Informa bags US rival

Samsung's disposal of its printer business, further sell-offs by HPE and Informa's US acquisition were the main stories of the international ICT market last week.

At home, MTN's launch of its new empowerment initiative was the main local ICT news story.

* Very good year-end figures from Alaris Holdings, with revenue up 28.8% and back in the black; and EOH, with revenue up 31.1% and profit up 34.5%.
* Negative trading updates from Cognition Holdings and Remgro.
* Multinational fintech supplier IRESS acquired INET BFA from Media24, for R149.6 million. The former supplies technology for financial markets, wealth management and the mortgage industry across markets, including SA.
* MTN launched its new empowerment initiative, Zakhele Futhi.
* One of SA's largest church groups, Shepherd Bushiri Ministries International, which claims to have about two million followers, is launching a mobile virtual network operator to offer congregants voice and data services.
* The retirement of Sir John Sherry, a founding member of Jasco.

Swatch has successfully opposed Apple's registration of the trademark iWatch in the UK.

* Accenture acquired France-based OCTO Technology, in a move intended to expand its digital capabilities in France.
* Amdocs bought three technology companies for $260 million: Brite:Bill, Pontis and Vindicia, in a move designed to enhance the former's digital offering.
* Capital Growth Management's founder, Ken Heebner, purchased NetEase, a Chinese Internet technology company.
* Concur, a SAP company, acquired Hipmunk, a leader in travel search innovation.
* Extreme Networks bought Zebra Technologies' wireless LAN business for $55 million.
* HP purchased Samsung's printer business for $1.05 billion.
* Informa, which owns Datamonitor and Ovum, acquired Penton Information Services, a rival American business, for £1.2 billion.
* Logitech International bought Mad Catz Interactive's Saitek brand and the Saitek line of flight and space simulation game controller assets.
* OpenText purchased Dell-EMC's Enterprise Content division, including Documentum, for $1.62 billion.
* Renesas Electronics acquired US chipmaker Intersil for $3.2 billion, in a deal that bolsters the Japanese group's efforts to refocus the company around automotive chips.
* Salesforce.com bought GravityBank, a consulting agency.
* SS&C purchased Wells Fargo's Global Fund Services business in a move that will expand the former's execution and order management capabilities.
* Skyview Capital acquired VMware's vRealize Business Enterprise and IT Benchmarking solutions units. The assets now owned by Skyview will form a new company under the name Digital Fuel SV, in which VMware will hold a minority stake.
* Verizon Communications bought Sensity Systems, a company that uses energy-efficient lighting as a foundation for its IOT platform for smart cities.
* Vodafone purchased Lebara Australia, an MVNO that specialises in low-cost international calls.
* Swiss watch maker Swatch has successfully opposed Apple's registration of the trademark iWatch in the UK.
* Five big holders of cellular patents, including Qualcomm, are joining an effort proposed by Ericsson to jointly license patents in an emerging field called the Internet of things. The patent holders announced they have become the initial patent contributors to Avanci, a company recently established to serve as a one-stop source to license rights to a broad set of patents covering wireless technology. The participants plan to share revenue from licensing deals.
* Telia Company is facing a fine of $1.4 billion from US and Dutch authorities for its past wrongdoings in Uzbekistan, which led to the dismissal of senior executives four years ago.
* Malaysia's Maxis Communications has signed a definitive agreement to merge its Indian mobile operator, Aircel, with Reliance Communications (RCom), to create a business with nearly 200 million customers and an 18.3% market share.
* An Apple iTunes unit in Japan was ordered to pay $118 million in tax by local authorities after underreporting income.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Oracle.
* Quarterly losses from Apigee (in the process of being bought by Alphabet).
* The appointment of Michael Castleman as interim CEO of CDI.
* The resignation of Scott Freidheim, CEO of CDI.
* The death of Robert Allen, who led AT&T from 1988 to 1997 during a tumultuous period of technological change.
* A planned IPO from Okta, an identity management start-up.

EMEA/Africa:
* EMEA server revenue in Q216 declined 5.6% year over year, while shipments shrank 2.3%, according to Gartner.

Worldwide:
* Worldwide server revenue in Q216 declined 0.8% year over year, while shipments grew 2%, with HPE still maintaining its lead over Dell, according to Gartner.
* The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network market segments increased 6.7% year over year in 2Q16 and increased 6.7% on a sequential basis, according to IDC.
* Total smartwatch shipments will reach 20.1 million units in 2016, an increase of 3.9% from the 19.4 million units shipped in 2015, according to IDC.
* Adobe, Facebook, Google, Marketo and Salesforce are considered the 'most cutting-edge marketing technology vendors', according to IDC.
* Total worldwide enterprise storage systems factory revenue remained flat year over year in Q216, at $8.8 billion, according to IDC. Total capacity shipments were up 12.9% year over year to 34.7 exabytes during the quarter.
* The worldwide Ethernet switch market (layer 2/3) recorded $5.97 billion in revenue in 2Q16, an increase of 3% year over year, according to IDC. Meanwhile, the worldwide total enterprise and service provider router market finished at $3.67 billion in revenue in 2Q16, declining 2% on a year-over-year basis.

* JSE All share index: Down 2.8%
* FTSE100: Down 0.9%
* DAX: Down 2.5%
* NYSE (Dow): Up 0.2%
* S&P 500: Up 0.5%
* Nasdaq: Up 2.3%
* Nikkei225: Down 2.6%
* Hang Seng: Down 3.2%
* Shanghai: Down 2.5%

International:
* Israeli mobile operator Golan Telecom, which is looking for a quick sale. It has attracted interest from two groups, one led by former Pelephone CEO Gil Sharon, and another that includes Hezi Bezalel, the owner of fixed-line telco 018 Xfone.
* Silicon Valley raiding British expertise in artificial intelligence again, with early-stage start-up weave.ai being the latest target of takeover talks by US technology groups.

South Africa:
* Further news regarding Prescient and Stella Capital Partners.

Forbes magazine recently published its 2016 list of America's largest private companies. The list includes:
* 4: Dell
* 5: PwC
* 6: Deloitte
* 11: Ernst & Young
* 45: World Wide Technology
* 51: Kingston Technology
* 80: Boston Consulting Group
* 103: Avaya
* 111: International Data Group (includes IDC)
* 139: SAS
* 150: Infor
* 195: Micro Electronics