Intel seeks direction

The international market had a quiet week, with acquisitions from Cisco, Intel and Yahoo in the spotlight.

At home, BTG's acquisition of Brand New Technologies, and news that FoneWorx and the Kirshes have called off their potential merger, made the headlines.

* Full year losses from Huge Group, with revenue also down 30.7%; and TCS, with revenue also down 9%.
* Interim losses from Muvoni Technology Group, although revenue up 13.3%; and Stella Vista, with revenue also down 39.5%.
* Negative trading updates from Labat Africa, Stella Vista and TCS.
* BTG (part of the Altech Group) acquired Brand New Technologies (BNTech), an identity management company.
* Caxton and CTP Printers & Publishers bought the 32.7% stake previously held by the Kirsh family in FoneWorx, in a deal worth R102.5 million.
* FoneWorx and the Kirshes have called off their potential merger.
* Neotel's EBIDTA for the last financial year was positive, and its revenue has grown 12%.
* New JSE cautionaries by Mix Telematics and Stella Vista, regarding a possible de-listing from the JSE.
* A withdrawn JSE cautionary by FoneWorx.
* The appointments of Zunaid Bulbulia as CEO of MTN SA; Sithembiso Freeman Nomvalo as CEO of SITA; and Karel Pienaar as group chief strategy officer of MTN (was CEO of MTN SA).
* The departure of SITA's CEO Blake Mosley-Lefatola.

* Good year-end figures from AccessKenya, which is being courted by NTT (Dimension Data), with revenue up 9% and profit up 20%.
* Mixed full-year numbers from Econet Wireless, with revenue up 14%, although profit down.
* Russia's Altimo failed in its bid to buy the outstanding 49% of Orascom Telecom that it doesn't already own.
* Eric L'eger was appointed Schneider Electric's country president for southern Africa.
* Carl Kleynhans resigned as Schneider Electric's country president for southern Africa.

FoneWorx and the Kirshes have called off their potential merger.

* Cisco purchased JouleX, a networking and data centre energy management specialist, for $107 million.
* Dassault Syst`emes acquired Apriso in a move that will strengthen the former's 3DEXPERIENCE business platform.
* Intel bought the GPS business of ST-Ericsson.
* Nuance Communications acquired the Tweddle Group's Tweddle Connect business, an application and content service delivery platform.
* Yahoo acquired PlayerScale, a gaming platform start-up.
* CSC sold off its Applied Technology Division, the sixth divestiture by the company in the last seven months, as the company seeks to implement its transformation strategy. The deal was worth $175 million.
* France Telecom has formally changed its name to Orange.
* The joint bid by Vodafone and China Mobile for a licence in Myanmar has been withdrawn.
* Excellent quarterly results from OmniVision Technologies.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Avago Technologies.
* Quarterly losses from Palo Alto, QAD and Splunk.
* Lars Dalgaard (ex-CEO of SuccessFactors, which is now owned by SAP) was named a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm.

International:
* An IPO by Alibaba on the Hong Kong exchange, in a move that is seen as a snub to the US.
* The acquisition by American Tower of India's Tower Vision.
* The outcome of the various bids regarding Dell, following the board's recommendation that the Silver Lake offer is accepted.
* The winner in the bid for HP's MphasiS (India) stake, which could be worth as much as $1 billion.
Africa:
* The outcome of the proposed liquidation of Nitel (Nigeria).
South Africa:
* A possible acquisition/merger by MTN in India.
* The possible consolidation of the government's telecommunications interests, ie, Broadband Infraco, Sentech and Telkom SA.
* Possible acquisitions by Datatec in the US.

* The worldwide software security market grew 7.9% in 2012 to reach $19.2 billion, according to Gartner.
* The worldwide server market factory revenue declined 7.7% in Q1 to $10.9 billion, with only Dell from the top five vendors showing revenue growth, according to IDC.
* Notebook shipments in 2013 will decline 5.3%, while tablet shipments will increase 62.2% this year, according to Taiwan's Market & Consulting Institute.
* Worldwide tablet shipments will surpass PC shipments this year, according to IDC.
* Touch-screen panels are set to double from 2012 to 2016, according to HIS.

* JSE All share index: Up 2.5% (highest-ever close at over 42 000)
* Nasdaq: Down 0.1%
* Top SA share movements: BCX (+7.4%), FoneWorx (+8.1%), Gijima (-33.3%), Poynting (-25.6%), Sekunjalo (+11.5%), Stella Vista (-33.3%), TCS (-33.3%) and Telkom SA (+16.4%)

The latest BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2013 list has been published, with 50% of the entrants in the top 20 being technology companies. MTN, at number 79, was the highest rated African entrant in any category.

The top 25 technology entrants were:
* 1: Apple
* 2: Google
* 3: IBM
* 6: AT&T
* 7: Microsoft
* 10: China Mobile
* 12: Verizon
* 14: Amazon
* 17: Vodafone
* 19: SAP

Other significant technology entrants included:
* 21: Tencent
* 30: Samsung
* 31: Facebook
* 36: Oracle
* 54: HP
* 92: Yahoo