CA Technologies invests in automation

The international ICT market saw a raft of smallish acquisitions last week. At home, Dimension Data's acquisition of MWeb was the main local ICT story.

* Excellent interim numbers from Ansys, with revenue up 163.4% and profit up 711.6%.
* African Equity Empowerment Investments acquired 51% equity in Kalula Communications, which trades as Headset Solutions.
* Dimension Data (Internet Solutions) bought MWeb; this follows the former's take-over of MWeb Business as well as the core assets of the MWeb ISP business and Optinet in 2014.
* Netsurit, a South African technology services company, merged with US-based Marathon Consulting, in which the latter will become part of the former.
* Capitalworks, a South African-based independent alternative asset management firm, invested a significant interest in IQ Business. The companies say the transaction has been made alongside Tiso Investment Holdings, existing shareholders of IQ Group Holdings and the executive partners of IQ Business.
* Tritech Media, via its subsidiary Crossgate Technologies, invested in a 44% holding in commerce and payments technology provider Kinektek.
* MTN SA's acquisition of Smart Village has come into effect, making Smart Village a subsidiary of MTN.
* A new JSE cautionary by Cognition Holdings.

* Bharti Airtel acquired Econet Wireless's stake in its Nigerian operation, giving the former an 83.25% shareholding after acquiring the latter's 45.2% stake.
* Vodacom Tanzania has issued a draft prospectus for its proposed initial public offer and the listing of shares on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange.
* Namibia has secured 42nd place on the Ashish J Thakkar Global Entrepreneurship Index 2016, outranking counterparts including Kenya, Nigeria and SA. The inaugural index measures entrepreneurial environments around the world and assesses each of its 85 countries against a set of criteria that spans policy, infrastructure, education, entrepreneurial environment and finance. It is based on research conducted by Mara Foundation and strategic insight company Opinium. According to the index, of the African nations, Namibia has the highest ranking (42nd), followed by Rwanda (43rd) then Botswana in 44th place, with SA in 46th position. The index measures markets according to specific pillars, including policy, infrastructure, education, entrepreneurial environment and finance.
* Huawei and Orange have inaugurated a Global Network Operation Center with sites in Dakar, Senegal and Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
* Telecom Malagasy (Telma) is to launch commercial mobile voice and data services in Comoros next month, bringing an end to the monopoly held by state-owned incumbent telecoms operator Comores Telecom (Comtel).

GoPro has shut its entertainment division.

* America Movil said on Monday its wireless subsidiary has agreed to buy spectrum for mobile devices from Mexico's Grupo MVS, which would increase Mexico's dominant player's offer of high-speed data services.
* CA Technologies bought Austria-based Automic, a leader in business automation software, for EUR600 million.
* Cognizant Technology Solutions purchased privately held Mirabeau, a digital marketing and customer experience agency specialising in industries such as travel and hospitality, financial services, retail and B2B sectors.
* GTT acquired the Ethernet-based carrier formerly called Yipes from Indian operator Reliance Communications, which bought the latter for $300 million nine years ago. The current deal was worth $28 million.
* Spanish technology and defence company Indra bought IT company Tecnocom for EUR305 million.
* Juniper Networks purchased AppFormix, an industry leader in automated, scalable and secure networks.
* Syncsort, a global leader in big iron to big data solutions, acquired Harte Hanks' Trillium Software business for $112 million.
* Verisk Analytics bought MarketStance, a provider of market intelligence data and analytics to the property/casualty insurance market.
* Zayo Group purchased Electric Lightwave, a network provider, for $1.42 billion.
* UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has ordered BT to legally separate from its Openreach division, which runs the UK's broadband infrastructure.
* GoPro has shut its entertainment division.
* ChipMOS Technologies and Tsinghua Unigroup have signed an agreement to form a joint venture and to mutually terminate the latter's earlier private placement plan.
* Component maker and Apple supplier Laird will offer a rights issue for £185 million, to bolster its finances.
* Good quarterly numbers from Semtech.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Descartes Systems Group and Synopsys.
* Satisfactory year-end figures from Sage Group.
* Mediocre quarterly results from American Software.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Ambarella, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Autodesk, BlackLine, Box, Guidewire Software, Nutanix, Pure Storage, Rocket Internet, Splunk and Workday.
* The appointments of Mike McTighe as chairman of Openreach; and John Stroup as chairman of Belden.
* An IPO filing from AppNexus, an automated online advertising technology company.

Worldwide:
* In Q316, worldwide server revenue declined 5.8% year-over-year, while shipments declined 2.6%, according to Gartner.
* Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will spend $564 billion on IT hardware, software and services, including business services, in 2016, according to IDC. This amount is expected to increase at a CAGR of 4.2%, reaching $668 billion in 2020.
* Worldwide smartphone shipments are expected to reach 1.4 billion units, with a year-over-year growth rate of 0.6% in 2016, according to IDC. Although growth remains positive, it is down significantly, from the 10.4% growth in 2015. However, 4G smartphones are still expected to show double-digit uptake at 21.3% year-over-year growth globally for 2016, reaching 1.17 billion units, up from 967 million in 2015.
* Worldwide PC shipments are forecast to decline by 6.4% year-over-year in 2016, according to IDC.
* Vendor revenue in the worldwide server market declined 7% year-over-year to $12.5 billion in 3Q16, according to IDC. Worldwide server shipments decreased 4.6% to 2.38 million units in 3Q16 when compared with the same year-ago period.
* Worldwide tablet shipments are expected to decline by 12% in 2016, rounding out the year at 182.3 million shipments, according to IDC.
* Total worldwide enterprise storage systems factory revenue was down 3.2% year-over-year, and reached $8.8 billion in 3Q16, according to IDC.
* Worldwide hardcopy peripherals shipments declined 3% to 25 million units in 3Q16, according to IDC.
* The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network market segments increased 1.8% year-over-year in 3Q16, and increased 6.7% on a sequential basis to finish at $2.47 billion, according to IDC.

* JSE All share index: Down 2.8%
* FTSE100: Down 1.6%
* DAX: Down 0.6%
* NYSE (Dow): Up 1% (highest weekend close)
* S&P 500: Down 1%
* Nasdaq: Down 2.7% (but an all-time high above the 5 400 level achieved during the week)
* Nikkei225: Up 0.2%
* Hang Seng: Down 0.7%
* Shanghai: Down 0.6%

International:
* The world's biggest smartphone manufacturer, Samsung Electronics, splitting its business into two companies.
* Chinese photo app and mobile phone maker Meitu launching a $735 million IPO in Hong Kong, which would value it at as much as $4 billion, making it among the 10 largest tech companies listed in the city.
* Fitbit buying Pebble, the smartwatch maker.

South Africa:
* Further developments regarding the futures of Cell C and Neotel.

For more than 20 years, Deloitte has recognised the fastest growing public and private technology companies in North America. These tech companies are on the cutting-edge and are transforming the way business is done.

Included in this list are:
* 1: Loot Crate (digital content/media/entertainment)
* 5: BounceX (software)
* 6: Doximity (software)
* 7: Gainsight (software)
* 9: Datadog (software)
* 10: AppLovin (software)
* 14: Pure Storage (software)
* 15: Tanium (software)
* 18: Box (software)
* 19: Form Holdings (devices/hardware)
* 20: MacStadium (communications/networking)
* 24: Movidius (semiconductors)
* 30: Nutanix (software)
* 31: InfoScout (software)
* 42: Hortonworks (software)
* 55: The Trade Desk (software)
* 63: Nimble Storage (devices/hardware)
* 93: Easy Solutions (software)
* 105: Coupa Software (software)
* 130: ServiceMax (software)
* 135: Twilio (software)
* 136: FireEye (software)
* 145: Twitter (software)
* 164: Square (software)
* 175: Workday (software)
* 187: FireFly Computers (devices/hardware)
* 188: Zendesk (software)

This is my final column for 2016, although my 'review of the year' will appear next week. My column will resume on 16 January and will fully cover the intervening period.

A big thank you to all my readers for your support this year; I wish you well over the festive season and a great 2017.