Intel picks insider

The new CEO appointment at Intel, and the possibility of an IPO by Twitter following a key appointment, dominated the international ICT market last week.

At home, the MTN/Turkcell news stole much of the local ICT headline space.

* A negative trading update from Reunert.
* A subsidiary of the Bidvest Group invested in Mvelaserve, which brings the former's stake to 34.75%.
* Business Connexion has sold its Qdd business to Arinso in a deal that also sees the company now holding a 50% stake in Arinso.
* Turkcell has withdrawn its multibillion-rand US lawsuit against MTN.
* A withdrawn JSE cautionary by Gijima.

China took over the number one slot from the USA regarding PC shipments in 2012.

* Alibaba acquired an 18% stake in Weibo, a micro-blogging service, for $586 million.
* Avago Technologies bought Javelin Semiconductor.
* Descartes Systems Group purchased Scandinavia-based KSD Software, a provider of electronic filing solutions for the EU.
* An affiliate of Goldman Sachs acquired Ebix for $743 million.
* NKT Cables (Denmark) bought Ericsson's power cable operation for $37 million.
* Pramati purchased certain assets of WaveMaker, a company acquired by VMware in March 2011. It is a provider of an RAD software platform that will be used to grow and enhance Pramati's cloud-based Java development capabilities.
* Spansion acquired Fujitsu's microcontroller and analogue business for $175 million.
* Yahoo bought Astrid, a mobile to-do application aimed at helping people become "happier, healthier and more productive".
* Qatar Foundation Endowment made a $1.26 billion (5%) investment in Bharti Airtel.
* Google invested in LendingClub, a peer-to-peer lender and start-up valued at $1.55 billion.
* Telefonica sold off a 40% stake in its Central American operation for $500 million.
* The following patent and lawsuit activity:
* A US federal judge has set a November trial date to decide whether the $450.5 million damages awarded to Apple in a patent dispute with Samsung should stand. The damages were originally set at over $1 billion.
* Kodak has filed a plan to exit bankruptcy protection.
* T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS have closed their $1.5 billion merger and named the new company T-Mobile US.
* Excellent quarterly results from LinkedIn.
* Good quarterly numbers from Bharti Infratel, Genpact, NCR (back in the black) and Silicon Graphics (back in the black).
* Satisfactory quarterly results from ADP, Amdocs, Comcast, Facebook, Gartner and Verisk Analytics.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Arrow Electronics, CACI International, Harris (but back in the black), Infineon Technologies, Pitney Bowes, Seagate Technology and Teradata.
* Mixed quarterly figures from American Tower, with revenue up but profit down; Belden, with revenue up but profit down; Bharti Airtel, with revenue up but profit down; Fiserv, with revenue up but profit down; Garmin, with revenue down but profit up; Iron Mountain, with revenue down but profit up; MicroStrategy, with revenue down but profit up; Softbank, with revenue up but profit down; TDS, with revenue up but profit down; and ZTE, with revenue down but profit up.
* Very poor quarterly figures from HTC and US Cellular.
* Quarterly losses from Atmel, Bottomline Technologies, Diebold, Flextronics, Guidance Software, Imperva, JDS Uniphase, Leap Wireless, NII Holdings, Nuance Communications, Riverbed Technology, SBA Communications and Tessera.
* The appointments of Frank Bisignano as CEO of First Data; Andrew Fisher as executive chairman of Shazam (was CEO); Brian Krzanich as CEO of Intel; and Rich Riley (ex-Yahoo) as CEO of Shazam, a mobile music recognition service.
* A planned IPO from Shazam.
* A possible IPO from Twitter following the appointment of a Morgan Stanley investment banker as head of its corporate development.

* International:
* The appointment of a new chairman at Vivendi.
* The buyer of BMC Software. The favourite is currently Bain Capital and the deal is likely to be in excess of $6.5 billion.
* Africa:
* The possible acquisition by KT of Telkom SA's iWayAfrica, an African ISP.
* South Africa:
* Further developments regarding the Department of Communications.

* The worldwide CRM software market grew 12.5% in 2012, with Salesforce.com overtaking SAP for the number one slot, according to Gartner.
* China took over the number one slot from the USA regarding PC shipments in 2012, according to an HIS iSuppli PC Dynamics market brief.
* The worldwide revenue for mobile security clients rose by 58.7% in 2012 to $964 million, and is forecast to reach $2.9 billion by 2017, according to Infonetics Research.

* JSE All share index: Up 1.3%
* Nasdaq: Up 3% (highest weekend close since dotcom era)
* Dow: Up 1.2% (highest-ever weekend close)
* FTSE100: Up 1.7%
* Top SA share movements: BCX-A (-7.1%), Gijima (-20%), MICROmega Holdings (-27.3%), Sekunjalo (-15.6%), Stella Vista (-33.3%) and Telemasters (+52.9%)

Worldwide tablet shipments grew 142.4% in Q1 2013, with Samsung closing the gap on Apple and the latter's market share dropping below 40%, according to IDC. In addition, Android shipments took over the number one position from Apple, with 56.5% market share, and iOS at 39.6% market share. This is almost a complete reversal of the situation in Q1 2012.

The top five tablet vendors, shipments, and market share, Q1 2013