The international ICT market was dominated last week by the ongoing court case involving Apple and Samsung, and the $3.3 billion private equity deal involving Getty Images.
At home, further speculation abounds following the National Planning Commission's suggestion that Telkom SA should possibly be split up.
Key local news of the past week
* A positive trading update from Poynting.
* A negative trading update from Mustek.
* PBT changed its name to Prescient Holding (PCT) following the former's reverse take-over of Prescient Holdings.
* Pinnacle Technology will launch over-the-counter stock in the US.
* Jonathan Marchbank was appointed CEO of Virgin Mobile SA.
Key African news
* Good half-year revenue (up 22%) from MTN Ghana, together with a 5.9% growth in subscriber numbers.
* Good half-year revenue (up 10.4%) from AccessKenya.
Motorola Mobility has filed a new claim against Apple for seven patent infringements.
Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners
* Satisfactory quarterly figures from Orascom Telecom, with subscriber base up 14.8%, revenue flat but back in the black.
* Millicom International Cellular invested in Rocket Internet's operations in Africa and Latin America.
* Essar Group (India) plans to sell its 72% stake in Essar Telecom Kenya.
* IBM is opening a research lab in Nairobi, its first on the continent and its 12th globally.
* Morocco's telecommunications regulator said the country's average revenue per minute had fallen 21% in Q2.
* Transition Networks, a US provider of telecoms network products, is building an assembly plant in Nigeria.
* The appointments of Mohamed Al-Nawawy as CEO of Telecom Egypt; and Gareth Townly as MD of Eaton Towers Ghana.
Key international news
* Carlyle Group, the world's second largest private equity firm, acquired Getty Images, a stock-photo business, for $3.3 billion.
* EQT Partners, a Swedish private equity group, bought UC4, an Austrian-based IT process automation company, for EUR220 million.
* Google purchased Frommer's travel brand from John Wiley & Sons.
* IBM acquired Texas Memory Systems, a flash-memory company.
* TeliaSonera bought the WiMax operations of Alem Communications, in Kazakhstan, for $170 million.
* Tokyo Electron purchased FSI International, a chip equipment maker, for $252.5 million.
* Verint acquired Comverse Technology, following the latter's spin-off of its telecommunications billing unit. The deal was worth $780.7 million.
* VMware bought Pattern Insight's Log Insight, a big data analytics tool.
* Altimo and Telenor have made additional investments in VimpelCom, the world's sixth largest telecommunications company, such that each group now holds near-equal stakes.
* KPN has abandoned the sale of its Belgian mobile unit, Base.
* Motorola Mobility has filed a new claim against Apple for seven patent infringements.
* Oracle has paid a $2 million fine to settle an SEC 'bribery' fine related to its dealings in India.
* Very good quarterly figures from Groupon (back in the black), Lenovo and Tencent Holdings.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Acer (back in the black), Avago Technologies, China Mobile, Cisco, Reliance Communications and VimpelCom.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Applied Materials, CACI International, Marvell Technology Group and NetApp.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Agilent Technologies, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from JDS Uniphase and Renren.
* The appointments of CP Gurnani as CEO of Satyam Computer Services and MD of Tech Mahindra; and Kamal Nath as CEO of Sify Technologies.
* The resignations of Michael Klayko, CEO of Brocade Communications Systems; and Raju Vegesna, CEO of Sify Technologies (stays on as chairman).
* A satisfactory IPO on Nasdaq by Peregrine Semiconductor.
Look out for
International:
* A possible buyout of T-Mobile USA by a private equity group in a deal headed by the former CEO of Telstra (Australia), Sol Trujillo.
* The additional 10.1% investment by Hon Hai Precision Industry in Sharp, in a move that would raise its stake to 20%.
* The possible acquisition by a Chinese communications chip player of Taiwan's VIA Technologies.
* The jury's verdict in the Apple versus Samsung battle.
Africa:
* The merger of three of Nigeria's CDMA operators, ie, MTS, MultiLinks and Starcomms.
South Africa:
* The sell-off by MTN of some of its South African tower assets.
* The future of Telkom SA following the suggestion by the National Planning Commission that the company should possibly be split up.
Research results and predictions
* Worldwide mobile phone sales declined 2.3% in Q2, with Samsung overtaking Nokia to the number one slot, according to Gartner.
* Worldwide hardcopy peripherals sales declined 8.4% in Q2, according to IDC.
* Mobile payments are forecast to reach $1.3 trillion by 2017, an almost fourfold rise over the next five years, according to Jupiter Research.
Stock market changes
* JSE All share index: Down 0.1%
* Nasdaq: Up 1.8%
* Top SA share movements: Amecor (+8.3%), ConvergeNet Holdings (-9.1%), Huge Group (+12%), Ifca Technologies (+50%), Morvest (+11.1%), Poynting (+12.5%), TCS (+100%),
Telemasters (-18.7%) and Zaptronix (+50%)
Final word
“10 things I've learned from working in IT” was recently published in TechRepublic by Jack Wallen, a veteran of the IT industry. In summary, he says:
1: Companies always promise more than they can deliver.
2: If you add third-party software to a Windows machine, all bets are off.
3: It's not a matter of “if” but “when” desktops or servers will be compromised.
4: Most people don't really understand RAID.
5: Backups are always forgotten... until they're needed.
6: The cloud will never replace the desktop.
7: The Linux platform is still hindered by FUD.
8: There's a huge disconnect between pundits and the real world.
9: IT will give you grey hair.
10: The second you think you understand something, you don't.
The full article is available at www.techrepublic.com.
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