Nvidia comes to terms with Samsung

A handful of small acquisitions were the main events of the international ICT market last week, and at home it was also a very quiet week.

* Mediocre Q3 numbers from Net 1 UEPS Technologies, with revenue down 10.2% and profit down 24.4%.
* Business Connexion acquired the RDC Group, a database and operating system administration provider.
* Gabsten Technologies and Kibo Connect have formalised a new partnership, whereby the companies deliver a managed backup as a service solution to the South African market, making this service more accessible to the SME.
* A renewed JSE cautionary by TCS.
* The appointment of Lumko Mtimde as CEO of the Universal Service and Access Agency.

* Zain bought a 92.3% stake in Canar, Sudan, from Etisalat.
* Helios Towers Africa purchased 950 mobile phone towers in the DRC from Bharti Airtel.
* SAP has opened a new office in Casablanca, Morocco.
* The Ivorian government has signed a merger deal with the Orange Group that will give the French telco greater control in the national fixed-line carrier, Ivory Coast Telecom. The merger will be completed in June and will facilitate the introduction of a single entity, called Orange Ivory Coast. The Ivorian government will hold a 31% stake in the new entity, against 69% for the Orange Group.

HTC has established a new company, renewing speculation the smartphone vendor may spin off its virtual reality business.

* BCE acquired Manitoba Telecom Services for C$3.1 billion.
* Oracle bought Opower, a software maker for utilities, for $548 million.
* Pinterest purchased URX, a mobile advertising start-up.
* Vonage acquired Nexmo, a provider of communication APIs for text messaging and voice communication services.
* Sage Group made a 20.7% investment in Fairsail, a provider of cloud human capital management products.
* Nvidia has settled a graphics patent dispute with Samsung Electronics.
* Apple has lost a trademark dispute in China.
* Alphabet and climate control systems maker Honeywell International have reached an agreement to resolve patent disputes related to Alphabet's Nest Labs.
* HTC has established a new company, renewing speculation the smartphone vendor may spin off its virtual reality business.
* The new Dell and EMC family of businesses will be called Dell Technologies once the merger has been completed.
* The FCC has approved the multibillion-dollar acquisition of TWC by Charter Communications.
* Excellent quarterly results from EPAM Systems and Paycom Software.
* Very good quarterly figures from Alibaba, Arista Networks and Harris.
* Good quarterly numbers from Avid (back in the black), CDW, Cogent Communications (back in the black), Cognizant Technology Solutions, Gartner, IDT, j2 Global, Monolithic Power Systems, Oclaro (back in the black), Pegasystems, Qualys, Ubiquiti Networks and XO Group.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Ansys, Arrow Electronics, BT Group, Cablevision Systems, CSG Systems, CyberArk Software, Deutsche Telekom, Fiserv, GCI, Genpact, Nice Systems, Orbotech, Rudolph Technologies, Teledyne Technologies and Telkonet (back in the black).
* Mediocre quarterly results from Cincinnati Communications, Cognex, Motorola Solutions, Pitney Bowes, Sykes Enterprises, Teledyne Technologies, Tessera Technologies and Vishay Intertechnology.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Activision Blizzard, with revenue up but profit down; Adata Technology, with revenue down but profit up; AMC Networks, with revenue up but profit down; Axcelis Technologies, with revenue down but profit up; Belden, with revenue down but back in the black; CDK Global, with revenue up but profit down; CenturyLink, with revenue down but profit up; CommVault Systems, with revenue up but profit down; Earthlink, with revenue down but back in the black; FICO, with revenue down but profit up; FIS, with revenue up but profit down; Fitbit, with revenue up but profit down; Inovalon, with revenue up but profit down; Kulicke & Soffa, with revenue up but profit down; Microchip Technology, with revenue up but profit down; Plantronics, with revenue down but profit up; QLogic, with revenue down but profit up; SBA Communications, with revenue down but back in the black; SK Telecom, with revenue down but profit up; Verisk Analytics, with revenue up but profit down; and Vonage, with revenue down but profit up.
* Mixed half-year figures from Sage Group, with revenue up but profit down.
* Very poor quarterly figures from Web.com.
* Quarterly losses from 3D Systems, Adesto Technologies, Amtech Systems, Arris, Atlassian, Autocodes, Callidus Software, CDI, Ciber, Computer Programs & Systems, Cray, Diodes, Epiq Systems, Engility, Envestnet, Equinix, FireEye, Frontier Communications, GoDaddy, GoPro, Guidance Software, Hortonworks, Imperva, Interactive Intelligence, Ixia, Kratos, Lumentum, MDC Partners, Mitel Networks, NetScout Systems, O2Micro, Qorvo, RadiSys, Radware, RealNetworks, Ruckus Wireless, Sprint, Square, Synchronoss Technologies, Systemax, Tableau Software, Teradata, Varonis, Windstream, Yelp, Zayo and Zynga.
* The appointments of Kevin Mandia as CEO of FireEye; and Satoshi Tsunakawa as CEO of Toshiba.
* The departures of David DeWalt, CEO of FireEye (stays on as executive chairman); and Masashi Muromachi, CEO of Toshiba.

South Africa:
* Since 2000, when the first camera phone was introduced, the number of mobile users has quintupled globally, according to the findings of the Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (2015 to 2020). By 2020, mobile data traffic will grow nine-fold in SA, at a compound annual growth rate of 55%.

Worldwide:
* Global mobile app revenue will grow by 2.2-times over the next five years, from $36 billion in 2015 to $79 billion in 2020, according to Ovum. This is compared to a 1.8-times increase in the number of app downloads, from 211 billion in 2015 to 378 billion in 2020.

* JSE All share index: Down 2.9%
* Nasdaq: Down 0.8%
* NYSE (Dow): Down 0.2%
* S&P 500: Down 0.4%
* FTSE100: Down 1.9%
* DAX: Down 1.7%
* Nikkei225: Down 3.4%
* Hang Seng: Down 4.6%
* Shanghai: Down 0.9%

International:
* Further developments regarding the Dell/EMC deal.

South Africa:
* Further developments regarding the future of Broadband Infraco.

The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals Global Outsourcing 100 list for 2016 has been released, and will be featured in this year's Fortune 500 edition in June.

The list includes Accenture, Aegis, HCL Technologies, HP Enterprise, ISS, Mindtree, Tata Communications Transformation Services, and WNS Global Services.