Sony keeps them spinning

Altice's proposed buyout of Vivendi's stake in Numericable-SFR and the news of more spin-offs from Sony were the highlights of the international ICT market last week.

At home, the proposed delisting of Gijima was the main local story.

* Good interim figures from Blue Label Telecom, with revenue up 13.8% and profit up 16.9%.
* Mixed interim figures from Morvest Group, with revenue down 1.4% but profit up 53.6%; and Silverbridge Holdings, with revenue down 1.9% but profit up 50.7%.
* Mediocre interim numbers from Jasco, with revenue down 5.3% and profit down 73.6%.
* Positive trading updates from Digicore and MTN.
* A mixed trading update from Pinnacle.
* EOH acquired Construction Computer Software, a provider of management solutions to the construction and mining industries.
* Poynting bought Antenna Research Associates, a supplier of RF antenna systems, for $5 million.
* AngelHub Ventures invested in Snapplify, a local e-books start-up.
* Yebo Guma Investments will buy the remaining shares of Gijima that it doesn't already own, and the company will apply for delisting from the JSE.
* Naspers will list Novus Holdings, a subsidiary, on the JSE. Novus Holdings is a leader in the printing and manufacturing sectors.
* A renewed JSE cautionary by TCS.
* The appointment of Brett StClair as M4JAM's 'chief jam' creator.

* Liquid Telecom has raised $150 million to extend its broadband capability in Africa.
* The appointments of Patrick Benon as CEO of Orange Botswana; and Lhoussaine Oussalah as head of Moov Cote d'Ivorie.
* The resignations of Lhoussaine Oussalah, MD of Gabon Telecom; and Brett StClair, Google's regional manager for sub-Saharan Africa.

Apple is being sued by A123 Systems for employee poaching.

* Altice (France) proposed a EUR3.9 billion acquisition of Vivendi's 20% stake in Numericable-SFR.
* Check Point Software Technologies bought Hyperwise, an Israeli cyber security firm.
* Hitachi Data Systems purchased oXya, a provider of services for cloud and SAP solutions.
* Infosys acquired Panaya, a provider of automation technology, for $200 million.
* J2 Global bought the assets of EmailDirect, a provider of e-mail marketing services.
* Samsung purchased LoopPay, a mobile wallet start-up.
* A US appeal court said Nokia's wireless phones do not infringe on patents owned by InterDigital.
* OpenText has won a patent infringement case against Box and Carahsoft Technology.
* Apple is being sued by A123 Systems for employee poaching.
* Apple has won a patent for a wireless head-mounted display that uses the iPhone.
* Google has won a dismissal of a US lawsuit over Android app limits.
* Russia has opened an anti-trust probe against Google.
* Sony will spin-off its video and audio unit into a separate subsidiary later this year, and possibly also its device division, which includes its image sensors.
* Excellent quarterly results from Arista Networks.
* Very good quarterly figures from Convergys (back in the black), IPG Photonics and Vasco Data Security.
* Good quarterly numbers from Analog Devices, Gilat Satellite Services (back in the black), Rackspace, T-Mobile US and Yandex.
* Satisfactory year-end figures from Capgemini.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Arris Group (back in the black), Brocade Communications Systems, Garmin, Sabre, Sykes Enterprises and Syntel.
* Mediocre year-end numbers from Orange.
* Mediocre quarterly results from AVG Technologies, Intelsat, InterDigital and Marvell Technology Group.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Asustek, with revenue up but profit down; Datalink, with revenue up but profit down; DirecTV, with revenue up but profit down; Iron Mountain, with revenue up but profit down; and Synopsys, with revenue up but profit down.
* A year-end loss from Telecom Italia.
* Quarterly losses from Cincinnati Bell, Earthlink, Equinix, Intuit, Rovi, SunEdison Semiconductor and Varonis Systems.
* The appointment of Andrew Penn as CEO of Telstra.
* The retirements of Daniel Mead, CEO of Verizon Wireless; and David Thodey, CEO of Telstra.

EMEA/Africa:
* The Internet of things (IOT) market in the CEMA region is taking off, and although still nascent, it is growing rapidly and offers considerable potential for the rest of the decade, according to IDC.

Worldwide:
* Worldwide tablet shipments fell 12% in Q4 2014 to 67 million units and overall PC shipments (desktops, notebooks and tablets) fell 6% to 148 million units, according to Canalys.
* The worldwide market for refurbished smartphones will reach 120 million units by 2017, according to Gartner.
* Mobile data traffic is set to grow 59% in 2015, according to Gartner.

* JSE All share index: Up 1.3% (highest-ever weekend close at over 53 000)
* Nasdaq: Up 1.3% (highest weekend close since the dotcom boom of 2000)
* NYSE (Dow): Up 0.7% (highest-ever weekend close at over 18 100)
* S&P 500: Up 0.6% (highest-ever weekend close at over 2 100)
* FTSE100: Up 0.6% (highest weekend close since December 1999)
* Nikkei225: Up 2.3% (15-year high reached during the week)
* Hang Seng: Up 0.6%
* Shanghai: Up 1.3%
* Top SA share movements: ConvergeNet Holdings (+7.4%), Gijima (+29.3%), Jasco (+9.4%), Labat Africa (+8.3%), Pinnacle Holdings (+12.1%), Poynting Holdings (+31.6%) and Prescient (-10.4%)

International:
* The possible sale of the UK's Monitise, a mobile money group.
* A possible IPO by Virtu, a high-frequency trading firm.

South Africa:
* The disposal by Jasco of its 51% stake in M-Tec.
* The possible buyout of Cell C.
* Clarification on the roles of Telkom and Broadband Infraco in light of recent conflicting statements in government.

IDC has compiled its 2015 predictions for the IOT market for the CEMA region. These include:
* Strong enthusiasm for IOT-based solutions that will accelerate digital transformation in CEMA healthcare.
* The IOT will help to overcome barriers to the adoption of cloud technologies in manufacturing.
* Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication will become critical areas for the future success of the connected vehicle market.
* Spending on the IOT for omni-channel operations will double by 2018.
* In-store consumer digital offers/personalised promotions will keep customers in stores.
* CEMA telcos will struggle with the complexity of M2M.
* Security will be the top concern of companies deploying IOT, presenting opportunities for security solutions providers.
* Public safety and emergency response will account for more than one-third of government IOT spending between 2013 and 2018.
* Smart cities dynamics will remain fragmented across the region.