunch time for Apple

The top international events of last week included the continued delay regarding Dell's privatisation, and the persistent pressure on Apple from the US Department of Justice regarding e-books and iTunes.

At home, the restructuring at Altron and ConvergeNet Holdings were the main local stories.

* Positive trading updates from AdaptIT, MTN and Poynting.

* The termination of the listing of the Muvoni Technology Group.

* Altron Group said Altech and BTG will be housed in a new unit, called Altron TMT division, following the Altron/Altech merger, and headed by Craig Venter.

* ConvergeNet Holdings announced a major restructuring that involves:

• Closure of its head office;
• The disposal of its interest (100%) in its Sizwe subsidiary;
• The disposal of its interest(66%) in X-DSL;
• The disposal of its interest (100%) in Telesto;
• The disposal of its interest (51%) in SIMAT Management Company; and
• The disposal of Sizwe's interest and loan claims in EQ Tickets.

* Morvest announced a BEE transaction involving its directors that will create a black-controlled company.

* Renewed JSE cautionaries by Labat Africa, Morvest Business Group and TCS.

* The appointments of Danie Bisschoff as interim CEO of ConvergeNet Holdings; Peter Blaauw as chief sales officer of Sithabile Technology Services (was CEO and is the founder of the company); and Wayne de Nobrega as CEO of Sithabile Technology Services.

* The resignation of Sandile Swana, CEO of ConvergeNet Holdings.

* SITA has suspended four of its executive committee members.

* Neil Telecom acquired some of Vimpelcom's African assets, ie, Telecel Global, which includes its Burundi and CAR units, for $100 million.

* The appointment of Alain Coefe as chairman of Airtel Burkina Faso.

* Apollo Global Management bought Pitney Bowes' management services unit for $400 million.

* Apple purchased Passif Semiconductor, a wireless chip developer.

* AT&T acquired Long Lines' wireless network assets.

* Eutelsat (France) bought Satmex (Mexico), in a move intended to strengthen the former's presence in emerging markets, in a deal worth $831 million.

* OpenText purchased ICCM (UK), a provider of process applications based on the former's BPM platform.

* Schneider Electric acquired Invensys (UK), a provider of software and control systems for heavy electrical consumers, for £3.4 billion.

* TeleTech Holdings bought WebMetro, an Internet marketing firm.

* Yahoo purchased RockMelt, a social media browser company, for more than $50 million.

* Apple is being sued by former Apple store employees over unpaid wages.

* The US ITC has delayed its Apple/Samsung decision to 9 August.

* The NEC is pulling out of the smartphone market and is reviewing the future of its smartphone division, which is a joint venture with Casio and Hitachi.

* Vodafone will merge its northern, central and southern European regions into one unit that will be led by Philipp Humm.

* Excellent quarterly results from KDDI (profit only).

* Very good quarterly figures from Lam Research and LinkedIn.

* Good quarterly numbers from American Tower, AVG Technologies, CommVault, Infineon Technologies (revenue only), Open Text, Softbank, Sony`1 and Verisk Analytics.

* Satisfactory half-year figures from Hutchinson Whampoa.

* Satisfactory quarterly results from Amdocs, Cablevision Systems, Ciber, Kyocera, Panasonic, Quantum (back in the black), SK Telecom and Time Warner Cable.

* Mediocre half-year figures from Zain.

* Mediocre quarterly results from Garmin, Harris, and HTC.

* Mixed quarterly figures from ADP, with revenue up but profit down; Atmel, with revenue down but profit up; Bharti Airtel, with revenue up but profit down; Fiserv, with revenue up but profit down; Iron Mountain, with revenue up but profit down; NCR, with revenue up but profit down; Reliance Communications, with revenue up but profit down; Ruckus Wireless, with revenue up but profit down; Symantec, with revenue up but profit down; Telephone & Data Systems, with revenue down but profit up; Teradata, with revenue up but profit down; and US Cellular, with revenue down but profit up.

* Quarterly losses from Alcatel-Lucent, Guidance Software, Imation, Intelsat, Leap Wireless International, Level 3 Communications, Liberty Global, MicroStrategy, NII Holdings, Pitney Bowes, Riverbed Technology, SBA Communications, Sharp, Sprint Nextel, Telecom Italia, Tellabs and Yelp.

* The appointment of Gary Kovacs as CEO of AVG Technologies.

* The death of Ilya Segalovich, co-founder and CTO of Yandex.

* An IPO filing from CommScope, a telecommunications equipment maker currently owned by Carlyle Group, a private equity company.

* A disappointing IPO on Nasdaq by Liquid Holdings Group, a provider of cloud-based execution and order management, risk and shadow accounting systems for the financial services community.

* International:

• The possible acquisition by Accenture of Booz & Co, one of its rivals.
• The buyer of Pakistan's Warid Telecom. The bidders include PTCL (Pakistan) in which Etisalat has a stake.
• Resolution of the Dell situation following Dell/Silver Lake's revised offer, worth $24.8 billion, with the vote now scheduled for 13 August.
• Further developments involving Apple and the US Department of Justice regarding the e-books ruling, and a possible iTunes ruling that could limit Apple's influence in the publishing market.
• A possible sell-out by Compuware to a private equity company or CA Technologies.

* Africa:

• The possible acquisition of Telecom Malagasy SA by either MTN or Vodacom.
• The eventual buyer for Dubai Holdings' 35% stake in Tunisie Telecom. The potential bidders include Etisalat, SK Telecom, Turk Telecom, Turkcell and others from China.

* South Africa:

• Further developments regarding local loop unbundling and possible further reductions in call termination rates.

* Global smartphone shipments grew 47% in Q2 to reach 230 million units, with Android capturing 79.5% of all smartphone volumes, and Apple 13.6%, according to Strategy Analytics.

* Worldwide page volumes from digital hardcopy devices decreased to 2.98 trillion in 2012, down from the 3.03 trillion of 2011, according to IDC.

* Global SMS revenue will hit $130 billion+ this year, according to Portio Research.

* Global tablet shipments reached 51.7 million in Q1, with Android securing a 67% global share. Apple's market share shrank to 28%, according to Strategy Analytics.

* Worldwide semiconductor revenue will grow 6.9% in 2013 to reach $320 billion, according to IDC.

* JSE All share index: Up 3%

* Nasdaq: Up 2.1% (highest weekend close this year)

* Top SA share movements: AdaptIT (+12.5%), ConvergeNet Holdings (-16.7%), Huge Group (-14.3%), Labat Africa (+11.8%), Metrofile (+17.9%), Poynting (+25%), Sekunjalo (+11.9%), TCS (+100%) and Telemasters (+25%)

Fortune magazine recently published its Global 500 for this year. The following are some of the further analysis/comments from a technology perspective:

* Newcomers and returnees:

• LG Display at number 447 (returnee)

* Displacements:

• Compal Electronics (was number 468 last year)
• Xerox (was 488 last year)

* Highest climbers:

• Google at 88 (was 189)

* Highest fallers:

• Flextronics International at 492 (was 372)
• Nokia at 274 (was 174)

* Top money loser: HP

* Top employer: Hon Hai Precision Industry

* Biggest profit earner: Apple

* Biggest revenue increase: Apple

* Biggest profit increase: China Telecommunications