Google under investigation

A handful of smallish acquisitions, including ones by Acer, CA and AOL, were the highlights of the international ICT market last week.

At home, Telkom's spin-off announcement, and the merger of CyberLogic and Space Age Technologies were the main local stories.

* Good year-end figures from Mustek, with revenue up 11.5% and profit up 28.7%.
* CyberLogic acquired a 70% stake in Space Age Technologies, in a move that merges the largest and second-largest SME-focused IT service companies based in the Western Cape.
* Telkom plans to spin off its large wholesale services division as a separate business with its own brand identity.

* The Zambian government will establish the first computer assembly plant in the country, which will be operational by 2017.
* The appointments of 'Eric Bouquillon as CEO of Orange Guinea; Alassane Diene as CEO of Orange Mali; and Thierry Marigny as deputy CEO of Sonatel (Senegal).

The MEA PC market suffered a sharp year-on-year decline of 25.6% in Q2 2015, marking it as the steepest decline ever recorded in the region for a single quarter.

* Acer acquired bicycle GPS vendor Xplova, with the intention of integrating the vendor's GPS technologies, bicycle routes and maps into its Build Your Own Cloud platform.
* AsiaInfo Technologies bought Trend Micro China's business, including the licensing of product and technology rights within the China market. The acquisition represents AsiaInfo's commitment to emerge as the industry leader in big data and cloud security to help make the digital exchange of information more secure, reliable and intelligent for Chinese customers.
* Asseco Poland, Eastern Europe's largest software maker, purchased 61.4% of Portugal-based rival Exictos, strengthening its position in Africa, where it has a strong presence in Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Namibia. The deal was worth EUR21.5 million.
* BlackBerry acquired Good Technology, a rival mobile software provider, for $425 million.
* CA Technologies bought Xceedium, a provider of privileged identity management solutions that protect on-premises, cloud and hybrid IT environments.
* The Carlyle Group purchased the Innovation Group, a UK-based insurance claims technology company, for £500 million.
* Diodes, a global manufacturer and supplier of application-specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analogue semiconductor markets, acquired Pericom Semiconductor, a worldwide supplier of high-performance connectivity and timing solutions, for $400 million.
* The EET Group bought Barex Distribution, a distributor of AIDC solutions (automatic identification and data capture).
* Investment firm Pleasant Lake Partners purchased MagnaChip Semiconductor, an analogue chipmaker, for $346 million.
* Verizon Communications (AOL) acquired Millennial Media, a mobile advertising company, for $250 million.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Verifone (back in the black).
* Mixed quarterly figures from Ciena, with revenue down but profit up.
* Quarterly losses from Infoblox, SeaChange International and Verint Systems.
* The appointment of J'er^ome H'enique as CEO of Jordan Telecom.

EMEA/Africa:
* The MEA PC market suffered a sharp year-on-year decline of 25.6% in Q2 2015, marking it as the steepest decline ever recorded in the region for a single quarter. The latest market insights show overall PC shipments for the quarter fell to 3.3 million units, with desktops down 21.2% year-on-year to 1.4 million units, while the notebook segment declined 28.6% to 1.9 million units.

Worldwide:
* According to GfK, 58% of smartphones sold in Q2 2015 were 4G-enabled, and with a major operator launching 4G services in India at the start of this month, 4G is now available in all key countries. It forecasts 4G smartphone penetration to continue to grow at the expense of 3G, which is currently at 38% of smartphone units, and is forecast to decline by another percentage point by Q4 2015.

* JSE All share index: Down 1.7% (lowest weekend close this year)
* Nasdaq: Down 3%
* NYSE (Dow): Down 3.2% (lowest weekend close this year)
* S&P 500: Down 3.4% (lowest weekend close this year)
* FTSE100: Down 3.3% (lowest weekend close this year)
* Nikkei225: Down 7%
* Hang Seng: Down 3.6% (lowest weekend close this year)
* Shanghai: Down 2.2%
* Top SA share movements: Ansys (+12.9%), Datacentrix (+8.6%), Huge Group (+8.1%), Stella Capital Partners (-8.1%) and Telkom SA (-6.4%)

International:
* A sell-off by HP of its TippingPoint unit.
* The investigation by Indian authorities into possible market abuse by Google.

South Africa:
* The de-listing of CompuClearing and the dates for the de-listing of Digicore.

The Sunday Times has published its Top Brands 2015 results. From a technology perspective, the following are of note in the business categories:
* Cellphones: Nokia at number one and Samsung at number two.
* Tablets and e-readers: Apple's iPad at number one and Samsung Galaxy at number two.
* Telecoms providers: Vodacom at number one and MTN at number two.

In the consumer categories, the results are as follows:
* Cellphones: Nokia at number one and Samsung at number two.
* Electronic goods: Samsung at number one and LG at number two.
* Social networks: Facebook at number one and Google at number two.
* Telecoms providers: Vodacom at number one and MTN at number two.