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Cisco heats up with Sourcefire

The acquisition of the cyber security software company cost Cisco $2.7 billion.

Paul Booth
By Paul Booth
Johannesburg, 29 Jul 2013

Cisco's $2.7 billion acquisition of Sourcefire and the continued delay in the finalisation of the Dell deal were the major international ICT stories last week.

At home, the emergence of the IITPSA as a united body to represent the industry was one of the main local announcements.

Key local news

* The Computer Society South Africa has become the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA).
* A new JSE cautionary by Morvest Business Group.
* Esquire Technologies unveiled Casey Distribution, a stationery and office products distribution company.
* According to the DMMA Steerco, SA's total Internet population is estimated to be about 14 million users, or 39% of the adult population.
* The appointments of Shaun Durandt as GM for Nokia SA; Brett Goschen as CFO of MTN Group (was CEO of MTN Nigeria); Anton Herbst as CEO of Tarsus Technologies; and Chris Norton as country manager of ServiceNow, a provider of cloud-based services that automate enterprise IT operations.
* The resignations of Chris Norton, country manager for VMware in Southern Africa; and Leon Perlman, founder and chairman of WASPA.

Key African news

* Mixed half-year numbers from Maroc Telecom, with revenue down but profit up.
* Helios Towers acquired Vodacom's 1 149 mobile towers in Tanzania.
* The Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies has opened its first West African innovation centre in Accra.
* Bob Collymore has been reappointed for two more years as CEO of Safaricom.
* The appointments of Sung Yong Hong as president and CEO of Samsung Africa; Michael Ikpoki as CEO of MTN Nigeria (was CEO of MTN Ghana); and Serame Taukobong as CEO of MTN Ghana.

Key international news

SA's total Internet population is estimated to be about 14 million users.

* Cisco purchased Sourcefire, a cyber security software company, for $2.7 billion.
* Dropbox bought Endorse, a loyalty application.
* Ericsson acquired Telcocell, a Canadian BSS consulting firm.
* Mitel purchased prairieFyre Software, a provider of contact centre, business analytics and workforce optimisation software and services.
* Ruckus Wireless bought YFind, a creator of technology for indoor location positioning and real-time location analytics.
* Telefonica acquired E-Plus, KPN's German operations, in a move that makes the former the second largest mobile operator in Europe. The deal was worth EUR5 billion.
* Yahoo purchased Ztelic, a social data analysis start-up.
* Google made a 6.3% investment in Himax's display unit.
* Vivendi made an $8.2 billion investor buyout of Activision, in a move led by Vivendi's CEO, Bobby Kotick. This is part of its disposal of its non-core assets and the second such deal, following the expected purchase by Etisalat of its stake in Maroc Telecom.
* Yahoo repurchased 40 million shares held by Third Point, an investment fund managed by Daniel Loeb, leaving the latter with a 2% stake.
* The UK's FCA has abandoned its prosecutions of the former directors of iSoft, the healthcare software provider, following a seven-year investigation and two criminal trials.
* Maxcom, the Mexican phone company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
* Excellent quarterly results from Cirrus Logic and Facebook (back in the black).
* Very good quarterly figures from Applied Micro Circuits (back in the black), Qualcomm, RF Micro Devices (back in the black) and Yandex.
* Good quarterly numbers from Akamai Technologies, ASML, Equifax, Ingram Micro, Juniper Networks, Netflix, Samsung Electronics and VMware.
* Satisfactory half-year figures from America Movil, ATMI (back in the black), Dassault Systemes, EMC, Etisalat, Huawei, Logitech International (back in the black) and Wipro.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Anixter International, Maxim Integrated Products, Rogers Communications, Sanmina-SCA, Telenor and VeriSign.
* Mediocre half-year figures from Orange.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Altera, ATMI, Flextronics, Forrester Research, KLA-Tencor, LSI, Polycom, Seagate Technology, Teradyne, Unisys and Western Digital.
* Mixed half-year numbers from ARM Holdings, with revenue up but profit down; BT Group, with revenue down but profit up; EE, with revenue down but profit up; and ZTE, with revenue down but profit up
* Mixed quarterly figures from Apple, with revenue up but profit down; Arrow Electronics, with revenue up but profit down; AT&T, with revenue up but profit down; Baidu, with revenue up but profit down; CA Technologies, with revenue down but profit up; Celestica, with revenue up but profit down; Citrix Systems, with revenue up but profit down; Compuware, with revenue up but profit down; DST Systems, with revenue up but profit down; Electronic Arts, with revenue down but profit up; F5 Networks, with revenue up but profit down; Informatica, with revenue up but profit down; L3 Communications, with revenue up but profit down; Lexmark, with revenue down but profit up; LG Electronics, with revenue up but profit down; Linear Technology, with revenue up but profit down; Motorola Solutions, with revenue down but profit up; Netgear, with revenue up but profit down; Telefonica, with revenue up but profit down; NTT DoCoMo, with revenue up but profit down; Texas Instruments, with revenue down but profit up; and Xerox, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Amazon, Broadcom, Equinix, InterDigital, NetSuite, STMicroelectronics and Zynga.
* The appointments of Israel Borovich as chairman of ClickSoftware; Adolfo Hernandez as CEO of Acision, a mobile messaging service provider; Robert Marcus as CEO of Time Warner Cable; Bill McDermott as the sole CEO of SAP (with effect from 2014); and Kevin Parker as interim CEO of Polycom.
* The resignations of Andrew Miller, CEO of Polycom; and Jorgen Nilsson, CEO of Acision.
* The retirements of Glenn Britt, CEO and chairman of Time Warner Cable; and Kevin Johnson, CEO of Juniper Networks.
* The death of Barnaby Jack, a celebrated white hat computer hacker; and Carsten Schloter, CEO of Swisscom.
* An IPO filing from Alibaba on the Hong Kong stock exchange, which could raise up to $20 billion.
* A possible IPO by Zulily, an e-commerce company.

Look out for

International:
* The finalisation of the Dell deal.
* The possible acquisition of Compuware by BMC Software.
Africa:
* The finalisation of the Vivendi/Etisalat deal regarding Maroc Telecom.
South Africa:
* A restructuring of the Altron Group following its absorption of Altech.

Research results and predictions

* The worldwide mobile phone market grew 6% in Q2, with shipments of 432.1 million units, according to IDC. Samsung grew its market share to 26.2%, while Nokia's shrunk to 14.1%. Apple retained its number three slot, followed by LG and ZTE.
* Global all-in-one PC shipments are expected to grow 17.3% this year, according to Digitimes Research.
* The 3D printer market will top $4.45 billion in 2016, an average CAGR of 22.2%, according to Taiwan's MIC.

Stock market changes

* JSE All share index: Down 0.1%
* Nasdaq: Up 0.7% (highest weekend close this year and highest-ever since the dot-com boom)
* Top SA share movements: EOH (+7.7%), Gijima (-8.3%), Jasco (+20%), Labat Africa (-43.3%), MiX Telematics (+35.3%), Morvest Business Group (+12.5%), Sekunjalo (-14.3%) and Silverbridge (+46%)

Final word

Fortune magazine has published its annual Global 500 listing. The following 13 technology entities are listed in the top 100, down from the 15 companies in the list last year:

* 14: Samsung Electronics (up from 20)
* 19: Apple (up from 55)
* 30: Hon Hai Precision Industry (Taiwan) (up from 43)
* 32: NTT (down from 29)
* 34: AT&T (down from 32)
* 43: HP (down from 31)
* 48: Verizon Communications (up from 50)
* 54: Hitachi (down from 38)
* 62: IBM (down from 57)
* 71: China Mobile (up from 81)
* 83: Panasonic (down from 66)
* 94: Sony (down from 87)
* 97: Telefonica (down from 82)

Deutsche Telekom and Toshiba have slipped out of the top 100 this year.

I will provide some further analysis/commentary next week.

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