BlackBerry takes Nokia to court

Acquisitions by Softbank and Symantec were the highlights of a quiet international ICT market last week.

At home, the ongoing success of AdaptIT, as seen in its interim figures, was the main local ICT story.

* Good interim numbers from AdaptIT, with revenue up 47.2% and profit up 16.7%.
* Mixed interim figures from Jasco, with revenue down 6.6% but profit up 6.5%.
* A full-year loss from Stella Capital Partners.
* Positive trading updates from Blue Label Telecom, EOH and the Huge Group.
* A negative trading update from Mustek.
* The termination of the listing of Datacentrix shares on the JSE.
* Telkom's ICT services arm, Business Connexion, has been rebranded as BCX.

* The appointment of Mohamed Dabbour as CEO of Millicom's African operation.
* The resignation of Cynthia Gordon, CEO of Millicom's African operations.

The total addressable revenue for mobile operators in IOT will be over $200 billion by 2025, according to Analysys Mason.

* Blackstone, a private equity firm, acquired UK-based Cloudreach, a cloud services business.
* Infotech bought Urbanise, a global provider of IOT and service delivery platforms for buildings.
* Integrated Device Technology purchased GigPeak, an innovator of semiconductor ICs and software solutions for high-speed connectivity and high-quality video compression over the network and the cloud. The deal with was worth $250 million.
* Lycamobile (Belgium) acquired Belgian operator Ortel Mobile.
* Manpower Group, global leader in innovative workforce solutions, bought Ciber's business in Spain.
* PayPal purchased TIO Networks, a Canadian cloud-based multi-channel bill payment processing and receivables management company, for $233 million.
* Softbank acquired Fortress Investment Group, a private equity firm, for $3.3 billion.
* Symantec bought LifeLock, provider of identity theft protection services, for $2.3 billion.
* Verizon purchased Skyward, a drone operations management company.
* BlackBerry filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nokia, demanding royalties on the Finnish company's mobile network products that use an industrywide technology standard.
* Sony Corporation will transfer certain rights and obligations related to Sony's imaging products and solutions business to Sony Imaging Products & Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony, by an "absorption-type company split".
* PCCW plans to dispose of an 11.1% stake in telecoms company HKT Trust.
* Samsung Group chief Jay Y Lee was arrested in South Korea regarding his alleged role in a corruption scandal.
* Excellent quarterly results from Applied Materials, Charter Communications (back in the black) and NetEase.
* Very good quarterly figures from Airgain (back in the black), Amkor Technology (back in the black), Analog Devices, Arista Networks, Cognex, GigPeak, Impinj (back in the black), IPG Photonics, ON Semiconductor, SMIC, SS&C Technologies and TowerJazz.
* Good quarterly numbers from Ceragon Networks, Innolux (back in the black), Synopsys, T-Mobile US and Trend Micro.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Asustek, AU Optronics (back in the black), Cohu, Equinix, Keysight Technologies, Liberty Global and PDF Solutions.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Cisco, Lenovo, MAM Software Group, Photronics, Sitronix Technology, Syntel and TechTarget.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Diodes, with revenue up but profit down; EPAM Systems, with revenue up but profit down; First Data, with revenue down but back in the black; Himax Technologies, with revenue up but profit down; NetApp, with revenue up but profit down; Nice Systems, with revenue up but profit down; TiVo, with revenue up but profit down; Tower International, with revenue up but profit down; Turkcell, with revenue up but profit down; Vasco Data Security, with revenue down but profit up; and Yandex, with revenue up but profit down.
* Very poor quarterly figures from Quantenna Communications, Radcom and Vonage (just in the black).
* Quarterly losses from Adesto Technologies, Aerohive Networks, Cincinnati Bell, Diebold Nixdorf, Gilat Satellite Networks, GoDaddy, Groupon, Guidance Software, HTC, Lattice Semiconductor, Sequans Communications, Shopify, Sonus Networks and Wix.com.
* The appointment of Danielle Royston as interim CEO of Redknee Solutions.
* The resignation of Shigenori Shiga, chairman of Toshiba.
* The departure of Lucas Skoczkowski, CEO of Redknee Solutions.

EMEA/Africa:
* IT spending by banking and securities firms in the Middle East and North Africa region is forecast to grow to $12.4 billion in 2017, a 3.5% increase from 2016, according to IDC.

Worldwide:
* The total addressable revenue for mobile operators in IOT will be over $200 billion by 2025, according to Analysys Mason.
* Global revenue from the B2B telecoms market surpassed nearly $30 billion in 2016, according to Future Markets Insights. By the end of 2026, the market will be valued at $107.47 billion, registering expansion at 13.6%, according to Future Markets Insights.
* Global sales of smartphones to end-users totalled 432 million units in Q416, a 7% year-on-year increase, according to Gartner.
* Global revenue in the business intelligence and analytics software market is forecast to reach $18.3 billion in 2017, an increase of 7.3% from 2016, according to Gartner. By the end of 2020, the market is forecast to grow to $22.8 billion.
* There were 15.74 million tablets shipped globally in 2016, a year-on-year decrease of 6.6%, according to TrendForce.

* JSE All share index: Down 0.9%
* FTSE100: Down 0.4%
* DAX: Up 0.8%
* NYSE (Dow): Up 1.7% (highest weekend close)
* S&P 500: Up 1.5% (highest weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Up 1.8% (highest weekend close)
* Nikkei225: Down 0.7%
* Hang Seng: Up 1.9% (highest weekend close since September 2016)
* Shanghai: Up 0.2%

International:
* Telef'onica offloading a 49% share in its infrastructure arm Telxius.
* Japan's SoftBank Group giving up control of Sprint Corp to Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile US in order to clinch a merger of the two US wireless carriers.

South Africa:
* Further news regarding the Prescient/Stella Capital deal.

The African Report has released its 2017 'Top 500 African Companies' list, created using turnover figures. The following technology companies are included in the first 100:
* 6: MTN Group
* 11: Datatec
* 12: Naspers
* 18: Vodacom SA
* 20: Vodacom Group
* 35: MTN Nigeria
* 38: Groupe Maroc Telecom
* 41: Global Telecom Holding (Egypt)
* 44: Telkom SA
* 48: MTN SA
* 65: Maroc Telecom
* 68: Safaricom
* 75: Altron
* 77: Blue Label Telecoms
* 80: Algerie Telecom
* 85: Telecom Egypt
* 94: Sonatel (Senegal)

The following are some interesting observations from the complete list:
* Vodacom SA came in higher than the Vodacom Group.
* Datatec is listed as a media company.
* BCX is listed as a media company (the list was compiled prior to Telkom's acquisition of BCX).
* Pinnacle is listed as an electrical equipment company.