The international ICT market was dominated last week by Texas Instruments' multibillion-dollar acquisition of National Semiconductor, and the investments being made in the technology sector by some of the large private equity groups.
At home, it was extremely quiet.
Key local news of the past week
*A positive trading update from Datacentrix.
*Blue Turtle Technologies bought AfricanPulse Mobile Solutions, a company specialising in the development, integration and provision of professional services within the ICT sector.
*The AMPS 2010 AB Report says Internet usage in SA shows that black users have 46% market share, white users have 37%, coloured users have 10% and Indian users have 7%. This is the first time the black user percentage has been greater than those of white users.
*Antonie Roux was appointed CEO of MIH Group, the unit of Naspers that includes Internet, pay-TV and international print operations.
Key African news
*Very good year-end numbers from Inwi (Morocco), with revenue up 38% and back in the black.
*Satisfactory year-end figures from Meditel (Morocco), with revenue up 7.1% and profit up 126%; and Raya Holding for Technology and Communication (Egypt), with profit up 2.4%.
*The Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority stated that Rwandatel has lost its mobile licence.
Key international news
*Apax Partners, one of the major private equity groups, made a $2 billion+ acquisition of Epicor Software and Activant Solutions, in a combined deal that would see the two companies merged as a private firm under the Epicor banner.
*CA purchased Base Technologies, a privately-held consulting firm.
*EMC bought NetWitness, a network security company, which will be integrated into the former's RSA division.
*The preliminary agreement for Google's $900 million acquisition of bankrupt Nortel Networks' patent portfolio.
*HTC acquired 82 patents and 14 patent applications concerning wireless communication technologies from ADC Telecommunications. HTC intends to use the patents to develop 4G smartphones.
*KKR, one of the world's leading private equity groups, and Pierre Chen, founder of Yageo (Taiwan), bought Yageo, the world's largest maker of chip resistors and electricity storage devices widely used in computers and electronics. The deal was worth $1.6 billion.
Look out for the possible investment by MTN in Idea Cellular, India's third largest cellular operator.
Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners
*Metaswitch Networks purchased Colibria, a mobile instant messaging provider.
*Texas Instruments bought National Semiconductor for $6.5 billion, in a move designed to strengthen its position in the analogue chip market.
*Vivendi bought Vodafone's stake (43.9%) in France-based SFR, for $11 billion.
*Xerox (Global Imaging Systems) acquired United Business Solutions, a distributor of copiers, printers and multifunction systems.
*Grupo Televista, a Mexican broadcast and media conglomerate, has proposed a $1.6 billion (50%) acquisition of Grupo Iusacell, the smallest of Mexico's four mobile operators.
*HTC has overtaken Nokia by market value to become the third most valuable maker of mobile phones behind Apple and Samsung Electronics.
*Excellent quarterly results from HTC.
*Mixed quarterly figures from MTS (Russia), with revenue up but profit down; and Samsung, with revenue up but profit down.
*Jon Gacek was appointed CEO of Quantum, the data management company.
Look out for
International:
*The possible acquisition of NXP Semiconductors by another semiconductor company, such as Broadcom, Intel, or Qualcomm.
Africa:
*The new date for the launch of Intelsat's New Dawn satellite.
South Africa:
*The possible investment (47%) by MTN in Idea Cellular, India's third largest cellular operator, with almost 80 million subscribers.
Research results and predictions
*LG Electronics is the world's leader in LED LCD monitors in 2010, with about an 18% market share, according to DisplaySearch.
*Worldwide semiconductor capital spending grew 143% in 2010, reports Gartner.
*Lenovo has been ranked as the number one company in notebook sales to the large business, very large business, government and education customers, with a 21% market share in Q4 2010, notes IDC.
*The number of mobile connections in Africa surpassed that of Europe during Q4 2010, according to Wireless Intelligence.
*The Android share of the worldwide smartphone operating system market will be close to 50% by 2012, according to Gartner.
Stock market changes
*JSE All share index: Up 1.3%
*Nasdaq: Down 0.3%
*Top SA share movements: African Cellular Towers (-12.5%), CompuClearing (+8%), Dialogue Group (+42.9%), Ifca Technologies (-11.1%), Labat Africa (+10%), MiX Telematics (+8.9%), MICROmega (+12.5%) and Poynting Antennas (-14.8%)
Final word
African Business has published its annual listing of Africa's Top Companies. From a technology perspective, there were no new entrants into the top 250, and thus still no IT companies outside of SA on the list. MTN remains the top ICT listing at number five (as per 2010), followed by Naspers at number 10 (up from 13), Maroc Telecom at 12 (down from eight) and Dimension Data at 16 (up from 70). Also in the top 50 are Sonatel (C^ote d'Ivoire), Telecom Egypt and Telkom SA.
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