Markets battle amid coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic dominated the international and local ICT markets last week and is likely to continue to do so in the short term.

• Excellent interim numbers from Alaris Holdings, with revenue up 60.4% and profit up 260.9%.
• A full-year loss from Cell C, with revenue down 3%.
• The Competition Tribunal has issued an order prohibiting the proposed transaction involving Naspers’s OLX and WeBuyCars.
• The appointment of Saki Macozoma as chairman of Vodacom Group.
• The departure of Jabu Moleketi, chairman of Vodacom Group.

• Alibaba Pictures acquired a majority stake in Yinhekuyu Media, a producer of video content in China.
• Everbridge bought one2many, a global provider of cell broadcast solutions for safety applications.
• Microsoft purchased Affirmed Networks, a 5G specialist company, to deliver next-generation 5G networks that would create new capabilities, new markets and help advance local economies. The deal values the latter at $1.35 billion.
• Catalyst Networks acquired a digital consultancy with a strong Sitecore platform focus.
• A joint venture between Bouygues Telecom and Phoenix Tower International will see the latter build and operate 4 000 new tower sites in France.
• BT will offload its French holdings.
• Cognizant has entered into an agreement to acquire Lev, a privately held digital marketing consultancy in the US.
• HOOQ Digital, a video streaming service majority owned by Singapore Telecommunications, is filing for liquidation.
• Microsoft will sell its stake in AnyVision, an Israeli facial recognition start-up, and said it would no longer make minority investments in companies that sell the controversial technology.
• OneWeb, the satellite operator backed by Japan's SoftBank Group, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to pursue the sale of its business.
• SS&C Technologies Holdings has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Captricity, the maker of Vidado, a data transformation platform.

The Competition Tribunal has issued an order prohibiting the proposed transaction involving Naspers’s OLX and WeBuyCars.

• Insight Partners led investments in Dremio, which offers a platform to help store and manage data, and Espressive, a pioneer in artificial intelligence for enterprise service management.
• Excellent quarterly results from Viomi Technology.
• Very good quarterly figures from One Stop Systems (back in the black) and SAIC (back in the black).
• Good quarterly numbers from Elbit Systems (back in the black) and Progress Software.
• Good year-end numbers from Elite Materials.
• Satisfactory quarterly results from FactSet Research, IHS Markit, Partner Communications, Paychex and Synnex.
• Satisfactory year-end figures from China Unicom.
• Mediocre quarterly results from Micron Technology.
• Mediocre year-end numbers from Flytech Technology and Posiflex.
• Mixed quarterly figures from GameStop (back in the black), with revenue down but net income up.
• Mixed year-end figures from Teco, with revenue down but net income up.
• Quarterly losses from AudioEye, AutoWeb, B Communications, Cellcom Israel, Cheetah Mobile, Inuvo, Jianpu Technology, SecureWorks, SilverSun Technologies, UTStarcom, WidePoint and Yunji.
• A full-year loss from ECSC Group.
• The appointments of Doron Cohen as chairman of Cellcom Israel; Aaron Cooper as interim CEO of Groupon; and Jeff Gardner as interim CEO of CalAmp.
• The resignation of Rich Williams, CEO of Groupon.
• The retirement of Michael Burdiek, CEO of CalAmp.
• The death of JR Shaw, founder, executive chairman and former CEO of Shaw Communications.
• An IPO filing for Nasdaq from GAN, an Internet gambling software provider in the UK.

Worldwide:

• Global smartphone sales tumbled 14% in February as the coronavirus spread in China and overseas, according to Counterpoint Research.
• End-user spending on IT infrastructure will decline in 2020 as a result of the widespread coronavirus pandemic, according to IDC. The probable scenario is that server market revenue will decline 3.4% year-over-year to $88.6 billion, and external enterprise storage systems revenue will decline 5.5% to $28.7 billion in 2020. The server market is expected to decline 11% in Q1 and 8.9% in Q2 and then return to growth in the second half of the year. The external ESS market is forecast to decline 7.3% in Q1 and 12.4% in Q2, before returning to slight growth by the end of 2020, with further recovery expected in 2021.

• JSE All share index: Up 6.6%
• FTSE100: Up 6.2%
• DAX: Up 7.9%
• NYSE (Dow): Up 12.8%
• S&P 500: Up 10.3%
• Nasdaq: Up 9.1%
• Nikkei225: Up 17.1%
• Hang Seng: Up 3%
• Shanghai: Up 1%

International:

• Facebook buying a multibillion-dollar stake in Reliance Industries’ telecoms unit.

South Africa:

• More Cell C developments.

The UK’s FT has published its 2020 annual list of Europe’s fastest growing companies (The FT1000). Included are:

• 2: Wolf Enterprises (Finland), a software application company
• 3: Bolt Technology (Estonia), a transportation platform company
• 6: Gismart (UK), a developer and publisher of entertainment-focused apps and games
• 10: In Touch Networks (UK), a LinkedIn-type company
• 12: Holidu (Germany), a travel technology company
• 15: MessengerPeople (Germany), a messaging platform provider
• 23: Futureplay (Finland), a mobile games developer
• 30: Uplink Network (Germany), a network for IT freelancers
• 33: SoftwareHut (Poland), a bespoke software development company
• 39: ITP Nord (Germany), a business-to-business services company
• 44: Darktrace (UK), a cyber security company
• 45: Sorted Group (UK), a global SaaS company
• 47: Stillfront Group (Sweden), a gaming company