Quirky takes a tumble

Another multi-billion consolidation within the semiconductor sector, and the news of several significant planned or filed IPOs were the main stories of the international ICT market last week.

At home, Altron's disposal of its Autopage business was the main local news.

* Mixed year-end figures from Silverbridge Holdings, with revenue down 3.5% but profit up 40.7%.
* A negative trading update from Altron.
* The suspension of the shares of Digicore on the JSE.
* The delisting of the shares of the CompuClearing on the JSE.
* The investment by Digitata, a provider of a dynamic tariffing platform, in a controlling stake in its long-time partner, SA-based Rorotika Technologies.
* MTN Zakhele, MTN's BEE scheme, intends to list on the JSE in early November.
* Altron's disposal, for about R1.5 billion, of its Autopage business to Cell C, MTN and Vodacom.
* A renewed JSE cautionary by Altron.

* Gondwana International Networks, an African IT firm that owns iWay Africa and Africa Online, is awaiting approval by the competition and tariff commission in Zimbabwe on a merger deal with Dandemutande, a Zimbabwean Internet service provider. Dandemutande is owned by Mauritius-based and Zimbabwe-focused investment company, Masawaraf.

One trillion dollars in stock market value is what the 27 CEOs on the latest Fortune Most Powerful Women list control.

* Accenture acquired Sagacious Consultants, an electronic health record consulting practice.
* The $4.6 billion acquisition by Dialog Semiconductor of Atmel, another chipmaker.
* Gartner bought Capterra, a company that helps organisations find the right business software to meet their needs.
* MegaFon purchased GARS, a Russian fixed-line operator, in a move intended to boost the former's B2B capability.
* The $2.6 billion acquisition by NetScout Systems of Danaher's communication business, which includes Tektronix Communications, Arbor Networks, and parts of Fluke Networks.
* The investment (21.18%) by Hon Hai Precision Industry in Wcube, an optical product maker.
* Invention start-up company Quirky, which is backed by a string of venture capital funds, has filed for Chapter 11 relief and put its smart home platform Wink up for sale.
* Good quarterly numbers from Jabil Circuit (back in the black) and Red Hat.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Accenture.
* Mixed quarterly figures from BlackBerry, with revenue down significantly but back in the black.
* The appointment of David Dyson, Three's chief executive, as the new CEO of the proposed O2/Three merged company.
* An IPO filing in France from Deezer, the French music streaming service.
* An IPO filing for the NYSE by Digicel, the Caribbean telecommunications group.
* An IPO filing in the US for Australian-based software-tools maker Atlassian.
* A planned IPO by First Data, the payment processing giant that was taken private by KKR in 2007.
* A planned IPO from Square, a payments start-up.

Worldwide:
* According to Gartner, worldwide spending on information security will reach 75.4 billion in 2015, an increase of 4.7% over 2014. The increase in spending is being driven by government initiatives, increased legislation and high-profile data breaches. Security testing, IT outsourcing, and identity and access management present the biggest growth opportunities for technology providers.
* According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Purpose-Built Backup Appliance Tracker, worldwide purpose-built backup appliance (PBBA) factory revenue declined -1% year-over-year, totalling $781.6 million in the second quarter of 2015 (2Q15). Total PBBA open systems factory revenue decreased -1.9% year-over-year in 2Q15, with revenue totalling $705.6 million while the mainframe market experienced growth of 7.9% for the same period. Total worldwide PBBA capacity shipped for 2Q15 was just shy of 664 petabytes, an increase of 12.9% year-over-year.
* IDC research shows the worldwide integrated infrastructure and platforms market increased revenue 1.7% year-over-year to $2.4 billion during 2Q15. The market shipped 1 210 petabytes of new storage capacity during the quarter, which was up 44.8% compared to the same period a year ago.

* JSE All share index: Down 1.4%
* Nasdaq: Down 2.9%
* NYSE (Dow): Down 0.4%
* S&P 500: Down 1.4%
* FTSE100: Flat but marginally up
* Nikkei225: Down 1%
* Hang Seng: Down 3.4%
* Shanghai: Down 0.2%
* Top SA share movements: Altron (+8.6%), Cognition (+8.3%), MICROmega Holdings (-7.7%) and Stella Capital Partners (-7.5%)

International:
* The acquisition of Sharp's LCD unit by Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn).
* A planned IPO from O2 after its merger with Three.

Africa:
* A possible IPO by Liquid Telecom.

South Africa:
* The outcome of the appeal by state-owned fibre-optic infrastructure company Broadband Infraco to government for a "going concern guarantee" for R243 million, to continue its operations.

One trillion dollars in stock market value is what the 27 CEOs on the latest Fortune Most Powerful Women list control. But there are 24 more women on its 18th annual list. From a technology perspective, they are:

3 Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM
4 Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin
7 Meg Whitman, CEO of HP
8 Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook
12 Safra Catz, co-CEO of Oracle
16 Angela Ahrendts, SVP, retail and online stores, Apple
17 Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox
18 Marissa Meyer, CEO of Yahoo
19 Susan Wojcicki, CEO YouTube, Google
26 Ruth Porat, SVP and CFO, Google and Alphabet
35 Bridget Van Kralingen, SVP, IBM Global Business Services, IBM
43 Diane Bryant, SVP and GM, Data Center Group, Intel

I am travelling over the next two weeks and therefore my next column will appear on 12 October but will fully cover the intervening two weeks.