Elon Musk makes it official

The finalisation of Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter dominated the international technology market this month.

At home, the activities of Naspers/Prosus stole the limelight.

• +OneX acquired EUCafrica, a South African Azure solutions provider.
• MRI Software, a real estate software solutions provider, bought TPN Group, a registered credit bureau serving the residential, commercial and education markets in SA.
• Altron will sell the ATM hardware and support business portion of its Altron Managed Solutions division to NCR (R183 million).
• Dynamic Recovery Services has rebranded as CYBER1 Solutions South Africa.
• Google has officially confirmed its intent to establish a new Google Cloud region in SA – its first on the continent.
• Prosus has scrapped an agreement to acquire India-based BillDesk for $4.7 billion.
• Striata South Africa is rebranding to Tilte, in line with its expanded offering.
• Prosus has agreed to sell its Russian online marketplace Avito to Kismet Capital Group (R45 billion).
• The appointments of new CEOs and MDs at Altron Systems Integration, First Distribution, Link Africa and Netstar.

• NetOne It, a Zambia-based IT solutions and services company, has launched Neo, which it has branded as the Southern African country’s first locally produced laptop. The company plans to construct a $12 million manufacturing facility to churn out 30 000 units per month.
• Safaricom Ethiopia has switched on its mobile telecommunications network and services in Addis Ababa.
• The appointment of Will McAllister as Guidewire’s EMEA MD.

• Accenture acquired Blackcomb Consultants, a leading independent Guidewire partner in North America.
• Alphawave IP Group, a global leader in high-speed connectivity for the world's technology infrastructure, bought Banias Labs, an Israel-based optical Digital Signal Processing chip developer for data centres ($240 million).
• Alarm.com purchased Noonlight, a next-generation connected safety and event management platform that enables new applications and provides enhanced emergency response capabilities.
• Amphenol acquired Integrated Cable Assembly Holdings, which manufactures a broad array of cable assemblies for a diversified range of applications.

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.6 trillion in 2023.

• Aspen Technology bought Inmation Software, a market leader in industrial real-time information management.
• Capgemini purchased Quorsus, a UK-based firm specialising in consultancy services to financial institutions in post-trade technologies, operations, regulatory solutions and market infrastructure. Capgemini also agreed to acquire Germany-based Braincourt, a specialist in business intelligence and data science services, and Quantmetry, an independent consulting firm specialising in mathematical data modelling and artificial intelligence technological solutions.
• Eaton acquired Tripp Lite, a supplier of power products and connectivity solutions.
• Endava bought Australia-based Lexicon Digital and Lexicon Consolidated Holdings, technology consulting, design and engineering firms that partner with clients to build new digital solutions or accelerate digital transformation programmes across enterprise systems, products and IOT using an agile delivery methodology.
• Fandom, an entertainment company, purchased the digital assets of TV Guide, reviews aggregator Metacritic and others from media company Red Ventures.
• Integris acquired Blue Jean Networks, an MSP, and Security7 Networks, a managed security services provider.
• Journey bought The Devhouse Agency, a software development studio specialising in AR, VR and gaming.
• Levine Leichtman Capital Partners purchased Agdata, a provider of workflow and data solutions serving the agribusiness and animal health sectors.
• Majesco, a global leader of cloud insurance software solutions for insurance business transformation, acquired Global IQX, a SaaS-based insurtech that delivers solutions for insurers to streamline, automate and transform the way they do business.
• Motorola Solutions bought Canada-based Futurecom Systems Group, a provider of radio coverage extension solutions for public safety agencies.
• South Korean-based Naver, an e-commerce company, purchased Poshmark, a fashion resale platform ($1 billion).
• NTT Data acquired Aspirent, a data analytics and advisory specialist.
• Paycor HCM bought Talenya, a cutting-edge, AI-driven recruiting platform that automatically sources quality talent faster and at a significantly lower cost.
• Peak Rock Capital purchased Spatial Business Systems, a provider of intelligent design software and spatial data integration solutions.
• Perficient acquired Ameex Technologies, a digital experience consultancy.
• Qualys bought the assets of Blue Hexagon, an AI/ML innovator of cloud threat detection and response solutions.
• Sage purchased Spherics, a carbon accounting solution firm.
• Softline acquired Value Point Systems, an Indian infrastructure and cyber security solutions provider.
• Sourcepass, an IT managed services provider, bought Infinity Computer Systems, a Microsoft Dynamics 365 expert firm.
• Spotify Technology SA purchased Kinzen, a firm that has helped it identify harmful content on the platform.
• Stratasys acquired Riven, a quality assurance software company.
• The 20 MSP bought Bolder Designs, Byte-Werx, JS Computek and WolfGuard IT, all MSPs.
• The Purple Guys purchased fellow MSP Golden Tech.
• VIAVI Solutions acquired Jackson Labs Technologies, a leader in position navigation and timing solutions for critical infrastructure serving both military and civilian applications.
• 11:11, a managed infrastructure solution provider, plans to acquire the recovery services business of Sungard Availability Services.
• Britain's competition regulator has ordered Facebook owner Meta to sell animated images platform Giphy, after its view that the acquisition reduced innovation in the advertising market was upheld by a tribunal.
• BV Investment Partners has sold RafterOne, a provider of multicloud commerce solutions on the Salesforce Platform, to The Interpublic Group of Companies.
• Cognyte Software will sell its Situational Intelligence Solutions business to the Volaris Group.
• Australia-based ELMO Software, a cloud-based software solutions business, has agreed a take-over by K1 Investment Management.
• Elon Musk has completed his takeover of Twitter.
• Empyrean Technology plans to acquire fellow China-based EDA software company XinDA Design Automation.
• Entel, a Chilean telecoms giant, will sell the assets of its fibre-optic business, which provides services to homes, to Chile-based ON*NET Fibra ($358 million).
• Francisco Partners has signed a definitive agreement to acquire bswift, a provider of benefits technology and services, and has invested in Acoustic, a global marketing and customer experience provider for B2C brands.
• A French court has substantially lowered a fine against Apple for alleged anti-competitive behaviour to €372 million from €1.1 billion previously.
• Himax Technologies has divested its wholly-owned subsidiary Emza Visual Sense, a company dedicated to the development of proprietary vision machine-learning algorithms, to Synaptics.
• IAC has agreed to sell its app-based Bluecrew business to EmployBridge, an industrial staffing company backed by Apollo Global Management.
• Infineum has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Entegris’s Pipeline and Industrial Materials business.
• Cyber security company Switzerland-based Infinigate Group is merging with Dubai-based cyber security and cloud firm Starlink to create a company with estimated annual revenue of about $2.2 billion.
• The Insignia Capital Group has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its majority interest in WillowTree to TELUS International ($1.225 billion).
• KKR will acquire 100% of Ness Digital Engineering, a global full life cycle digital services transformation company.
• L3Harris Technologies has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Viasat’s Tactical Data Links product line ($1.96 billion).
• Long Ridge Equity Partners has taken a majority stake in Acqueon, a customer engagement software company.
• Miko, a robotics start-up, has acquired a majority stake in Square Off, an AI-driven automated board games start-up.
• OpenGate Capital has sold its stake in intelligence automation specialist InRule Technology to Pamlico Capital.
• Orix Corporation, a diversified multinational financial group, plans to invest about $2 billion in Toshiba.
• Parlement Technologies, the parent company of social media app Parler, will be acquired by rapper Kanye West.
• Providence Equity Partners has entered exclusive talks to buy A2Mac1, a French automotive data firm (€1.4 billion).
• Quess, a business services provider, has sold its entire stake in Simpliance Technologies to Aparajitha Corporate Services, an HR compliance services company.
• RealPage has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Knock CRM, a provider of CRM and front office technology in the multifamily industry.
• Rosslyn Data Technologies has sold the trade and software assets of Langdon Systems, which specialises in bulk handling of supply chain data associated with import and export duty management systems, to Langdon Customs & Excise Solutions, a provider of duty management systems.
• ServiceNow has signed an agreement to acquire Era Software, an observability and log management innovator.
• SoftBank has offloaded its UK-based subsidiary Pelion, a connected gadgets business, to Scottish Equity Partners.
• Teledyne Technologies has entered into an agreement to acquire ETM-Electromatic, which designs and manufactures high-power microwave and high-energy X-ray subsystems for cancer radiotherapy, defence and X-ray security applications.
• The European Parliament has approved new rules that will introduce a single charging port for mobile phones, tablets and cameras by 2024 in the EU.
• Thoma Bravo will acquire ForgeRock, a global digital identity leader ($2.3 billion), and has invested in SMA Technologies, a leading provider of automation solutions for financial services.
• Thoma Bravo and Sunstone Partners have agreed to privatise UserTesting, a leader in video-based human insight ($1.3 billion).
• Tyler Technologies has signed a definitive agreement to buy Rapid Financial solutions, a payments solutions provider.
• UKCloud, a major supplier of services to the UK public sector, has been placed into compulsory liquidation.
• KnowBe4 has agreed to go private in a sweetened $4.6 billion deal with Vista Equity Partners.
• Vodafone Group and Altice are creating a joint venture (FibreCo) to deploy fibre-to-the-home in Germany.
• Vodafone has agreed to buy Nowo, MasMovil’s Portuguese unit.
• Yageo has entered into a binding commitment with Schneider Electric to acquire its Telemecanique Sensors business.
• The $250 million investment from existing investors, including Qatar Investment Authority, in India-based Byju, an edtech firm.
• The $100 million investment from existing investors, including Tencent Holdings, Sequoia Capital China and Lone Pine Capital, in Airwallex, an Australian fintech.
• The $155 million investment by an undisclosed investor in Mavenir.
• The investment by Columbia River Partners in TiniFiber Holdings, which manufactures fibre-optic and custom cables.
• The $410 million investment by KKR in NetSPI, a penetration testing and attack surface management firm.
• The investment (significant) by Starboard Value LP in Salesforce.
• The appointments of new CEOs at ADP, Axcient, BATM Advanced, Calix, Denali Advanced Integration, FIS, Five9, ManTech International, Melillo Consulting, Percona, Vertiv, Weave Communications and the combined Citrix-Tibco company, now revealed to be parent organisation of the Cloud Software Group.
• IPO filings from Global Digital Niaga, parent of Indonesian e-commerce company Blibli (Indonesia) and Kaynes Technology India (India).
• IPOs/listings from Beamr Imaging (Nasdaq), Castellum (NYSE), Mobileye (Nasdaq), Socionext (Japan), Transwarp (China’s Nasdaq-like STAR market) and VSO Electronics (Taiwan).

• According to Gartner, worldwide PC shipments totalled 68 million units in the third quarter of 2022, a 19.5% decrease from the third quarter of 2021.
• According to Gartner, worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.6 trillion in 2023, an increase of 5.1% from 2022.
• According to IDC, worldwide shipments of foldable phones, including flip and fold form factors, is to reach 13 million units in 2022. This represents an increase of 66.6% over the 8.1 million units shipped in 2021 and an updated forecast projects that foldable phone shipments will reach 41.5 million units in 2026, with a CAGR of 38.7% from 2022 to 2026.
• According to IDC, global shipments of traditional PCs totalled 74.3 million units during 3Q22.

• JSE All share index: Up 4.2%
• FTSE100: Up 2.2%
• DAX: Up 9.3%
• NYSE (Dow): Up 14.4%
• S&P 500: Up 8.8%
• Nasdaq: Up 5.8%
• Nikkei225: Up 4.5%
• Hang Seng: Down 13.7%
• Shanghai: Down 3.6%

Fortune magazine has published its latest ‘Most Powerful Women’ rankings. Included are:

• 2: Julia Sweet, CEO of Accenture
• 12: Ruth Porat, SVP and CFO of Alphabet and Google
• 15: Amy Hood, EVP and CFO of Microsoft
• 19: Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle
• 20: Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube
• 21: Lisa Su, chairperson and CEO of AMD
• 30: Deidre O’Brien, SVP, Retail and People at Apple