Ex-Nokia CEO leaves MS

Stephen Elop's departure from Microsoft was the main international ICT market story last week.

At home, ICASA's backing for the Vodacom/Neotel merger stole the local ICT media coverage.

* A positive trading update from Naspers.
* Novatel Wireless acquired DigiCore Holdings for R1.1 billion.
* Wise Tech Global (Australia) invested in CompuClearing, raising its stake to 23.5%.
* Ellies announced a R200 million rights offer.
* ICASA has approved the Vodacom/Neotel merger, subject to certain conditions that have yet to be announced.
* A new JSE cautionary by CompuClearing.
* Withdrawn JSE cautionaries by Digicore and Ellies.
* The appointment of Jaresh Maharaj as CEO of Indra Technology SA.

* The appointment of Angelina Vere as CEO of Telecel Zimbabwe.
* An oversubscribed IPO by Crystal Telecom in Rwanda.

ICASA has approved the Vodacom/Neotel merger.

* CA Technologies acquired Grid Tools, a provider of enterprise test data management, automated test design and optimisation software solutions.
* CA Technologies bought Rally Software Development, a provider of agile development software and services.
* Comverse purchased Acision, a UK-based messaging platform, for $170 million.
* Intel acquired Recon Instruments, a Vancouver, Canada-based maker of heads-up displays.
* Sophos bought Reflexion Networks, a provider of cloud-based e-mail security, archiving, e-mail encryption and business continuity services.
* Twitter purchased Whetlab, a machine-learning start-up.
* Vista Equity Partners acquired Powerschool, a back-office software provider to schools, for $350 million.
* Apple lost a lawsuit in Taiwan, in which it was accused of engaging in anti-competitive practices. It will be fined T$20 million ($647 000).
* Belgium's privacy watchdog has begun legal proceedings against Facebook for breach of that country's privacy laws.
* eBay has sold its 28.4% stake in Craigslist back to the company and has agreed to a settlement regarding its outstanding litigation.
* Softbank is forming a robotics venture with Alibaba and Foxconn.
* Good quarterly numbers from Red Hat.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Adobe and Finisar.
* Mediocre quarterly results from Oracle.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Jabil Circuit, with revenue up but profit down.
* The appointment of Hannes Ametsreiter as CEO of Vodafone Germany.
* The resignations of Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of Telekom Austria, and Stephen Elop, ex-CEO of Nokia (which was sold to Microsoft a year ago).
* Ralph Roberts, founder of Comcast, has died.
* An IPO filing for Nasdaq from Innolight Technology Group, an infrastructure enabler of cloud data centre networks.
* A good IPO in Italy by Infrastructture Wireless Italiane (Telecom Italia's towers business).
* An excellent IPO on the NYSE by Fitbit.
* A satisfactory IPO in Taiwan by General Interface Solution, a Taiwanese maker of integrated touch display solutions.

EMEA/Africa:
* The EMEA thin client market faced a severe contraction in Q1 2015, according to IDC. Shipments declined 10.2% year-on-year, and resulted in only 438 000 units being shipped.

Worldwide:
* Worldwide shipments of hybrid devices are on pace to reach 21.5 million units in 2015, an increase of 70% from 2014, according to Gartner. Hybrid devices will account for 12% of total sales of mobile PCs in 2015, rising to 26% in 2019. Of the 21.5 million hybrid devices shipped in 2015, eight million will be ultra-mobile tablets (two-in-one tablets) and 13.5 million hybrid ultra-mobiles (two-in-one detachable and convertible ultra-mobiles). This will make hybrid ultra-mobiles the fastest growing segment of the mobile PC market, with 77% year-on-year growth.
* According to IDC, 72.1 million wearable devices will be shipped in 2015, up a strong 173.3% from the 26.4 million units shipped in 2014. Shipment volumes are expected to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.6% over the five-year forecast period, reaching 155.7 million units shipped in 2019.
* Worldwide purpose-built backup appliance factory revenue grew 6.9% year-over-year, totalling $719.3 million in the first quarter of 2015, according to IDC.
* There will be nearly 1.37 billion 4G LTE subscribers worldwide by year-end 2015, up from nearly 650 million in 2014, according to ABI Research. It forecasts the LTE subscriber base will exceed 3.5 billion by 2020, demonstrating a five-year CAGR of 20.8%.

* JSE All share index: Down 0.1%
* Nasdaq: Up 1.3% (highest-ever weekend close)
* NYSE (Dow): Up 0.7%
* S&P 500: Up 0.8%
* FTSE100: Down 1.1%
* Nikkei225: Down 1.2%
* Hang Seng: Down 1.9%
* Shanghai: Down 13.3%
* Top SA share movements: Alaris (-9.8%), Altron-N (-7.5%), CompuClearing (+9.6%), Digicore (+12.3%), Ellies (+18.5%), Labat Africa (-7.3%), Prescient (-7.3%) and Telkom SA (-8.4%)

International:
* A buyout of NCR by a group of private equity investors.
* A merger of Reliance Communications and Sistema's Indian operations.
* The possible management buyout of Qihoo 360 for $9 billion, in a move that would take the company private.
* The outcome of a £569 million offer by Fidelity for the shares of Colt Telecom it does not already own.

South Africa:
* Further developments regarding the two local major telecoms mergers.

The latest Forbes Global 2000, a comprehensive list of the world's largest, most powerful public companies, as measured by revenue, profit, assets and market value, has been published. Last week, I showed the technology entries in the top 100.

Other major technology movements include:

* 196: Orange (down from 144)
* 269: Alibaba (new entrant)
* 280: Facebook (up from 510)
* 304: Tencent Holdings (up from 426)
* 347: Nokia (was 631)
* 395: MTN (was 378)
* 447: Lenovo (was 566)
* 467: Yahoo (was 715)
* 478: Sony (was 233)
* 421: Xerox (was 456)
* 546: Baidu (was 723)
* 637: Cognizant Technology (was 772)
* 691: Naspers (was 857)
* 869: ZTE (was 1 219)
* 898: JD.Com (new entrant)
* 940: Altice (new entrant)
* 1 195: Electronic Arts (new entrant)
* 1 329: Lam Research (new entrant)
* 1 357: Skyworks Solutions (new entrant)
* 1 363: CSC (was 896)
* 1 512: Idea Cellular (new entrant)
* 1 583: United Internet (new entrant)
* 1 717: MTNL (new entrant)
* 1 729: Tech Mahindra (new entrant)
* 1 762: Nanya Technologies (new entrant)
* 1 922: SBA Communications (new entrant)
* 1 951: Freescale Semiconductor (new entrant)