Cisco snaps up AppDynamics

Multiple acquisitions were a prominent feature of the international ICT market last week.

At home, Net1's investment in Bank Frick was one of the main local stories.

* Technology and digital empowerment company Curve Group acquired Silverlining Technology, a Microsoft partner that provides small and medium businesses with a wide range of IT services.
* HeroTel bought Xpress Network Solutions Wireless, a wireless ISP that manages its wireless IP network and provides wireless broadband services to customers across Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the Northwest.
* Net1 made a 30% investment in Bank Frick & Co, a fully licensed bank based in Balzers, Liechtenstein. Following the successful completion of this investment, the former will have a two-year option to acquire a further 35% in Bank Frick.
* Denmark-based software company TIA Technology has entered the South African market directly - targeting the insurance sector - by opening its first African regional office in Johannesburg. It will provide technology support to the insurance industry across the continent. Tian Horn, ex-MD of Roundcube SA, has been hired as the area manager for Africa.
* A new JSE cautionary by Datatec.
* A renewed JSE cautionary by Altron.

* The appointment of Jonas Bogoshi as head of Dell EMC's channel team in SA and the SADC region.

US whistle-blower Edward Snowden's preferred e-mail service, Lavabit, will relaunch its revamped service.

* Accenture acquired solid serVision, a German-based privately owned consulting and system integration company. It is one of the largest independent ServiceNow pure play companies in Europe.
* Ant Financial, the digital payments arm of Alibaba, bought MoneyGram for $880 million.
* Cisco purchased AppDynamics, a software start-up that was on the point of listing in New York, for $3.7 billion.
* Digital Bridge Holdings, a firm that invests in data centres, acquired Vantage Data Centers Management from buyout firm Silver Lake Partners, in a deal worth more than $1 billion.
* FactSet bought Interactive Data Managed Solutions, a managed solutions and portal provider for the global wealth management industry.
* IBM purchased Agile 3 Solutions, a developer of software used by the C-suite and senior executives to better visualise, understand and manage risks associated with the protection of sensitive data.
* Silicon Labs acquired Zentri, a WiFi innovator.
* StorageCraft Technology bought Exablox and will create a new company completely focused on helping businesses analyse, protect and store their data.
* TomTom purchased Autonomos, a Berlin-based autonomous driving start-up.
* Verisk Analytics acquired Arium, an independent company specialising in liability risk modelling and decision support.
* Veritas Capital bought Harris' government IT services business for $690 million.
* Wipro purchased InfoSERVER, a specialised IT services provider for the banking, financial services and insurance sector, based in Brazil.
* Sprint made a 33.3% investment in Tidal, the streaming music service run by rap mogul Jay Z.
* Tata Communications made a 35% investment in Teleena.
* Sopra Steria made an additional 25% investment in Cassiopae's holding company, KSEOP, via its subsidiary, Sopra Banking Software, raising its stake to 100%.
* Apple has filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm in Beijing, alleging the chip supplier abused its clout in the chip industry; Apple is seeking 1 billion yuan ($145.32 million) in damages.
* US whistle-blower Edward Snowden's preferred e-mail service, Lavabit, will relaunch its revamped service after nearly three years of downtime.
* Toshiba plans to make its core memory chip business a separate company and seek outside investment in it.
* Very good quarterly figures from Alibaba, Lam Research, Microsemi and Silicon Motion Technology.
* Good quarterly numbers from Amphenol, AVX, Cabot Microelectronics, Comcast, Corning, II-VI, KLA-Tencor, Lantronix (back in the black), LG Display, Line Corp, Lockheed Martin, Nanya Technology, Teradyne (back in the black) and Yahoo (back in the black).
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Alphabet, ASE, Aspen Technology, Celestica, Citrix Systems, eBay, EFI, F5 Networks, HCL Technologies, Juniper Networks, L-3 Technologies (back in the black), Logitech International, Maxim Integrated Products, Mercury Systems, Microsoft, PayPal, Quantum (back in the black), Sage UK, Samsung Electronics, SAP, Siliconware Precision Industries, STMicroelectronics, TE Connectivity, TI, VMware and Xilinx.
* Satisfactory nine-month figures from NTT DoCoMo.
* Mediocre quarterly results from AT&T, Bharti Airtel, CA Technologies, Chunghwa Telecom, Cree, Digi International, Flex, Synaptics and Verizon Communications.
* Mediocre year-end numbers from SK Hynix.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Avnet, with revenue up but profit down; BT Group, with revenue up but profit down; Crown Castle International, with revenue up but profit down; DST Systems, with revenue up but profit down; Intel, with revenue up but profit down; Qualcomm, with revenue up but profit down; Seagate Technology, with revenue down but profit up; Software AG, with revenue up but profit down; Total Systems Services, with revenue up but profit down; UMC, with revenue up but profit down; Western Digital, with revenue up but profit down; and Wipro, with revenue up but profit down.
* Mixed year-end figures from Holtek Semiconductor, with revenue up but profit down.
* Very poor quarterly figures from Alliance Data and O2Micro (back in the black - just).
* Quarterly losses from 8x8, CommVault Systems, Ericsson, LG Electronics, Proofpoint, Rogers Communications, ServiceNow and Unisys.
* The appointment of Nitin Rakesh as CEO of Mphasis.
* The retirement of TK Kurien, executive vice-chairman of Wipro.
* The departure of Ganesh Ayyar, CEO of Mphasis.

EMEA/Africa:
* Traditional PC shipments in EMEA stabilised in Q416, registering a close to zero decline (-0.2% YOY) and reaching 20.7 million units, according to IDC.

Worldwide:
* The $5.49 billion global cognitive systems spending market will witness a massive hike in revenue, reaching a whopping $21.46 billion by the end of 2026, according to Future Markets Insights.
* The global market value of voice recognition solutions is projected to grow from $2.61 billion in 2016 to $15.98 billion in 2021, a CAGR of 43.64%, according to TrendForce.

* JSE All share index: Up 0.8%
* FTSE100: Down 0.2%
* DAX: Up 1.6% (highest weekend close since September 2015)
* NYSE (Dow): Up 1.3% (an all-time high of over 20 000 was achieved during the week)
* S&P 500: Up 1% (an all-time high was achieved during the week)
* Nasdaq: Up 1.9% (an all-time high was achieved during the week)
* Nikkei225: (highest weekend close since December 2015)
* Hang Seng: (highest weekend close since August 2015)

International:
* Keysight Technologies, a provider of software and equipment to the electronics and wireless communications industries, acquiring US data technology company Ixia.

Africa:
* The postponement of MTN's listing in Nigeria until 2018.
* The merger of Airtel and Millicom in Ghana.

South Africa:
* A new Vodacom BBEEE deal.

According to recent research, worldwide spending on the Internet of things (IOT) was forecast to reach $737 billion in 2016, as companies invested in the hardware, software, services and connectivity that enable the IOT; and with a CAGR of 15.6% expected over the 2015-2020 period, this figure will reach $1.29 trillion.

Last year, manufacturing, transportation, utilities and consumer IOT purchases were the largest contributors to the above figures. Meanwhile, cross-industry IOT investments, which represent use cases common to all industries - such as connected vehicles and smart buildings - will rank among the top segments throughout this forecast period.

The IOT will substantially change the mix of enterprise analytics and information management investments over the next 24 months to meet the scale, speed, flexibility and automation required to support sensor-based initiatives. It will bring together traditional business/administrative IT with industrial IT.

From information promulgated by Software AG at a recent press conference on IOT, it is apparent that more than 400 players are in this market. No vendor can deliver everything end-to-end, so no vendor is likely to dominate this space. Customers are building IOT frameworks that contain software from multiple suppliers, avoiding any vendor lock-in.

According to Software AG, and in the light of the above, the company intends to offer best-in-class IOT platform services and best-in-class consulting services to build IOT frameworks.

As confirmation of this strategy, look no further than some of the enterprises that have already embarked on this path, many with Software AG as one of their partners: BASF, Bosch, GE, Lexmark, Octo Telematics, Siemens and Zeiss.