EU rules for Ireland

The Apple/EU tax ruling dominated the international ICT market last week. At home, it was a quiet week.

* Satisfactory year-end figures from Metrofile, with revenue up 10.8% and profit up 6.4%.
* A positive trading update from EOH.
* Deloitte acquired South African youth-led innovation consultancy SpringAge, which will be integrated into the existing business of Deloitte Consulting. It will form part of the Deloitte Greenhouse Africa innovation hub in Johannesburg.
* Renewed JSE cautionaries by Blue Label Telecoms and Huge Group.
* The appointment of David Rozzio as HP's new MD in SA.

* PwC South Africa has entered into a joint business relationship with Google, with the aim of bringing new and innovative solutions to companies across Africa through PwC's Africa Network.
* Facebook's satellite intended to spread Internet access in Sub-Saharan Africa went up in smoke when SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blew up, destroying its satellite cargo.

BT is taking legal action against games platform Valve.

* Cisco Systems acquired ContainerX, a start-up that has developed a platform to manage software containers.
* Genesis bought Interactive Intelligence, a provider of cloud and on-premises solutions for customer engagement, communications and collaboration, in a move designed to create the world's premier omni-channel customer experience company. The deal was worth $1.4 billion.
* Insight Enterprises purchased Australia-based Ignia, a business technology consulting and managed services provider.
* Nutanix acquired PernixData, a software company that facilitates data storage, and Calm.io, a development and automation start-up.
* TerraPay, a mobile-first international network, bought UK-based Pay2Global.
* Verisk Analytics purchased the data and subscriptions business of Quest Offshore Resources, which supplies market intelligence to the offshore oil and gas sector.
* A MediaTek-led group of investors made a $300 million investment in Indian online payment and e-commerce firm Paytm.
* BT is taking legal action against games platform Valve, claiming it used its technologies without permission. The four patents concern computer and video game platforms, digital distribution services and personalised access to online services and content.
* Dell has changed its name to Dell Technologies.
* The European Union's anti-trust regulator has demanded that Ireland recoup roughly EUR13 billion in taxes from Apple after ruling that a deal with Dublin allowed the company to avoid almost all corporate tax across the entire bloc for more than a decade. This move could intensify a feud between the EU and the US over the bloc's tax probes into American companies. Apple said it would appeal the decision.
* TDK and Toshiba have agreed to establish a joint venture, TDK Automotive Technologies Corporation, which will engage in the development, manufacture and sales of automotive inverters for hybrid vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles.
* Very good quarterly figures from Salesforce.com (back in the black).
* Good quarterly numbers from Ciena.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Semtech.
* Satisfactory half-year figures from Iliad.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Ambarella and Methode Electronics.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Opera Software, with revenue up but profit down; ScanSource, with revenue up but profit down; and Veeva Systems, with revenue up but profit down.
* Quarterly losses from Avago Technologies, Box, Infoblox, Palo Alto Networks, Rocket Internet, SeaChange International and Verifone Systems.
* A full-year loss from BOE Technology.
* The appointments of James Cashman as chairman (was CEO) of Ansys (as of 1 January 2017); Ajei Gopal as CEO of Ansys (as of 1 January 2017); and Olivier Roussat as deputy CEO of Bouygues Group (also remains CEO and chairman of Bouygues Telecom).
* A planned IPO from Israeli technology company Shellanoo on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in late September or October.

EMEA/Africa:
* The MEA PC market experienced a 13.3% year-on-year decline in shipments in the second quarter of 2016 to total 2.9 million units, according to IDC.

Worldwide:
* Worldwide tablet shipments dropped 9.4% sequentially and 13.2% on year to reach only around 40 million units in Q216, according to Digitimes Research. This was due to overall weak demand for tablets; seasonality; dropping sales of WiFi-only tablets, tablets with phone functionality and two-in-one devices; and shortages for key components such as panels.
* Worldwide revenue for IT products and services will grow from nearly $2.4 trillion in 2016 to more than $2.7 trillion in 2020, according to IDC. This represents a CAGR of 3.3% for the 2015-2020 forecast period. Among the trends in the forecast is the positive momentum displayed in big industries like financial services and manufacturing, where companies continue to invest in third platform solutions (eg, cloud, mobility and big data) as part of their digital transformation efforts. The telecommunications industry is forecast to remain relatively sluggish, although spending levels are expected to gradually improve compared to the past several years. Combined, these four industries (banking, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, and telecommunications, which are also the industries with the largest IT expenditures) will generate nearly a third of worldwide IT revenue throughout the forecast.
* Worldwide PC shipments are forecast to decline by 7.2% year-over-year in 2016, followed by a decline of 2.1% in 2017, according to IDC.
* The decline of the worldwide tablet market is set to continue for the remainder of 2016 as year-over-year growth reaches an all-time low of -11.5% and shipments of 183.4 million units, according to IDC. Positive growth is set to return in 2018 and continue through 2020, with shipments reaching 194.2 million tablets as detachable tablets continue to steal share from traditional PCs.
* The rate of decline in the worldwide hardcopy peripherals market slowed in 2Q16, with shipments contracting 3.8% year-over-year to 23.1 million units, according to IDC. The improvement in the global market was largely driven by strong demand in the colour laser (21ppm+) and mono laser (21-30ppm) segments, with 18% and 8.9% year-over-year growth, respectively.
* Worldwide smartphone shipments are expected to reach 1.46 billion units, with a year-over-year growth rate of 1.6% in 2016, according to IDC.

* JSE All share index: Down 0.1%
* FTSE100: Up 0.8% (highest weekend close since May 2015)
* DAX: Up 1%
* NYSE (Dow): Up 0.5%
* S&P 500: Up 0.5%
* Nasdaq: Up 0.6% (highest-ever weekend close)
* Nikkei225: Up 3.5%
* Hang Seng: Up 1.6% (highest weekend close since August 2015)
* Shanghai: Down 0.1%

International:
* The closure of the Dell/EMC deal.
* Hewlett Packard Enterprise in talks with buyout firm Thoma Bravo, to sell its software division, hoping it can fetch between $8 billion and $10 billion.
* The outcome of the talks between Orange and Iran's MCI.

South Africa:
* Further developments regarding the Blue Label/Cell C deal.

Inc magazine has just published its latest list of the 5 000 fastest growing companies in America. Included in the top 50 are:
* 5: Company.com, a B2B social network that provides a collaboration platform, business services and access to new customers.
* 6: Globalization Partners, which offers a suite of services that minimises the cost and risk of global expansion by easing the challenges of hiring international employees and managing international payroll; it operates in more than 150 countries.
* 7: Bounce Exchange, which provides a platform that automates conversion rate optimisation and user acquisition and enables direct marketing by its clients in e-commerce, B2B, travel and publishing.
* 12: Planit Group, which provides management consulting, systems integration, ERP, enterprise architecture, communications and infrastructure services.
* 16: Persado, which has developed a cognitive content platform that generates language to inspire action and is used by clients that want to maximise their engagement with customers.
* 18: Exusia, a provider of analytics, machine learning, big data implementations and data integration services.
* 26: Cylance, a provider of advanced security services by applying artificial intelligence, algorithmic science and machine learning to cyber security.
* 38: HAYSTACKID, a provider of IT services, including digital forensics, investigation and electronic data discovery.
* 44: MacStadium, the largest Mac-centric hosting provider in the world.