Dell battle continues

The continuing battle for the control of Dell, several $1 billion+ acquisitions including ones by Baidu and IBM, and the Apple/e-book saga were the main international ICT stories last week.

At home, the interim results from MTN and the publication of the communications minister's programme for next nine months stole most of the local ICT media space.

* Good interim numbers from MTN, with revenue up 9.8% and profit up 19%. Group subscriber numbers were also up 6.5% to 201.5 million.
* A positive trading update from Pinnacle Technology.
* Communications minister Yunus Carrim announced his programme for the next nine months. This includes the following:
* Setting a firm foundation for a further reduction in the costs of communication;
* The finalisation of the national broadband policy and implementation programme by the end of November;
* An increased focus on delivering in rural and underserviced areas;
* The stabilisation of the SABC and other state-owned companies and public entities in the ICT sector; and
* The commencement of the rollout of digital television before the end of this year.
* Alan Knott-Craig Jnr has founded Project Isizwe, a non-profit organisation that has the stated goal of bringing free Internet to Africa.
* A renewed JSE cautionary by Ansys.

* Good quarterly figures from Telecom Egypt, with revenue up 16% and profit up 46%.
* The Zambian government has put the awarding of a fourth mobile licence on hold until after the country's digital migration.
* The appointments of Josiah Mugambi as executive director of Kenya's iHub; and Spawn Wen as MD of Huawei Zambia.
* The resignation of Erik Hersman, executive director and founder of Kenya's iHub.

Yunus Carrim has announced his programme for the next nine months.

* Apple acquired Matcha.tv, a content aggregation company that tells customers where video is available across the Internet.
* Baidu purchased Netdragon's 91 Wireless, one of China's top three app stores, for $1.85 billion.
* Facebook bought Mobile Technologies, a speech recognition and language translation application.
* Groupon acquired Plumfare, a social gifting start-up.
* IBM purchased Israel-based Trusteer, a company that helps fight computer viruses and fraud, for +/-$1 billion.
* Maxim Integrated Technology bought Volterra Semiconductor for $605 million.
* OpenText acquired Netherlands-based Cordys, a BPM market leader.
* Samsung purchased Germany's Novaled, a lighting specialist.
* Silver Lake, a private equity firm, bought Blackline, an accounting software company.
* Xerox acquired CPAS Systems, a Canadian company providing pension administration software to both the private and public sectors.
* Carl Icahn made an additional investment in Apple.
* Singapore Telecommunications made an additional investment in Bharti Telecom, which owns 43.6% of Bharti Airtel, bringing its stake in the latter to 32.34%.
* Alibaba invested in ShopRunner, an online shopping firm.
* SanDisk invested in Tegile Systems, a provider of storage arrays that incorporate flash technology.
* The trial date for the Apple/e-books damages case has been set for May 2014.
* Good quarterly numbers from Lenovo and Tencent Holdings.
* Satisfactory half-year numbers from China Mobile.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Cisco, Hon Hai Precision Industry and NetApp.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Applied Materials, CACI International, Photronics and Quanta Computer.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Brocade Communications, with revenue down but profit up; Dell, with revenue up but profit down; Engility, with revenue up but profit down; JDS Uniphase, with revenue down but profit up; and SingTel, with revenue down but profit up.
* Quarterly losses from Asure Software, Gilat and Sina (China).
* The appointments of Gary Dickerson as CEO of Applied Materials; Michael Splinter as executive chairman of Applied Materials (was CEO); and Maynard Webb as chairman of Yahoo.
* The resignation of Fred Amoroso, chairman of Yahoo.
* A planned IPO from Nimble Storage, a data storage company.
* IPO filings from Applied Optoelectronics (Nasdaq), a provider of fibre-optic networking products, and Rocket Fuel, an advertising technology company.

* International:
* The vote on the Dell deal, currently scheduled for 12 September.
* A possible IPO in Singapore of WeChat, a mobile messaging app, although such a move has been denied by Tencent Holdings.
* Further developments regarding the possible BlackBerry privatisation.
* Africa:
* The possible investment in Tunisie Telecom by Libya's sovereign wealth fund.
* South Africa:
* The fate of Neotel following interest from both MTN and Vodacom.

* Worldwide smartphone sales grew 46.5% in Q2 and exceeded feature phone sales for the first time, according to Gartner. Samsung increased its market share, while Apple lost market share, although they remain in the top two positions. They were followed by LG Electronics, Lenovo and ZTE.

* JSE All share index: Up 3.1% (highest-ever weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Down 1.6%
* NYSE (Dow): Down 2.6%
* Top SA share movements: AdaptIT (-8.3%), ConvergeNet Holdings (-18.2%), FoneWorx (+7.3%), Huge Group (-8%), Jasco (-11.4%), MICROmega Holdings (+36.4%), Pinnacle Technology (-10%), Poynting (+26.7%), Prescient (+10.9%) and Stella Vista (-66.7%)

An international speed index report has been released by the Ookla Net Index that shows that SA (ranked number 121 worldwide) has an average speed of 3.99Mbps, only the sixth fastest in the SADC behind Namibia (5.72Mbps) and Zimbabwe (5.04Mbps) and well below the international average of 13.84Mbps and the EU average of 19.49Mbps.

These results arise from data analysed between mid-July 2013 and mid-August 2013.

Globally, the highest figures came from Luxembourg (120.74Mbps), Hong Kong (59.21Mbps), Taiwan (38.91Mbps), South Korea (38.41Mbps) and Lithuania (37.85Mbps).

In Africa, Madagascar has the highest average at 9.4Mbps, followed by Ghana at 6.87Mbps. In South Africa, Brits had the highest figure, followed by Bryanston and Midrand.

These figures are a disgrace, and if these figures are to be believed, the necessary authorities should sit up and start taking appropriate action to restore SA to a much more acceptable position.