Subscribe
About

Kodak says cheers to Chapter 11

The company's exit plan from bankruptcy has been approved by a US judge.

Paul Booth
By Paul Booth
Johannesburg, 26 Aug 2013

The international ICT world was exceptionally quiet last week, with Kodak's imminent exit from Chapter 11, and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's retirement announcement being the main news.

At home, the entry of Ellies into the telecommunications market via Ellies Connect, and the year-end results from Net 1 UEPS Technologies, were the main local stories.

Key local news

* Very good year-end figures from AdaptIT, with revenue up 36.2% and profit up 32.8%.
* Mixed full-year numbers from Blue Label Telecoms, with revenue up 1.4%, but profit down 2.7%; and Net 1 UEPS Technologies, with US$ revenue up 15.9% but US$ profit down 70.9%.
* A positive trading update from Morvest Business Group.
* The de-listing of Altech from the JSE following its absorption into its parent, Altron.
* Ellies introduced Ellies Connect, a telecommunications and entertainment unit that comprises three integrated units, ie, entertainment, hardware and connectivity, through partnerships with SkyeVine and iBurst.
* A renewed JSE cautionary by Poynting.
* Lorna Hardie was appointed HP's software country manager for SA.

Key African news

* Metrofile has opened an office in Nigeria.
* Direct Drive Control has opened an office in Mozambique.
* Kenya announced the creation of the Information Communication Technology Authority (ICTA) that will oversee its ICT sector. The ICTA is the consolidation of the ICT Board of Kenya, the e-Government Directorate and the Government Information and Technology Services entity.
* Nigeria's minister of communications technology called for the listing in Nigeria of the telecommunications companies operating in that country.
* Nick Imudia was appointed MD for Nokia's West and Central Africa operations.

Key international news

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, will retire within the next 12 months.

* Apple acquired Embark, a mapping company.
* Google bought a patent portfolio on virtual image technology from Hon Hai Precision Industry.
* Instagram (Facebook) purchased Luma, a video-sharing start-up.
* Lexmark acquired Saperion, a German enterprise content management solutions provider, focused on providing document archive and workflow solutions.
* SageNet, a technology solutions provider, bought Gilat Satellite Networks' Spacenet subsidiary, for $16 million.
* Vista Equity Partners purchased Qualcomm's fleet management software unit for $800 million.
* Baidu made a $160 million investment in Nuomi Holdings, a provider of group-buying services in China.
* Baring Private Equity made a $420 million investment (a controlling stake) in Hexaware, an Indian outsourcing company.
* A judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing AOL and some of its executives of fraud regarding a patent sale to Microsoft.
* A judge dismissed a Netflix shareholder lawsuit over streaming.
* A judge upheld the $1.7 billion patent verdict against Marvell Technology Group.
* HP announced a senior executive shuffle.
* Kodak's exit plan from bankruptcy has been approved by a US judge, and should result in the company emerging from Chapter 11 in about two weeks, as a much smaller digital imaging firm.
* Personal Communications Devices, a supplier of non-premium and niche handsets and wireless devices, has filed for Chapter 11.
* Good quarterly numbers from China Telecom.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Mentor Graphics.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Autodesk and Marvell Technology Group.
* Mixed half-year numbers from ZTE, with revenue down but profit up.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Analog Devices, with revenue down but profit up; HP, with revenue down but back in the black; Micros Systems, with revenue up but profit down; and Synopsys, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Aruba Networks, Bottomline Technologies, Intuit and ScanSource.
* The appointments of Dawn Airey as head of Yahoo's European operations; and Todd DeSisto as president and CEO of Axeda.
* Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, will retire within the next 12 months.
* An IPO filing on Nasdaq by Montage Technology Group, a global provider of analogue and mixed signal semiconductor solutions.

Look out for

* International:
* Further developments regarding the Icahn/Apple situation.
* Further developments regarding the successor to Ballmer.
* South Africa:
* A possible merger involving AdaptIT.
* More developments regarding the 'Pule affair'.

Research results and predictions

* Seventy-five percent of government CIO budgets are flat or increasing in 2013, according to Gartner.
* The worldwide personal and entry-level storage market grew 10.7% in Q2, with 16.8 million shipments, according to IDC.
* Global smartphone shipments reached 420 million units in H1 2013, and are expected to top 950 million units in the full year, according to Digitimes Research.
* Half of emerging market mobile users will have smartphones by 2017, according to Ovum.
* The worldwide hardcopy market dropped 1.8% in Q2 to 26.1 million units, with the top five vendors remaining in the same positions, ie, HP, Canon, Epson, Brother and Samsung, according to IDC.

Stock market changes

* JSE All share index: Down 0.1%
* Nasdaq: Up 1.5%
* NYSE (Dow): Down 0.1%
* Top SA share movements: ConvergeNet Holdings (+11.1%), Huge Group (-13%), MICROmega Holdings (+8.3%), Net 1 UEPS Technologies (+41.1%), SecureData (+18.8%), Silverbridge (-31.5%), Stella Vista (+100%) and TCS (-50%)

Final word

Forbes magazine has published this year's listing of 'the world's most innovative companies'. From a technology perspective, the following were included in the top 50:

1: Salesforce.com
3: VMware
5: ARM Holdings
6: Baidu
7: Amazon.com
18: Tencent Holdings
38: Yahoo Japan
40: Tata Consultancy Services
42: Teradata
47: Google
50: Citrix Systems

Share