Informatica goes private

The privatisation of Informatica, and another healthcare acquisition by IBM were the main happenings of the international ICT market last week.

At home, the Competition Tribunal's approval of the Telkom/BCX deal and the interim results from MTN were the main local ICT stories.

* Satisfactory Q1 figures from MiX Telematics, with revenue up 7.8% and profit up 93.5%.
* Mediocre interim numbers from MTN, with revenue down 4.7% and profit down 11.2%.
* A positive trading update from Blue Label Telecoms.
* Stellar Capital Partners will sell its stake in Digicore to Novatel Wireless as part of the sell-off of Digicore to Novatel Wireless.
* The Competition Tribunal has given the nod of approval for the Telkom/Business Connexion deal, subject to a few conditions. The deal is expected to close by the end of August.
* The appointment of Wayne Clarke as MD of Metrofile.
* The suspension of Rosey Sekese, DG of the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services.

* Hitachi Data Systems and Mitsumi Distributors announced a strategic partnership in East and West Africa.
* Umaru Garba Danbatta was appointed as the new executive vice-chairman and chief executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission. He takes over from Dr Eugene Juwah, whose tenure expired on 29 July.
* The appointment of Ian Ferrao as MD of Vodacom Tanzania.

The Competition Tribunal has given the nod of approval for the Telkom/Business Connexion deal.

* Adidas acquired Runtastic, a fitness tracking app maker.
* Avanade, a global business technology solutions, cloud and managed services provider, bought CloudTalent, a UK-based strategic cloud advisory business.
* Battery Ventures purchased Nice Systems' video surveillance technologies unit for $100 million.
* CDI acquired ScaleneWorks People Solutions, a privately held emerging leader in talent acquisition solutions in India.
* Ericsson bought Guatemala-based systems integrator Icon Americas, strengthening its presence in Latin America.
* German carmakers BMW, Audi and Mercedes purchased Nokia's maps business for EUR2.5 billion.
* IBM acquired Merge Healthcare, a medical imaging company, for $1 billion.
* Zebra Technologies Corporation bought mobile consulting and software development firm, ITR Mobility, and its mobile platform, iFactr.
* Silver Lake Partners made a $1 billion investment in Motorola Solutions.
* A US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has cut Marvell's award significantly, affirming only $278 million in damages and ordering a re-trial over other damage issues regarding its case with Carnegie Mellon University. The previous figure was $1.17 billion.
* Microsoft and Salesforce.com have joined Permira Advisors, a private equity company, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in a $5.3 billion deal to take Informatica private.
* VimpelCom and Hutchison Whampoa are to merge their Italian mobile businesses.
* Excellent quarterly results from Cognex and Engility Holdings.
* Very good quarterly figures from IDT and Rudolph Technologies (back in the black).
* Good quarterly numbers from Alarm.com, AMC Networks, Arista Networks, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Deutsche Telekom, Fitbit, Ixia (back in the black), j2 Global, MDC Partners and Qualys.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Avnet, GCI, Genpact, Groupon (back in the black), Inovalon, Microchip Technology, Sabre (back in the black), Softbank, Software AG, Tower Semiconductor (but back in the black), ViaSat and Vishay Intertechnology.
* Mediocre quarterly results from CenturyLink, Diodes, ePlus, Himax Technologies, Kulicke & Soffa, Liberty Global, Motorola Solutions and Newport.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Ansys, with revenue up but profit down; AVG Technologies, with revenue up but profit down; Brooks Automation, with revenue up but profit down; Cablevision Systems, with revenue up but profit down; Convergys, with revenue down but profit up; Nvidia, with revenue up but profit down; Sykes Enterprises, with revenue down but profit up; and TeleTech Holdings, with revenue up but profit down.
* Very poor quarterly figures from Acer.
* Quarterly losses from 3D Systems, Acxiom, CDI, Charter Communications, Checkpoint Systems, EarthLink Holdings, Epiq Systems, Extreme Networks, GoDaddy, Harris, Hortonworks, HTC, Imperva, Interactive Intelligence, JD.com, Kratos Defense & Security Systems, Limelight Networks, NII Holdings, Novatel Wireless, Nuance Communications, RealNetworks, SGI, Sprint, SunEdison Semiconductor, Systemax, Teradata, Varonis, Windstream and Zynga.
* The appointment of Michael Evans as president of Alibaba.
* A planned IPO from Tintri, a company that provides enterprise storage for virtualised work environments and one that raised $125 million in its last round of funding.

EMEA/Africa:
* The Internet of things (IOT) market in the CEMA region is expected to expand 22% in 2015 year-on-year, reaching $14 billion, according to IDC. The first-of-its-kind IOT forecast focuses on 25 of the fastest growing IOT use cases in 11 vertical industries, including manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, government, utilities, retail, and consumer, while also sizing IOT opportunities across the technology stack.
* Cloud spending on enterprise infrastructure in the CEMA region declined by 7% in the first quarter of 2015, in contrast to 24% year-on-year growth in 2014, according to IDC.

Worldwide:
* Global tablet shipments are expected to decline 15% on year to reach 51.88 million units in Q3, as the mobile device market continues to see weak demand despite vendors' inventory preparation for the year-end holidays, the launch of Windows 10 and growth in the 4G services market, according to Digitimes Research.
* Worldwide chip sales totalled $84 billion for the second quarter, a 2% increase from the year-earlier period and a 1% increase from the previous quarter, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.
* Global smartphone shipments grew just 15% annually to reach 340 million units in the second quarter of 2015, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics.

* JSE All share index: Down 0.1%
* Nasdaq: Down 1.7%
* NYSE (Dow): Down 1.8%
* S&P 500: Down 1.2%
* FTSE100: Up 0.3%
* Nikkei225: Up 0.7%
* Hang Seng: Down 0.3%
* Shanghai: Up 2.2%
* Top SA share movements: AEEI (+6.1%), Amecor (+6.4%), Datatec (+7.8%), Ellies (-7.7%), ISA (-6.7%), Labat Africa (+8.4%), Silverbridge Holdings (-19.9%), Stella Capital Partners (+18.7%) and Telkom SA (+7.5%)

Look out for:

International:
* The acquisition by Tencent Holdings of the shares of Chinese travel company eLong it doesn't already own.
* The possible acquisition by VMware of EMC.

South Africa:
* Further news regarding the Telkom/BCX and the Vodacom/Neotel deals.
* Further news regarding the alleged bribery claims involving Neotel's senior executives.

Fortune magazine has published its Global 500 list. The following are further observations from a technology perspective:

* New entrants:
* 423: Compal Electronics
* 472: TMSC
* 487: EMC

* Largest moves (up):
* 110: Softbank (was 135)
* 124: Google (was 162)
* 228: Huawei (was 285)
* 230: Ingram Micro (was 256)
* 231: Lenovo (was 286)
* 374: Accenture (was 404)
* 430: Avnet (was 474)
* 448: Qualcomm (was 480)

* Largest moves (down):
* 131: Panasonic (was 106)
* 140: Telefonica (was 109)
* 251: Fujitsu (was 222)
* 334: Canon (was 292)
* 359: Telecom Italia (was 319)
* 363: Ericsson (was 335)
* 444: NEC (was 405)
* 470: Sharp (was 417)
* 481: Telstra (was 453)