Alphabet hails a ride

Alphabet's investment in Lyft and a host of small acquisitions were the highlights of the international ICT market last week.

At home, a change in one of the ICT government ministers and a new ICT listing were the main stories.

* A positive trading update from Altron.
* The HeroTel Group acquired the largest WISP in Cape Town, Sonic Telecoms.
* 4Sight Holdings bought BluESP Holdings, and its wholly-owned subsidiary BluESP for R54.8 million. BluESP is an engineering technology company focusing on delivering software solutions to the mining and manufacturing sector.
* 4Sight Holdings has listed on the JSE.
* Datacentrix has achieved certification as a 52.13% black-owned level one broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) contributor, with 135% procurement recognition.
* New JSE cautionaries by 4Sight Holdings and Adapt IT.
* The appointments of Mmamoloko Kubayi as minister for the Department of Communications; and Willington Ngwepe as CEO of ICASA (was acting CEO).
* The departure of Ayanda Dlodlo, minister for the Department of Communications.

* In an effort to increase its presence on the African continent, Truecaller, the call-blocking mobile app company, will set up headquarters in SA and in Nigeria.

Facebook acquired tbh, an app popular among teens.

* Accenture acquired Altima, a full-service digital commerce agency.
* Cisco bought Perspica, a streaming data start-up.
* CSRA purchased Praxis Engineering Technologies, a leader in mission applications development and engagement in the Intelligence Community. The deal was worth $235 million.
* Facebook acquired tbh, an app popular among teens. The app, an acronym for "to be honest", allows users to anonymously answer multiple choice questions about friends, who then receive the poll results as compliments.
* First Data Corporation bought BluePay Holdings, a provider of technology-enabled payment processing for merchants in the US and Canada, for $760 million.
* JPMorgan Chase purchased online payment provider WePay as the bank looks to integrate payments into software used by small businesses.
* Mitek acquired ICAR, a leading provider of consumer identity verification solutions in Spain and Latin America for EUR12.75 million.
* Splunk bought SignalSense, a privately held technology company offering cloud-based advanced data collection and breach detection solutions that leverage machine learning.
* Siris Capital Partners purchased Synchronoss Technologies' Intralinks Holding unit for $1 billion.
* Alphabet led a $1 billion investment in Lyft, the ride-hailing service.
* Temasek Holdings, an investment firm owned by the government of Singapore, led a $502 million investment in Magic Leap, a well-funded and secretive start-up in the augmented reality space.
* A Japanese software company, Emonster kk, is suing Apple in a US court over the trademark for the term "animoji", alleging Apple stole the name to use on a feature of its iPhone X.
* Mitac Holdings subsidiary, Mitac International, will spin off its mobile communication product business group into a new entity.
* Excellent quarterly results from Lam Research.
* Very good quarterly figures from Adata, ASML Holdings, Euronet Worldwide and Netflix.
* Good quarterly numbers from Adtran, Esker and PayPal.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Alliance Data Systems, eBay, Maxim Integrated Products, Nanya Technology, Rogers Communications, SAP, Snap-On, TCS and Wipro.
* Mediocre quarterly results from IBM and Software AG.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Benchmark Electronics, with revenue up but profit down; Crown Castle International, with revenue up but profit down; DST Systems, with revenue up but profit down; Mobile Mini, with revenue up but profit down; NCR, with revenue down but profit up; Omnicom Group, with revenue down but profit up; Syntel, with revenue down but back in the black; TSMC, with revenue up but profit down; and Verizon Communications, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Atlassian, Cree, Ericsson, Limelight Networks, Proofpoint and TomTom.
* The appointments of Simon Biddiscombe as president and CEO of MobileIron; Maximo Ibarra as CEO of KPN; Mohamed Fadhel Kraiem as chairman and CEO of Tunisie Telecom; Hironobu Kurosaki as CEO of NEC Europe; and Liang Mong Song and Haijun Zhao as co-CEOs of SMIC.
* The resignations of Eeclo Blok, CEO of KPN; Barry Mainz, CEO of MobileIron; and Margarete Schramb"ock, CEO of A1 Telekom Austria.
* The departures of Lars Bjork, CEO of Qlik Technologies; Nizar Bouguila, CEO of Tunisie Telecom; and Bryan Taylor, one of TPG's top technology dealmakers.
* An IPO filing in the US from Sohu.com's subsidiary Sogou.
* A very good IPO on Nasdaq by MongoDB, a provider of database software.
* A good IPO on the NYSE by Sea, a provider of digital entertainment, e-commerce and financial services in southeast Asia.

South Africa:
* The South African IT services market, while flat in US dollar terms, grew 15.13% in local currency terms in 2016, according to IDC.

EMEA/Africa:
* MENA spending on information security technology and services is on pace to reach $1.8 billion in 2017, an increase of 11% over 2016, according to Gartner.
* The EMEA traditional PC market (desktops, notebooks, and workstations) was almost flat in Q317, with the market remaining slightly negative (-0.5%) and totalling 17.7 million units, according to IDC.
* The EMEA server market in Q217 reported a year-on-year increase in vendor revenue of 3% to $3.2 billion, and a year-on-year increase of 1.2% in units shipped to 538 000, according to IDC.

Worldwide:
* Worldwide gaming notebook shipments are estimated to reach around 5.5 million units in 2017, according to Digitimes.
* Global shipments of AR/VR head-mounted display devices, including standalone models, are expected to grow by a CAGR of 41.6% during the period from 2017 to 2022, according to Digitimes Research.
* Worldwide shipments of PCs, tablets and smartphones are predicted to exceed 2.35 billion units in 2018, an increase of 2% from 2017, according to Gartner.
* Worldwide ICT spending is set to accelerate over the next five years, thanks to the growth of new technologies, including the Internet of things, robotics, augmented and virtual reality, and cognitive computing and artificial intelligence, according to IDC. Total ICT spending on traditional IT, telecoms services and new technologies will grow from $4.3 trillion in 2016 to $5.6 trillion by 2021, representing a CAGR of 6% in constant currency terms. Annual growth will accelerate through the forecast period, from 5.5% in 2017 to 6.5% in 2021, as new technologies account for a growing proportion of the overall market.
* Worldwide spending on security-related hardware, software and services is forecast to reach $119.9 billion in 2021, according to IDC. With nearly every industry investing in security solutions to meet a wide range of threats and requirements, spending is expected to achieve a CAGR of 9.6% over the 2016-2021 forecast period. Worldwide spending on security products and services will total $83.5 billion in 2017, an increase of 10.3% over 2016.

* JSE All share index: Up 0.1% (highest weekend close)
* FTSE100: Down 0.1%
* DAX: Flat (marginally down)
* NYSE (Dow): Up 2% (highest weekend close)
* S&P 500: Up 0.9% (highest weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Up 0.4% (highest weekend close)
* Nikkei225: Up 1.4% (highest 2017 weekend close)
* Hang Seng: Flat (marginally up)
* Shanghai: Down 0.3%

International:
* The proposed merger of T-Mobile US and Sprint in an agreement without any immediate asset sales, as they seek to preserve as much of their spectrum holdings and cost synergies as they can before regulators ask for concessions.

South Africa:
* Additional acquisitions by 4Sight Holdings.

Interbrand has published its 2017 'Best Global Brands' rankings. Included are:
* 1: Apple
* 2: Google
* 3: Microsoft
* 5: Amazon
* 6: Samsung
* 8: Facebook
* 10: IBM
* 15: Intel
* 16: Cisco
* 17: Oracle
* 21: SAP
* 34: eBay
* 37: Accenture
* 52: Canon
* 53: HP
* 56: Adobe
* 57: HPE
* 61: Sony
* 70: Huawei
* 75: Panasonic
* 78: Netflix (new entry)
* 80: PayPal
* 84: Salesforce (new entry)
* 100: Lenovo

All the above entries, with the exception of Canon, HP, HPE, IBM, Lenovo and Panasonic, saw their values increase from 2016.