Tencent plays investment field

Paul Booth.

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Numerous small acquisitions and several IPOs were the highlights of a quiet international ICT market last week. At home, it was also very quiet.

* Excellent interim numbers from Capital Appreciation, with revenue up 463% and profit up 124%.
* Good interim figures from YeboYethu, Vodacom's BBBEE vehicle.
* Satisfactory interim numbers from Vodacom Group, with revenue up 4.6% and profit up 7%.
* An interim loss from Datatec, with revenue down 6.6%.
* A positive trading update from Naspers.
* A consortium comprising Power Matla, Power Matla Transformers and SGB-Smit acquired Altron's interest in the Powertech Transformers Group for R250 million.
* Kalon Venture Partners, a local venture capital firm, invested in payment service provider, i-Pay.
* Despite improvement in the performance of the majority of countries in this year's ICT Development Index, according to an assessment by the International Telecommunication Union, SA's global ranking continues to take strain, with SA slipping down four places from 88th position last year to number 92 in 2017.
* A new JSE cautionary by the Huge Group.

* Good quarterly figures from Telecom Egypt, with revenue up 34% and profit up 11.5%.
* Ethiopia's state-owned telecommunications company, Ethio Telecom, is now the continent's largest mobile operator, with 57 million mobile subscribers.
* Following the September 2017 expiration of its 10-year agreement for the use of the Orange brand name, Mauritius Telecom has announced it will now be referred to as MyT.
* MTN hopes to list its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in May 2018.
* Stephen Blewett, CEO of MTN in Benin, has been ordered to leave the West African country.
* Vodafone has closed down its operation in Cameroon after only a year because its partner, Afrimax, lost its licence.

Stephen Blewett, CEO of MTN in Benin, has been ordered to leave the West African country.

* American Tower acquired 20 000 mobile phone masts from Indian network operators Idea Cellular and Vodafone India, which are seeking to merge. The deal was worth $1.2 billion.
* Ansys bought 3DSIM, the developer of premier additive manufacturing simulation technology.
* Hisense purchased the Toshiba TV unit for $114 million.
* Ratings company Crisil (India) acquired data analytics firm Pragmatix Services (India).
* Power discrete component supplier HY Electronic, specialising in diode products, bought a 70% stake in Taiwan GPP for $11.52 million.
* Sinnet Technology, Amazon.com's Chinese partner, purchased Amazon's Chinese Web services business for $301 million, ending the US firm's cloud computing business in that country.
* FARO, the world's most trusted source for 3D measurement and imaging solutions for public safety forensics, acquired Dustin Forensics, a digital forensic animation firm.
* Iron Mountain bought the China records and information management operations of Santa Fe Group, a provider of services for international mobility and relocation.
* Spotify purchased online music and audio recording studio Soundtrap.
* Upland Software acquired Qvidian, a provider of cloud-based RFP and sales proposal automation software.
* Ebix made a $23 million investment for a 50% stake in IT-enabled services provider Vara United (India).
* Tencent Holdings led a $400 million investment in Shenzhen-headquartered humanoid robot maker Ubtech Robotics.
* KKR has increased its stake in Telef'onica's Telxius infrastructure subsidiary to 40%.
* Qualcomm invested in SenseTime Group, a Chinese artificial intelligence start-up.
* Tencent Holdings made a $150.82 million (5%) investment in Maoyan, one of China's biggest online ticketing platforms.
* The US International Trade Commission has launched an investigation into allegations of patent infringement by Apple on various devices. The commission said the probe was based on a complaint by Aqua Connect and strategic technology partners of Orange, California. The products at issue are certain Apple Mac computers, iPhones, iPads, iPods and Apple TVs.
* Margrethe Vestager, the European commissioner for competition, said there are more cases against Alphabet's Google to come.
* 8x8 intends to transfer its listing from Nasdaq to the NYSE.
* Qualcomm has rejected the bid from Broadcom.
* Excellent quarterly results from Tencent Holdings.
* Very good quarterly figures from JD.com (back in the black), Kulicke & Soffa and YY.
* Good quarterly numbers from Applied Materials, Esco Technologies, Genius Electronics, Magic Software and Synacor (back in the black).
* Good nine-month numbers from Line Corporation.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Epistar, Iliad, MTS, NetApp, Switch and Viacom.
* Satisfactory nine-month figures from Bouygues Telecom.
* Mediocre quarterly results from SMIC.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Cisco, with revenue down but profit up; CPT, with revenue up but profit down; Foxconn, with revenue up (just) but profit down; Gilat Satellite, with revenue down but back in the black; MAM Software Group, with revenue up but profit down; and NetEase, with revenue up but profit down.
* Mixed half-year figures from Vodafone, with revenue down but profit up.
* Quarterly losses from Asure Software, BEST, Everspin Technologies, Fusion, Genesis Photonics, IGT, Intellicheck, Kinko Optical, MACOM Technology Solutions, Reliance Communications, SITO Mobile, Splunk, Stratasys, Top Image Systems and Wideopenwest.
* A half-year loss from TalkTalk.
* The appointments of Anirudh Devgan as president of Cadence Design Systems; Glenn Lurie as CEO of Synchronoss Technologies; Carlos Moltini as CEO of Telecom Argentina; Elisabetta Ripa as CEO of Open Fiber (Italy); and Enrique Rodriguez as CEO of TiVo.
* A good IPO in Hong Kong by Razer, a gaming hardware maker backed by Intel and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing.
* A good IPO on the NYSE by SailPoint Technologies, a provider of identity governance software to enterprises.
* A satisfactory IPO on the NYSE by Jianpu Technology, a Chinese fintech firm that provides an online financial planning platform.

EMEA/Africa:
* 4G subscriptions will expand tenfold, from 30 million in 2017 to 310 million by 2023 in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to Ericsson.
* A survey shows that for 82% of CIOs in EMEA, digital business has led to a greater capacity for change and a more open mind-set in their IT organisations, according to Gartner.
* IT spending in EMEA is projected to total $1 trillion in 2018, an increase of 4.9% from estimated spending of $974 billion in 2017, according to Gartner.

Worldwide:
* Worldwide revenue for IT services and business services totalled $475 billion in 1H17, an increase of 4% year-over-year, according to IDC. It expects worldwide services revenue to surpass $1 trillion in 2018.
* The global IT services industry had total revenue of $585.3 billion in 2016, representing a CAGR of 1.9% between 2012 and 2016, according to MarketLine.

* JSE All share index: Up 0.6% (highest weekend close)
* FTSE100: Down 0.7%
* DAX: Down 1%
* NYSE (Dow): Down 0.3%
* S&P 500: Down 0.1%
* Nasdaq: Up 0.5% (highest weekend close)
* Nikkei225: Down 1.3%
* Hang Seng: Up 0.3% (highest 2017 weekend close)
* Shanghai: Down 1.5%

International:
* GE ditching its software division.
* Vodafone Greece and Wind Hellas, among others, acquiring a 32.7% share of Greek operator Forthnet.
* Toshiba selling its PV unit, possibly to Asus or Lenovo.

South Africa:
* BCX selling certain assets as part of a business re-organisation.
* The outcome of the T-Systems court battle over a Transnet R1.5 billion tender.
* The buyer for all/some of government's 39% stake in Telkom SA.

The IDC recently revealed its Worldwide CIO Agenda predictions. They are:

* By 2018, 75% of CIOs will put experiential engagement, data monetisation, or digital business at scale at the top of their agenda.
* Through 2019, dragged down by conflicting digital transformation imperatives, ineffective technology innovation, cloud infrastructure transition, and underfunded end-of-life core systems, 75% of CIOs and their enterprises will fail to meet all of their digital objectives.
* By 2020, 60% of the CIOs who have crossed the digital divide will prevail in C-suite turmoil and competition to become digital business leaders for their enterprises.
* By 2019, 60% of CIOs will complete infrastructure and application re-platforming using cloud, mobile and DevOps, clearing the deck for accelerated enterprise digital transformation.
* By 2019, 60% of IT organisations will deploy DX platforms supporting new customer and ecosystem-facing business models.
* By 2019, 75% of CIOs will refocus cyber security around authentication and trust to manage business risks, initiating the retirement of systems that cannot ensure data protection.
* By 2020, 40% of CIOs will leverage vision- and mission-driven leadership to inspire and empower their organisations to create digital transformation capabilities.
* Recognising the failure of existing IT governance and the need for a shared digital transformation vision, by 2020, 40% of CIOs will adopt new digital governance models to accelerate innovation and speed.
* By 2018, 70% of CIOs will take agility to the next level, gearing up to a product model using design thinking and DevOps.
* By 2020, 60% of CIOs will implement an IT business model and culture that shifts focus from IT projects to digitally oriented products.