Accenture keeps on buying

Paul Booth.

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Two more acquisitions by Accenture and IBM's disposal of some of its historic business dominated the international ICT market last week.

At home it was a quiet week.

* Excellent interim numbers from Ayo Technology Solutions, with revenue up 93.4% and profit up 224.4%.
* SystemLogic, a global financial innovation and technology company, acquired Kagiso Media-owned data analytics company Knowledge Factory.
* Indian-based consulting and solutions integration company Nihilent has opened a user experience lab in SA, the first outside India.
* A renewed JSE cautionary by EOH.
* The appointment of Nthuthule Tshenye as acting CEO of SITA.

* CDC Group made a $180 million (8%) investment in Liquid Telecom, the pan-African telecommunications operator.
* Tanzanian authorities have charged the MD of Vodacom Tanzania and other telecom executives with economic crimes.
* The appointment of Michiel Buitelaar as CEO of Telekom Networks Malawi.

* Accenture acquired Droga5, one of the world's most innovative and influential creative agencies; and select assets from Caltec Scube, a Japanese-based system development company.
* Alibaba bought China-based Teambition, a real-time collaboration management platform that can be used across office departments and business units.
* Altair, a global technology company providing solutions in product development, high-performance computing and data intelligence, purchased Cambridge Collaborative's SEAM software, best-in-class high-frequency noise and vibration predictive technology.
* Alteryx acquired ClearStory Data, a privately held software company focused on enabling intelligent automation on large-scale data processing platforms, including Spark.
* Cable One bought Fidelity Communications' data, voice and video business assets for $525.9 million.
* Elbit Systems purchased Harris' Night Vision business for $350 million.
* Intapp, a cloud solutions provider backed by Temasek and Great Hill Partners, acquired gwabbit, an enterprise relationship management and data quality management solutions provider.
* One Horizon Group bought a majority interest in Redspots Creative (Hong Kong) Company, a multimedia production company that focuses on development, production, application and marketing promotion.
* Pure Storage purchased Compuverde, a leading developer of file software solutions for enterprises and cloud providers based in Sweden.
* Rapid7 acquired Ireland-based NetFort, a provider of end-to-end network monitoring, traffic visibility and analytics capabilities across cloud, virtual and physical networks.
* Snap-on bought Power Hawk Technologies, a designer, manufacturer and distributer of rescue tools and related equipment.
* Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, a private investment firm, invested a majority equity interest in Sirius Computer Solutions, a solutions provider.
* Capital investment firm Infracapital made a £380 million (50%) investment in SSE Enterprise Telecoms.
* Tencent Holdings made a 6.7% investment in e-commerce platform Youzan.
* Reliance Jio Digital made a $101 million investment in India-based AI-based conversational platform, Haptik.

SA's smartphone penetration has nearly doubled in the past two years.

* Australia will fine social media and Web hosting companies up to 10% of their annual global turnover and imprison executives for up to three years if violent content is not removed "expeditiously", under a new law.
* IBM has agreed to shed the remainder of its marketing automation software business in a deal with Centerbridge Partners, a New York City-based private equity firm that will yield a new company focused on marketing and commerce solutions. Centerbridge Partners will direct funds advised by its affiliates to buy IBM Marketing Platform and other Big Blue commerce products. Once the deal concludes later this year, Centerbridge will spin off a still-unnamed company focused on technologies that automate the work of marketing and advertising executives. Mark Simpson, who currently runs the IBM division, will serve as CEO.
* Automated optical inspection specialist Machvision has officially listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
* Good year-end numbers from Next Fifteen Communications Group.
* Satisfactory year-end figures from Concurrent Technologies and Rocket Internet.
* Mixed quarterly figures from MSI, with revenue up but net income down.
* Mixed year-end figures from Young Fast Optoelectronics (but back in the black), with revenue down but net income up.
* Quarterly losses from Vislink Technologies.
* A full-year loss from Ingenta.
* The appointments of Sailesh Chittipeddi as CEO of IDT; Scott Dunsire as CEO of ACP CreativIT; Nicandro Durante as chairman of the TIM Participacoes (TIM Brazil); Pietro Labriola as CEO of TIM Participacoes; and Eric Updyke as CEO of Spirent Communications.
* The resignation of Arly Guenthner, CEO of ACP.
* The departures of Sami Foguel, CEO of TIM Participacoes; and Greg Waters, CEO of IDT.
* A very good IPO on Nasdaq by Powerbridge Technologies, a provider of software application and technology solutions and services.

South Africa:
* According to a new ICASA report, SA's smartphone penetration has nearly doubled in the past two years, and is now sitting at over 80%.

Worldwide:
* The worldwide public cloud services market is projected to grow 17.5% in 2019 to total $214.3 billion, up from $182.4 billion in 2018, according to Gartner.
* Worldwide converged systems market revenue increased 14.8% year-over-year to $4.15 billion during 4Q18, according to IDC.
* Worldwide revenue for big data and business analytics solutions are forecast to reach $189.1 billion this year, an increase of 12% over 2018, according to IDC.

* JSE All share index: Up 2.3% (highest weekend close since September 2018)
* FTSE100: Up 2.3% (highest weekend close since September 2018)
* DAX: Up 4.2% (highest weekend close since October 2018)
* NYSE (Dow): Up 1.9% (highest weekend close since October 2018)
* S&P 500: Up 2.1% (highest weekend close since September 2018)
* Nasdaq: Up 2.7% (highest weekend close since September 2018)
* Nikkei225: Up 2.8% (highest weekend close this year)
* Hang Seng: Up 3% (highest weekend close since June 2018)
* Shanghai: Up 5% (highest weekend close since March 2018)

International:
* Further acquisitions by Accenture.

South Africa:
* Further developments regarding the EOH investigations.

The UK Daily Telegraph has published its 2019 edition of its 'Hot 100', a listing of the UK's most successful tech founders. Included in the list are:

* 26: Guy Podjarny, founder of Snyk, a company that delivers security for Web designers and developers who increasingly rely on open source software.
* 32: Erkin Adylov, who launched Behavox, to tap into 'people analytics' to spot patterns across teams and transform workplaces.
* 33: Martin Kenwright, founder of vTime, which he hopes will be a social network for virtual reality.
* 34: Vishal Marria, founder of Quantexa, which uses AI to sift through vast quantities of information to prevent wrongdoing, including terrorism.
* 39: Henry Harrison, co-founder of cyber security firm Garrison Technologies, which provides software for 'ultra-secure' browsing.
* 47: Steven Dineen, founder of Fuse, an online learning company that specialises in business customers.