Oracle buys Micros Systems

The main stories from the international ICT market during the last two weeks included Oracle's multibillion-dollar acquisition of Micros Systems, and a number of other acquisitions and investments, including several by Google.

At home, Naspers' annual results and Internet Solutions' acquisition of ContinuitySA stole much of the local ICT media space.

* Mixed nine-month numbers from Telemasters, with revenue down 19.1% but profit up significantly.
* Mixed year-end figures from Naspers, with revenue up 25.8% but profit down 3.2%.
* A negative trading update from Prescient.
* Internet Solutions acquired ContinuitySA.
* A new JSE cautionary by ConvergeNet Holdings.
* The appointment of Maphumuzana Nxumalo as COO of Gijima.

* A full-year loss from Telecom Namibia.
* The appointments of Brian Gouldie as CEO of MTN Uganda; Ferdi Moolman as CFO of MTN Nigeria (was COO of MTN Irancell); and Mazen Mroue as COO of MTN Irancell (was CEO of MTN Uganda).
* The resignation of Ravi Bhat, African regional director for VMware.

Apple has settled its e-book antitrust case with the US.

* American Tower acquired BR Towers SA (Brazil) for $978 million.
* Audience, a chipmaker, bought Sensor Platforms, a start-up that creates algorithms that help analyse data from sensors on smartphones and other mobile devices, for $41 million.
* Autodesk purchased Shotgun Software, a developer of cloud-based solutions for the film, TV and games industry.
* Avago Technologies acquired PLX Technology, a manufacturer of semiconductor-based PCI Express connectivity solutions, for $309 million.
* Carlos Slim's real estate firm, Inmobiliaria Carso, bought AT&T's stake (8.27%) in America Movil, giving the Mexican tycoon even more control over his flagship telecommunications firm. The deal was worth $6 billion.
* Cisco purchased Tail-f Systems, a Swedish networking software maker, for $175 million.
* Google acquired Alpental Technologies, a start-up that is working on a 60GHz wireless technology; Dropcam ($555 million), a home-monitoring camera start-up; and mDialog, a video advertisement technology start-up.
* EY bought 8th Man Consulting, an African-oriented Oracle performance management company.
* Level 3 Communications purchased TW Telecom, a business Ethernet provider, for $5.7 billion.
* Opera acquired AdColony, a mobile video advertisement platform, for $350 million.
* Mellanox Technologies bought Integrity Project, which includes an accomplished team of software technology veterans that will enable the former to enhance its compute and storage platforms.
* Oracle purchased Micros Systems, a provider of hospitality industry software, for $5.3 billion.
* Red Hat acquired eNovance in a move designed to expand its open source capability in OpenStack technology.
* SanDisk bought Fusion-io in a move designed to boost the former's flash storage business. The latter was listed in 2011 on the NYSE. The deal was worth $1.1 billion.
* Sony acquired UK's CSCS media group, in a deal aimed at pushing its move to higher-margined TV programming.
* Twitter bought SnappyTV, a video start-up.
* Yandex purchased Auto.ru (Russia), an online auto classified ad company, for $175 million.
* Vodafone acquired Cobra Automotive Technologies (Italy), a global provider of connected car services, for £115 million.
* Intel invested in NZ-based Performance Lab, a sports technology developer.
* Softbank Capital invested in Kony, an enterprise mobile company.
* Tencent made a $736 million (20%) investment in 58.com, an online classified ads company.
* Apple has settled its e-book anti-trust case with the US.
* A US court has rejected Gemalto's Android patent lawsuit.
* There is a possible anti-trust fine by the EU regulators on Infineon Technologies, Philips and Samsung regarding alleged price-fixing.
* IBM and Pure Storage have agreed on a patent and cross-licensing deal.
* Foxconn is suing Funai, Mitsubishi and Toshiba over alleged patent infringements.
* Philips has won a UK patent case against Nintendo.
* The EU has approved Telefonica's EUR8.6 billion bid for E-Plus.
* HP is settling the litigation over its Autonomy deal, but pursuing claims against the latter's former CEO, Michael Lynch.
* Excellent quarterly results from Micron Technology.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Accenture and Adobe.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Jabil Circuit, with revenue down but profit up; Progress Software, with revenue down but profit up; and Red Hat, with revenue up but profit down.
* The appointments of Robert Fielding as CEO of Quindell; and George Huang as chairman of Acer (was a co-founder).
* The resignation of Robert Terry, founder and executive chairman of Quindell (stays on as chairman).
* A planned IPO on London's AIM market by Global Invacom, a manufacturer of technology for the global satellite industry.
* An IPO filing for the NYSE from Mobileye NV, leader in the design and development of software and related technologies for camera-based advanced driver assistance systems.
* A very good IPO on Nasdaq by GoPro, an action-camera maker.
* Alibaba will list on the NYSE.

South Africa:
* According to the SME Survey 2014, which tracks the perceptions and concerns of small business owners in SA, SMEs are steadily moving to the cloud and have a generally positive perception of government services.

EMEA/Africa:
* According to Cisco's Visual Networking Index Global Forecast and Service Adoption report, the MEA region is the fastest growing IP traffic market, with a CAGR of 38% through 2013 to 2018.
* The MEA BI and analytics market grew 11% in 2013 to $217 million, according to Gartner.
* The EMEA security appliance market shrank 2.3% in Q1, according to IDC.
* The CEMA imaging scanner market increased 11.4% in Q1, according to IDC.

Worldwide:
* Worldwide thin client and terminal client device shipments increased 7.1% in Q1, according to IDC.
* Worldwide smart connected devices are forecast to grow 15.6% this year, reaching close to 1.8 billion devices and growing to 2.4 billion units by 2018, says IDC.
* The worldwide integrated infrastructure and platforms revenue in Q1 increased by 38.5%, according to IDC.
* Worldwide PC monitor shipments declined 0.4% in Q1, says IDC.
* Annual digital payment transactions will hit $4.7 trillion by 2019, according to Juniper Research.

* JSE All share index: Down 0.3% (but all-time high reached during the last two weeks)
* Nasdaq: Up 2% (highest weekend close this year)
* NYSE (Dow): Up 0.5%
* S&P 500: Up 1.3% (all-time high reached during the last two weeks)
* FTSE100: Down 0.3%
* Top SA share movements: CompuClearing (+11.1%), ConvergeNet Holdings (-12.6%), Huge Group (-8.8%), Sekunjalo (+12%), Telemasters (-9%) and Telkom SA (+7.2%)

International:
* A merger between Dialog Semiconductor and AMS (Austria).
* The acquisition by Yahoo of Fullscreen, a YouTube content provider.

Africa:
* The 'winner' for Mobinil's (Egypt) towers business. The short-list consists of four companies including one from Egypt. Mobinil is majority owned by Orange.

South Africa:
* Further news regarding consolidation within the local telecommunications sector.

Fortune magazine has published its annual US companies top 500 listing. From a technology perspective, I noted the following:

* Apple rises to number five from number six.
* AT&T and Verizon Communications remain at 11 and 16 respectively.
* HP and IBM drop to 17 and 23 from 15 and 20 respectively.
* Amazon rises to 35 from 49.
* Qualcomm rises to 120 from 149.
* Western Digital rises to 187 from 222.
* Dish Network drops to 204 from 189.
* L-3 Communications drops to 221 from 197.
* Cognizant Technology Solutions rises to 308 from 352.
* Facebook rises to 341 from 482.
* Applied Materials drops to 350 from 302.
* SanDisk rises to 422 from 487.
* Harris drops to 471 from 428.
* Micron Technology, at 302 (was 318), is the only technology company listed in the list of the 20 biggest stock gainers.
* Broadcom at 328, CenturyLink at 158, EMC at 128, IBM at 23, Jabil Circuit at 155 and NII Holdings at 495 were listed among the top 20 biggest stock losers.
* Avaya, CA Technologies, Dell, Liberty Global, MetroPCS Communications, Pitney Bowes, Sprint Nextel, Telephone & Data Systems and Yahoo were among those companies that dropped out of the top 500.
* There were no new technology entrants to this year's list.