Didi, Uber merge in China

The Didi/Uber merger in China dominated the international ICT market last week.

At home, MTN's half-year results dominated the local ICT market.

Also, 6 August was the 25th anniversary of the date the World Wide Web was made publicly available.

* Satisfactory Q1 numbers from MiX Telematics, with revenue up 10.1% and profit up 2.6%.
* A half-year loss from MTN Group, although revenue up 14%.
* Pinnacle has concluded its broad-based black economic empowerment transaction.
* Megatron, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ellies, has been placed in business rescue.
* A renewed JSE cautionary by ISA.

* The appointment of Vivek Badrinath as Vodafone's chief executive for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

A federal judge has thrown out a verdict requiring Apple to pay VirnetX $625.6 million.

* Apple acquired Turi, an AI start-up, for $200 million.
* Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing firm, bought Uber's Chinese unit. The deal will give Uber a 20% stake and create a combined entity valued at about $35 billion.
* Kyocera purchased Melles Griot, a Japan-based manufacturer specialising in optical components and currently a subsidiary of US-based Idex Corporation. The move is designed to further expand Kyocera's optical components business.
* Salesforce.com acquired Quip, a maker of productivity software, for $582 million.
* Chinese investors, led by Shanghai Giant Network Technology Company, bought Caesars Entertainment's online casino-style games unit, Playtika, for $4.4 billion.
* Trimble purchased Axio-Net, a prominent provider of Global Navigation Satellite System corrections and professional data services serving Germany, the UK and Benelux.
* Verizon Communications acquired Fleetmatics, a GPS vehicle tracking firm, for $2.4 billion.
* Skyworks Solutions made a $76.5 million (34%) additional investment in the filter joint venture it created with Panasonic in 2014, giving it 100% ownership.
* Time Warner made a 10% investment in Hulu, a video streaming service.
* A federal judge has thrown out a verdict requiring Apple to pay VirnetX $625.6 million for infringing four patents relating to Internet security technology.
* The US State of Washington has filed a lawsuit against cable television and Internet giant Comcast for up to $3.7 billion, alleging it violated consumer rights over 1.8 million times.
* GlaxoSmithKline has established a new joint venture with Verily, once Google Life Sciences, with the hope of creating the first generation of bioelectronic medicines for chronic diseases.
* MTS (Russia) has sold its 50.01% stake in the Universal Mobile Systems to the State Unitary Enterprise Centre of Radio Communication, Radio Broadcasting and Television of The Ministry of Development of Information Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan, ending its joint venture with that company.
* Excellent quarterly results from Paycom Software and Silver Spring Networks (back in the black).
* Very good quarterly figures from Arista Networks, Kulicke & Soffa Industries, MediaTek, Mercury Systems, Oclaro (back in the black) and Radcom.
* Good quarterly numbers from Avid (back in the black), EPAM Systems, FormFactor, Harris (back in the black), Sabre, Ubiquiti Networks and Verisk Analytics.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Acxiom (back in the black), Ansys, Arrow Electronics, BCE, Cable One, CDK Global, CDW, Cogent Communications, ePlus, First Data (back in the black), Fiserv, Genpact, Infineon AG, Insight Enterprises, Liberty Media, Orbotech, Pegasystems, Qualys, Telus, Trimble, Windstream (back in the black) and XO Group.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Axcelis Technologies, EA, Hutchison Telecom HK, Innodisk, Internet Initiative Japan, Ixia, Pitney Bowes, Seagate, Super Micro Computer, Teledyne Technologies, TeleTech Holdings and Teradata (back in the black).
* Mixed quarterly figures from Activision, with revenue up but profit down; AMC Networks, with revenue up but profit down; Amkor Technology, with revenue up but profit down; Applied Optoelectronics, with revenue up but profit down; ASE, with revenue down but profit up; CenturyLink, with revenue down but profit up; Cincinnati Bell, with revenue up but profit down; Cognex, with revenue up but profit down; Cognizant Technology Solutions, with revenue up but profit down; CPSI, with revenue up but profit down; CSG Systems International, with revenue up but profit down; Equinix, with revenue up but profit down; Exar, with revenue down but back in the black; Fitbit, with revenue up but profit down; Gartner, with revenue up but profit down; GCI, with revenue down but back in the black; IDT, with revenue up but profit down; Inovalon, with revenue up but profit down; InterDigital, with revenue down but profit up; Iron Mountain, with revenue up but profit down; j2 Global, with revenue up but profit down; Liberty Global, with revenue up but profit down; Motorola Solutions, with revenue up but profit down; Plantronics, with revenue up but profit down; Sykes Enterprises, with revenue up but profit down; Symantec, with revenue down but profit up; Tessera Technologies, with revenue up but profit down; Tower Semiconductor, with revenue up but profit down; and Vishay Intertechnology, with revenue down but profit up.
* Mixed half-year figures from VimpelCom, with revenue down but profit up; and Zain Group, with revenue down but profit up.
* Very poor quarterly figures from Alaska Communications, Engility and Vonage.
* Quarterly losses from 3D Systems, Aerohive Networks, Allot Communications, Amtech Systems, Atlassian, Black Box, Callidus Software, CDI, Ciber, Cray, ESI, Extreme Networks, FireEye, Frontier Communications, GoDaddy, Glu Mobile, Guidance Software, Hortonworks, HTC, Imperva, Interactive Intelligence, Jive Software, Kratos, LifeLock, LinkedIn, Mitel Networks, Nokia, Novatel Wireless, O2Micro International, PC-Tel, Qorvo, RealNetworks, Shenandoah Telecommunications, Sierra Wireless, Sohu.com, Square, Stratasys, SunEdison Semiconductor, Synchronoss Technologies, Systemax, Tableau Software, Take Two Interactive, Top Image Systems, TPK Holding, Web.com and Zynga.
* The appointments of Jason Chen as chairman of Acer (in 2017); and Ronan Dunne as president of Verizon Wireless.
* The retirements of Ken Kannappan, CEO of Plantronics.
* The departure of George Huang, chairman of Acer (in 2017).

South Africa:
* South African IT spending is forecast to total R272 billion in 2016, a 3.8% increase from 2015, according to Gartner. Software spending is on pace to exhibit its highest ever year-on-year growth in 2016, at 11.4%.

Worldwide:
* Worldwide tablet shipments, inclusive of slates and detachables, reached 38.7 million in 2Q16, according to IDC. Growth continues to decline, with the market receding 12.3% year-over-year, as vendors begin to refocus their product lines and consumers hold off on purchases.
* According to Machina's research, the number of Internet of things (IOT) connections in the world and associated revenue will grow fourfold between 2015 and 2025. Global IOT connections will reach 27 billion in 2025, up from six billion last year. Over the same period, the IOT revenue opportunity will grow to US$3 trillion from $750 billion, with $1.3 trillion of the total coming directly from end-users via devices, connectivity and application revenue. The remainder will come from upstream and downstream sources, including application development, systems integration, hosting and data monetisation.

* JSE All share index: Down 0.9%
* FTSE100: Up 1% (highest weekend close this year)
* DAX: Up 0.3% (highest weekend close this year)
* NYSE (Dow): Up 0.6% (highest weekend close)
* S&P 500: Up 0.4% (highest weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Up 1.1% (highest weekend close)
* Nikkei225: Down 1.9%
* Hang Seng: Up 1.2% (highest weekend close this year)
* Shanghai: Down 0.1%

International:
* IBM acquiring Revel Systems in a bid to grow its retail sector reach.
* A private equity group buying Rackspace Hosting.

South Africa:
* More news regarding the discussions between Stella Capital Partners and Prescient.

Fortune magazine has published its Global 500 list. The following are further observations from a technology perspective:

New entrants:
* 366: JD.com
* 408: China Electronics Technology Group
* 455: Arrow Electronics (a returnee)
* 462: SAP

Largest moves (up)
* 63: Microsoft (up from 95)
* 94: Alphabet (up from 124)
* 132: China Telecom (up from 160)
* 183: Cisco (up from 225)
* 202: Lenovo (up from 231)
* 260: Oracle (up from 300)
* 312: Accenture (up from 374)
* 326: Quanta Computer (up from 389)
* 369: BT Group (up from 411)
* 380: Avnet (up from 430)
* 403: TSMC (up from 472)
* 429: LG Display (up from 473)
* 436: EMC (up from 487)

Largest moves (down)
* 404: Telecom Italia (was 359)
* 408: China Electronics (was 355)

Demoted from the '500':
* Sharp (was 470)

There will be no column next week as I will be travelling, but the column scheduled for 22 August will cover the intervening two-week period.