Uber's initial public offering disappoints

The $14 billion+ privatisation of Zayo Group and Uber's disappointing IPO dominated the international ICT market news last week.

At home, it was another quiet week.

* Very good interim numbers from AEEI, with revenue up 31% and profit up 245%.
* Satisfactory year-end figures from Altron, with revenue up 6.6% and profit up 346.4%.
* A quarterly loss from Net1 UEPS, with revenue down 46.8%.
* A positive trading update from MTN.
* Bridging Technologies SA (BT-SA) has been accredited with level one B-BBEE (broad-based black economic empowerment) in accordance with the ICT Amended Sector Codes.
* The PBT Group has expanded its European operations, with signed strategic partnerships with companies in the Netherlands, Ireland, the UK and Germany.

* Good quarterly figures from MTN Nigeria, with revenue up 13.2% and profit up 50.3%.

* Asterion Industrial Partners, a pan-European infrastructure fund manager, acquired 11 of Telefonica's data centres for EUR550 million.
* Cellnex bought Iliad's mobile tower assets in France and Italy for EUR2 billion.
* Cohesity purchased Imanis Data, a young developer of enterprise backup and data management technology for distributed databases, including Hadoop and NoSQL.

India's anti-trust watchdog has ordered an investigation into Google.

* Digital Colony Partners and EQT Partners Fiber acquired Zayo Group Holdings for $14.3 billion, in a deal that will take the fibre-network owner private.
* LexisNexis Risk Solutions bought Numerica's Lumen assets, an integrated data platform leveraged by public safety analysts, investigators, patrol officers and commanders to help solve cases faster.
* Marvell Technology Group purchased Aquantia, a leader in multi-gig Ethernet connectivity, for $452 million.
* NCR acquired Texas POS, a leading restaurant technology company.
* Netflix bought StoryBots, known for its "Ask the StoryBots" series, as it looks to make more shows for children ahead of the launch of Walt Disney's streaming service later this year.
* Orange purchased SecureLink, a Dutch cyber security specialist, for EUR515 million.
* Proofpoint acquired Meta Networks, a network access vendor, for $120 million.
* Symantec bought Luminate Security to better protect users around workloads and applications, regardless of where they are deployed or what infrastructure they are accessed through.
* Visa purchased Earthport, a company that provides cross-border payment services to banks, money transfer service providers and businesses via the world's largest independent ACH network.
* Zix acquired the assets of Cirius Messaging, and wholly-owned subsidiary, DeliverySlip, which is a provider of e-mail encryption, e-signatures and secure file-sharing solutions.
* Bank of China Group Investment led a $750 million investment in Chinese artificial intelligence provider Megvii ahead of its planned IPO in Hong Kong later this year.
* Softbank made a $4 billion investment in Yahoo Japan, increasing its stake to nearly 45%.
* A US court has issued its final judgement in favour of ASML Holding in an intellectual property theft case against US software maker Xtal, awarding the former $845 million along with an injunction. However, the judgement would be uncollectible, as Xtal is in bankruptcy, but under a settlement arrangement, ASML will end up owning most or all of Xtal's intellectual property through the bankruptcy process.
* Telenor is looking to dramatically boost its overseas offering by launching a new joint venture (JV) that would attract over 300 million customers in Southeast Asia. The JV would be formed with Malaysian telecoms firm, Axiata Group, as the pair look to leverage powerful economies of scale to compete across several hypercompetitive markets.
* India's anti-trust watchdog has ordered an investigation into Google for allegedly abusing the dominant position of its popular Android mobile operating system to block rivals.
* TiVo is planning to split its product division from its intellectual property licensing unit, as the set-top box maker looks to attract buyers for its businesses.
* Toyota Motor and Panasonic plan to establish a joint company to develop 'connected' services to be used in homes and urban development.
* Turkey's Personal Data Protection Authority fined Facebook a total of $270 976 in April due to a data breach.
* Weatherford International, burdened by a heavy debt load and years of losses, will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
* Excellent quarterly results from Brinno.
* Very good quarterly figures from Camtek, Smith Micro Software (back in the black) and Tactile Systems Technology (back in the black).
* Very good year-end figures from Softbank.
* Good quarterly numbers from Airgain (back in the black), Chicony Electronics, Chicony Power, Diodes, EXCO Technologies, Fabrinet, Genpact, Glu Mobile (back in the black), GIS, JD.com, Kratos (back in the black), MTS Systems, Rimini Street, Telefonica Brasil and Ubiquiti Networks.
* Satisfactory quarterly results from Deutsche Telekom, EchoStar (back in the black), eGain, j2 Global, Gartner (back in the black), GlobalWafers, Microchip Technology, NCR, Qorvo (back in the black), Sapiens, Shenandoah Telecommunications, Telus, Trend Micro, TTEC Holdings, Vishay Intertechnology, WideOpenWest (back in the black), Xperi and Yelp (back in the black).
* Mediocre quarterly results from Amtech Systems, ARC Document Solutions, Asustek, Axcelis Technologies, Ceragon Networks, ChipMOS Technologies, Conduent, EA, Hiwin Technologies, Liberty Global, OTE, Rudolph Technologies, SMIC, Symantec, TechTarget, Tessco Technologies, TransAct Technologies and Tucows.
* Mixed quarterly figures from Alarm.com, Alaska Communications, Altair, Cable One, Cabot Microelectronics, Ebix, Entravision Communications, EPAM Systems, IEC Electronics, Infineon Technologies, KLA-Tencor, MAM Software Group, Qisda, Stamps.com, Switch and Viacom, with revenue up but net income down; and from CenturyLink, Dialog Semiconductor, GCP Applied Technologies (but back in the black), inTEST (but back in the black), Iteq, Lextar Electronics, Nuance Communications (but back in the black), ScanSource, Sykes Enterprises, Synaptics (but back in the black), Telefonica and Zayo Group, with revenue down but net income up.
* Mixed year-end figures from BT Group, with revenue down but net income up.
* Very poor quarterly figures from Presidio.
* Quarterly losses from 3D Systems, Adesto Technologies, Aerohive Networks, Applied Optoelectronics, Aquantia, Asure Software, Avaya, Avid Technology, Boingo Wireless, Cardlytics, Cincinnati Bell, Cohu, CommScope, Cray, DAZAN Zhone Solutions, Dropbox, eMagin, Envestnet, Epileds Technology, Epistar, Equifax, Everbridge, Everspin Technologies, ExOne, ForeScout Technologies, GoPro, GTT Communications, Harte-Hanks, Himax Technologies, Identiv, Infinera, Information Services Group, Innolux, Inseego, Internap, Lumentum, Lyft, MACOM Technology Solutions, MDC Partners, Motech, NII Holdings, nLight, PAR Technology, PCTEL, Pegasystems, Perceptron, Poly, QuickLogic, Quotient Technologies, Radcom, RingCentral, Roku, SailPoint Technologies, Sequans Communications, Sierra Wireless, Smartspace Software, Sonos, Sprint, Superconductor Technologies, SurveyMonkey, Synacor, Synchronoss Technologies, Talend, Tata Communications, Team, Tetra Technologies, TiVo, Veeco Instruments, Veritone, Vonage, Wireless Telecom Group.
* Full-year losses from Osirium and Watchstone Group.
* The appointments of Tony Bates as CEO of Genesys; Rob Bearden as CEO of Docker; Richard Hill as interim CEO of Symantec; John Lee as CEO of MKS Instruments; and Jim Sullivan as CEO of NWN.
* The retirement of Gerald G Colella, CEO of MKS Instruments.
* The departures of Greg Clark, CEO of Symantec; Paul Segre, CEO of Genesys (stays on as chairman); Steve Singh, CEO of Docker; Skip Tappen, CEO of NWN; and Ashok Vemuri, CEO of Conduent.
* A satisfactory IPO on Nasdaq by Sonim Technologies, a provider of ultra-rugged mobility solutions designed specifically for task workers physically engaged in their work environments.
* A disappointing IPO on the NYSE by Uber, a ride-hailing firm.

Worldwide:
* Shipments of connected wearables reached 116.8 million worldwide in 2018 and are growing at a CAGR of 15.4%, according to Berg Insight. Total shipments of smart watches, smart glasses, fitness and activity trackers, smart clothing, mobile telecare and medical devices, as well as other wearable devices, are forecast to reach 238.5 million units in 2023.
* Consumer spending on technology is forecast to reach $1.32 trillion in 2019, an increase of 3.5% over 2018, according to IDC. Consumer purchases of traditional and emerging technologies will remain strong over the 2018-2022 forecast period, reaching $1.43 trillion in 2022, with a five-year CAGR of 3%.
* The global smartphone market continued to struggle in Q119, suffering a 6.3% year-over-year decline in shipments, according to IHS Markit. Shipments totalled 323.8 million units, down from 345.6 million during Q118.
* Global semiconductor revenue will fall to $446.2 billion in 2019, down from $482 billion in 2018, according to IHS Markit.

* JSE All share index: Down 4.3%
* FTSE100: Down 2.4%
* DAX: Down 2.9%
* NYSE (Dow): Down 2.1%
* S&P 500: Down 2.2%
* Nasdaq: Down 3%
* Nikkei225: Down 4.1%
* Hang Seng: Down 5.1%
* Shanghai: Down 4.5%

International:
* The next cluster of acquisitions by Accenture.

South Africa:
* Further developments regarding spectrum allocations

The 2019 Big Data 100 is CRN's annual ranking of the most important big data technology vendors that solution providers should be aware of. As with prior years, the list includes many of the IT industry's biggest vendors and established suppliers of data management and business analytics products. But, it also includes several start-ups and young companies with breakthrough technologies that solution providers could offer, thus providing them and their customers with a competitive edge.

This year's list is made up of four big data technology categories: big data business analytics, big data management and integration, big data systems and platforms, and data science and machine learning.

Included in the big data systems and platforms list are:
* Amazon Web Services
* Cloudera
* Dell EMC
* Google
* HPE
* Hitachi Vantara/Pentaho
* IBM
* MapR Technologies
* Micro Focus
* Microsoft
* Oracle
* Pivotal Software
* Salesforce.com
* SAP
* Snowflake Computing
* Teradata
* Yellowbrick Data

Included in the data science and machine learning list are:
* Big Squid
* Dataiku
* DataRobot
* Domino Data Lab
* H20.ai
* Immuta
* Knime
* RapidMiner

The other two lists were in last week's Booth Bites column.