Farewell Steve Jobs

The death of Steve Jobs dominated the international ICT world last week.

At home it was fairly quiet, with HDS' acquisition of Shoden Data being one of the main stories.

Blue Label Telecoms plans to repurchase the shares it sold to Microsoft at its listing in 2007.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* Mediocre interim numbers from Altron, with revenue down 2% and profit down 23%.
* Mixed interim numbers from Datacentrix, with revenue up 9% but profit down 4%.
* Hitachi Data Systems bought South African Shoden Data Systems, a provider of data centre technology solutions.
* Naspers' Russian Internet arm, Myriad Internet Holdings, purchased Slando, an eastern European ad Web site that was founded by the founders of Gumtree.
* PBT Group purchased Prescient Holdings in a deal that would result in a reverse takeover. It was worth R1.6 billion.
* Bluekey Holdings made a 50% investment in Flat Rock Solutions, a specialist in mobility solutions and mobile device management.
* Blue Label Telecoms plans to repurchase the shares it sold to Microsoft at its listing in 2007.
* Remgro has sold its stake in Tracker for R3.9 billion, to a group of investors that included Actis, a private equity firm.
* Power Technologies, a subsidiary of Altron, has entered a joint venture with EnerSys, a global leader in stored energy solutions for industrial applications.
* Valor IT has escaped liquidation, at least for now, following an agreement to pay R2.8 million in compensation by the end of this month.
* The appointment of Gerhard Malan as acting MD of Rectron; and a host of others at Software AG South Africa.
* The resignations of Cheslynne Britz, MD of Rectron; and Mark Lu, CEO of Rectron.

* MTN made a 25% investment in MTN Rwandacell, raising its overall stake to 80%.
* South Sudan has become the International Telecommunication Union's 193rd member state.
* The appointments of Shahab Meshki as CEO of Kenya Data Networks; Marius Moantsoga as SAP regional director for Francophone West and Central Africa; and Duncan Pie as GM of Dimension Data Botswana.
* Craige Fleischer resigned as RIM's regional director for southern Africa.

* Adobe acquired Nitobi Software, the creator of Phonegap, an open source platform for easily building fast cross-platform mobile applications with HTML5 and JavaScript.
* Adobe bought Typekit, a leader in the delivery of hosted high-quality fonts for use on Web sites.
* BMC Software purchased StreamStep, a maker of software development tools for IT development and operations teams in large organisations.
* EMC bought Zettapoint, a database optimisation company, for $10 million.
* IBM acquired Q1 Labs, a provider of security intelligence solutions.
* Intel (McAfee) purchased NitroSecurity, whose technology helps identify and remediate security risks to, for example, computer networks, databases and applications.
* Nuance Communications acquired Swype, a virtual keyboard maker, for $102.5 million.
* Red Hat purchased Gluster, a provider of open source software and services, for $136 million.
* Rhapsody bought Napster; these are two of the top names in digital music.
* RIM acquired NewBay, a provider of white-label cloud-based content services, for $100 million.
* Xerox (ACS) purchased Symcor, an outsourcer of financial processing services.
* Excellent quarterly results from HTC.
* The retirement of Walt Havenstein, CEO of SAIC (with effect from mid-June 2012).
* The death of Steve Jobs, founder and chairman of Apple.
* A planned IPO on Nasdaq by Ubiquiti, a maker of wireless networking products.

* International:
* The possible acquisition of Akamai Technologies by either IBM or Verizon Communications.
* The possible acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft, the former also being a possible target for Alibaba.com, in conjunction with some private equity companies, and Russia's Digital Sky Technologies, in which Naspers has an interest.
* A possible buyer for RIM. The latest rumours are citing Vodafone as one of the many suitors.
* The buyout by Sony of Ericsson's stake in its joint venture.
* South Africa:
* The announcement of the new senior hierarchy at Corex Distribution. It is expected that Mark Lu, ex-Rectron, and several of his previous colleagues, will fill these roles at Corex, a company that is controlled by Lu when he bought out the business from Mustek earlier this year.

* Platform as a service revenue should reach $707.4 million in 2011, up from $512.4 million in 2010, according to Gartner.

* JSE All share index: Up 1.9%
* Nasdaq: Up 2.6%
* Top SA share movements: AdaptIT (+7.7%), Altech (-7.7%), Cape Empowerment (+15%), ConvergeNet (-19.2%), Jasco (-9.3%) and SecureData (-7.7%)

The death of Steve Jobs, although expected, was deeply felt by the global ICT industry. He was an iconic figure and his career had many highs; a summary of his achievements and the key events in his life include:

* 1976 (1 April), the formation of Apple with Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne
* 1976, the introduction of Apple I
* 1977, the launch of Apple II
* 1980, Apple goes public, raising $110 million in one of the biggest IPOs to date
* 1982, Apple's revenue climbs to $1 billion
* 1985, Jobs leaves Apple after a clash with Sculley, the CEO of Apple
* 1986, Jobs starts Next and also buys Pixar
* 1996, Apple buys Next, and Jobs is appointed as an adviser to Apple
* 1997, Jobs becomes interim CEO at Apple
* 2000, Jobs becomes permanent CEO at Apple
* 2001, the first iPod goes on sale
* 2003, Apple launches the iTunes music store
* 2006, Disney buys Pixar
* 2007, Apple unveils the iPhone
* 2009, Jobs undergoes a liver transplant
* 2010, Apple introduce the iPad
* 2011 (24 August), Jobs resigns as CEO
* 2011 (5 October), Jobs dies at the age of 56