Intuit on the hunt for good karma

The departure of Salesforce’s co-CEO and Intuit’s acquisition dominated the international ICT market last week.

At home, Datatec’s latest acquisition and positive financial news from Blue Label were the main local stories.

• Satisfactory interim figures from Blue Label Telecoms, with revenue up 1.9% and back in the black.
• Mixed interim numbers from Adapt IT, with revenue up 9.8% but profit down 41.8%; and Mustek, with revenue up 11.3% but profit down 6.1%.
• Good year-end revenue figures from StorEx.
• Positive trading updates from Alaris Holdings and Blue Label Telecoms.
• Epsidon Technology Distribution acquired Core Networks, a specialised value-added network and cyber security distributor.
• Datatec subsidiary Analysys Mason has agreed to acquire Allolio & Konrad, a German company with an extensive track record in the telecommunications industry and long-term client relationships with Europe’s leading telecoms operators.
• Sebata has entered into a sale of shares agreement and a donation agreement with Inzalo Capital Holdings for 55% of the Software Group Companies, ie, Sebata Municipal Solutions, R-Data and MICROmega Accounting and Professional Services, for R501.9 million.
• The appointment of Warren Mande as MD of Altron Arrow.

Good year-end figures from MTN Ghana, with revenue up 22.8% and EBITDA up 65.7%.

The legal battle between mobile operator Inwi and national operator Maroc Telecom has ended.

The appointments of Sylvain Cazard as VMware’s VP, central EMEA; Luigi Freguia as VMware’s GM and SVP, EMEA; and Xavier Heiss as EVP and president of Xerox’s EMEA operations.

• Accenture acquired AlphaBeta Advisors, a privately held Australian consultancy that combines business strategy, data analytics and econometrics to advise leading organisations on how to respond to profound technological, economic and social change.
• Alibaba Group bought Keruyun, a Chinese intelligent catering management solutions provider.
• Descartes Systems Group purchased Peoplevox, a provider of cloud-based e-commerce warehouse management solutions.
• Comcast acquired Xumo, a free advertising-supported streaming service.
• Facebook bought development studio Sanzaru Games to join the Oculus gaming group inside its virtual reality division.

Look out for more news regarding spectrum allocation.

• Freshworks purchased AnsweriQ, a provider of machine learning and artificial intelligence for large enterprises.
• Qorvo acquired Custom MMIC, a supplier of high-performance monolithic microwave integrated circuits for defence, aerospace and commercial applications; and Ireland-based Decawave, a pioneer in ultra-wideband (UWB) technology and provider of UWB solutions for mobile, automotive and IOT applications.
• Snap bought some pieces of the defunct augmented reality start-up Daqri.
• Tetra Tech purchased Segue Technologies, an IT management consulting firm.
• Vyne, a provider of healthcare management software, acquired Renaissance Electronic Services, a provider of billing management software for the dental industry.
• Adaptas Solutions has signed a definitive agreement to acquire L3Harris's Applied Kilovolts and Analytical Instrumentation business.
• Cornerstone OnDemand was looking to acquire Saba, another player in the HR/HCM space, for $1.4 billion.
• DocuSign has agreed to acquire Seal Software, a contract analytics and AI technology provider, in a deal valued at $188 million.
• Intuit has agreed to buy personal finance site Credit Karma in a deal valued at $7.1 billion.
• Salesforce.com has agreed to purchase Vlocity, a developer of cloud-based CRM apps for specific industries, for $1.33 billion.
• Searchlight Capital Partners and ForgeLight will buy a 64% stake in Univision, with Grupo Televisa retaining a 36% interest in the broadcaster.
• TA Associates has agreed to acquire AffiniPay, a payments company.
• Tech Mahindra has agreed to purchase Zen3 Infosolutions (America), a provider of AI, machine learning and cloud solutions.
• Xperi has received an unsolicited, non-binding buyout proposal from Metis Ventures for $1.16 billion, months after announcing it would merge with set-top box maker TiVo.
• Sverica Capital Management invested in Cytracom, a creator of unified communications software for managed service providers.
• BlackRock led a $250 million investment in SambaNova Systems, an AI computing firm.
• The US Supreme Court refused to hear Apple's bid to avoid paying about $440 million in damages for using patent licensing firm VirnetX's Internet security technology without permission in features such as FaceTime video calling.
  
• Excellent quarterly results from Opera.
• Very good quarterly figures from Alarm.com, Appen and Tactile Systems Technology.
• Good quarterly numbers from Autodesk, Cable One, Intuit, Millicom (back in the black), NeoPhotonics (back in the black), Perficient, RealPage, Sapiens International, Square (back in the black), SUSE and Switch.
• Good year-end numbers from Cellnex and Globaldata (back in the black).
• Satisfactory quarterly results from Ansys, Baidu, Cogent Communications, CoreLogic, Cornerstone OnDemand (back in the black), Crown Castle International, CTG (back in the black), Dell (back in the black), Discovery Communications, ICF, Interface, Keysight Technologies, NetEase, SailPoint Technologies and Sykes Enterprises.
• Satisfactory year-end figures from Avast.
• Mediocre quarterly results from GCP Applied Technologies, HP, Shenandoah Telecommunications and Weibo.
• Mediocre year-end numbers from Synectics.
• Mixed quarterly figures from CRA International, Itron, Kratos, Sabre and Systemax, with revenue up but net income down; and from American Tower, ARC Document Solutions, CyberLink, inTEST (back in the black) Telesat (back in the black) and VMware, with revenue down but net income up.
• Very poor quarterly figures from Flir Systems.
• Quarterly losses from 3D Systems, Altair Engineering, AMC Networks, Anaplan, Applied Optoelectronics, Arlo Technologies, Box, comScore, Daktronics, Digimarc, Elastic, Entercom Communications, Infinera, iQiyi, Iridium Communications, Jumia Technologies, MDC Partners, MicroVision, MTBC, Nutanix, Orbcomm, Palo Alto Networks, Pure Storage, Resideo Technologies, Salesforce.com, Sina, Stratasys, Upland Software, Workday, Wolverine World Wide and Youdao.
• A full-year loss from Ascential.
• The appointments of Bob Chapek as CEO of Disney; Michael Miebach as CEO of Mastercard (as of 1 January 2021); and Dov Ofer as chairman of Stratasys.
• The resignations of Ajay Banga, CEO of Mastercard (as of 1 January 2021; he then assumes the chairman’s role); Ami Erel, chairman of Cellcom Israel; and Clifford Skelton as CEO of Conduent.
• The departures of Keith Block, co-CEO of Salesforce.com; Bob Iger, CEO of Disney (stays on as executive chairman); and Elchanan Jaglom, chairman of Stratasys.
• An IPO filing for Nasdaq from ZoomInfo, a creator of marketing intelligence software.

EMEA/Africa:

• Shipments of EMEA traditional PCs will total 72.2 million in 2020, a 1% year-on-year decline, according to IDC.

Worldwide:

• Revenue of the global NAND flash industry increased 8.5% sequentially to $12.55 billion in Q419, thanks mainly to growing demand for data centre applications, according to DRAMeXchange.
• The global smartphone market recovery will be impacted in 2020 as uncertainties around COVID-19 increased over the last month, according to IDC. The market is expected to decline 2.3% in 2020, with shipment volume just over 1.3 billion.
• With 2019 in the rear-view mirror and the emergence of the COVID-19 virus, IDC’s shipment forecast for personal computing devices, inclusive of desktops, notebooks, workstations and tablets, will decline 9% in 2020, reaching 374.2 million by the end of the year. However, the long-term forecast remains slightly positive as global shipments are forecast to grow to 377.2 million in 2024, with a five-year CAGR of 0.2%.
• Large format printer shipments grew on a worldwide basis in 4Q19, with the EMEA region growing by 14%, according to IDC.

• JSE All share index: Down 11%
• FTSE100: Down 11.1%
• DAX: Down 12.4%
• NYSE (Dow): Down 12.4%
• S&P 500: Down 11.5%
• Nasdaq: Down 10.5%
• Nikkei225: Down 9.6%
• Hang Seng: Down 4.3%
• Shanghai: Down 5.2%

International:

• Fox negotiating a potential acquisition of video-streaming start-up Tubi for more than $500 million.

South Africa:

• More news regarding spectrum allocation.

For the first time, Barron’s and Calvert Research and Management have published their list of the top 20 most sustainable companies outside the US. Included in the list are:

• 1: Accenture
• 4: Telenor
• 10: Schneider Electric
• 15: Orange
• 16: RELX
• 18: Vodafone