VMware hits the gas

Three acquisitions by VMware dominated the international ICT market last week.

At home, concern about the viability of Cell C as an ongoing business was high on the agenda.

• A negative trading update from Blue Label Telecoms.
• The Carlyle Africa (Buyout) Fund acquired SA-headquartered IsoMetrix, a supplier of integrated software for governance, risk and compliance.
• Independent management consulting firm IQbusiness bought Genex Insights, the South African-based insights and market research company.
• Eight high-potential fintech start-ups have been awarded R2 million each in entrepreneurial packages by the AlphaCode Incubate initiative.

• Jumia, Africa’s largest e-commerce operator, is struggling with internal fraud and legal threats.

• The appointments of Isa Ali Pantami as Nigeria’s minister of communication; Fadi Pharaon as SVP and head of market area Middle East and Africa at Ericsson; and Mercy Wanjau as interim DG of the Communication Authority of Kenya.
• The departures of Rafiah Ibrahim, SVP and head of market area Middle East and Africa at Ericsson (moves elsewhere within Ericsson); and Francis Wangusi, DG of the Communication Authority of Kenya.

• Accenture acquired Parker Fitzgerald, a strategic advisor and consulting partner to global financial institutions, thus further enhancing the business and technology capabilities within its finance and risk practice.
• Com & Tel Media bought Cellcast’s operating subsidiary, Cellcast UK, which provides interactive television programming, for £375 million.
• Descartes Systems Group purchased BestTransport.com, a cloud-based transportation management system provider focused on flatbed-intensive manufacturers and distributors.
• Elastic acquired Perched, a training and consulting company focused on security analytics, threat hunting and security operations.
• Goodix Technology bought the assets of NXP Semiconductors’ voice and audio solutions business.
• Lightview Capital purchased Buchanan Technologies, a solution provider.
• Microsoft acquired jClarity, a UK-based start-up aimed at optimising Java workloads on Azure.
• Nazara Technologies, an India-based mobile gaming start-up, bought 67% of Sportskeeda, a sports content Web site.
• ScanSource purchased intY, a UK-based distributor of cloud services.
• Siris, a private equity firm, acquired TPx Communications, a service provider.
• Sony Interactive Entertainment bought privately held Insomniac Games.
• Splunk purchased SignalFx, a data analytics software maker, for $1.05 billion.
• United Business Mail acquired LSC’s Commingle business for $11.25 million.
• Upland Software bought Cimpl, a cloud-based telecom expense management platform.

Look out for Naspers-owned PayU acquiring India-based online consumer lending platform PaySense.

• VMware acquired Carbon Black ($2.1 billion), a cyber security provider; Intrinsic, a security start-up; and Pivotal Software ($2.7 billion), a provider of tools for software developers working on cloud services.
• BlackRock, a private equity company, invested in Cofense, a cyber security company.
• Amazon made a 49% investment in Future Coupons, in a deal that gives Amazon the option to buy all or part of Future Coupons’ shareholding in Future Retail, an Indian supermarket chain operator.
• Apple has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Corellium, a software company that allegedly has copied its operating system, graphical user interface and other aspects of its devices without permission; it wants a federal judge to stop the violations.
• DXC Technology has won a $666 million award in its dispute with Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
• Qualcomm has won a partial stay against the enforcement of a sweeping anti-trust ruling in a lawsuit brought by the US Federal Trade Commission.
• BT will delist from the New York Stock Exchange.
• Facebook's proposed digital currency Libra faces an anti-trust probe by the European Union regulator.
• Maxcom Telecomunicaciones, a Mexican telecommunications company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, to enable it to restructure its debt.
• The US Department of Justice is working with state attorneys general to investigate the market power of technology companies.
• Qualcomm has reached a new patent licensing deal with LG Electronics, helping land its technology in a suite of wireless devices.
• Excellent quarterly results from Viomi Technology.
• Good quarterly numbers from Fabrinet, Formula Systems, Synopsys and VMware.
• Good half-year figures from MTI Wireless Edge and Soft-World International.
• Satisfactory quarterly results from HP, Keysight Technologies and OSE (back in the black).
• Satisfactory half-year numbers from Computacenter and Millicom International.
• Satisfactory year-end figures from Arcontech Group.
• Mediocre quarterly results from Analog Devices and Cheetah Mobile.
• Mediocre half-year figures from Gamania Group and Sopheon.
• Mixed quarterly figures from Baidu, Mobile TeleSystems, Opera, Photronics, Salesforce.com, Weibo and Xiaomi, with revenue up but net income down; and from ScanSource, Sina and Zayo Group, with revenue down but net income up.
• Mixed half-year figures from BATM Advanced Communications (back in the black), Giantplus Technology and Tribal Group, with revenue down but net income up.
• Quarterly losses from CooTek, Cree, Flexion Mobile, Intuit, iQiyi, Jumia Technologies, MediaValet, Pinduoduo, Pure Storage, QAD, SEA, Splunk and Yunji.

• Half-year losses from cloudBuy, Finablr, Powerchip Technology and Razer.
• The appointments of Timothy Duitsman as CEO of Westell Technologies; Enrique Lores as CEO of HP; Sandip Mukerjee as CEO of Tessco Technologies; Pratik Pal as CEO of Tata Digital; Amr Refaat as CEO of Gulf Business Machines’ regional operations; and Ravinder Takkar as CEO of Vodafone Idea.
• The resignation of Balesh Sharma, CEO of Vodafone Idea.
• The retirement of Murray Wright, CEO of Tessco Technologies.
• The departures of Alfred John, CEO of Westell Technologies; and Dion Weisler, CEO of HP.
• A planned IPO from Uhuru, a Japanese IOT technology company backed by SoftBank, on London’s AIM market. It is set for October.

EMEA/Africa:

• The 2019 Gartner “Hype Cycle for ICT in Africa” features three technologies that will have a transformational impact on businesses in Africa within the next 10 years: smart city frameworks, the Internet of things (IOT) and low earth orbit satellite systems.

Worldwide:

• In 2020, worldwide 5G wireless network infrastructure revenue will reach $4.2 billion, an 89% increase from 2019 revenue of $2.2 billion, according to Gartner.
• The market for 3D printed medical devices and pharmaceuticals will be worth $6.1 billion by 2029, which expects a CAGR of up to 18% in certain sub-segments, according to IDTechEx.

• JSE All share index: Up 0.2%
• FTSE100: Down 0.3%
• DAX: Up 0.4%
• NYSE (Dow): Down 1%
• S&P 500: Down 1.4%
• Nasdaq: Down 1.8%
• Nikkei225: Up 1.4%
• Hang Seng: Up 1.7%
• Shanghai: Up 2.6%

International:

• Mitel Networks acquiring Avaya.
• BT selling off over £100 million of telecoms infrastructure assets in the Netherlands, as well as its Irish assets.
• Buyout firm KKR selling off Epicor Software.
• South Africa:
• Naspers-owned PayU acquiring India-based online consumer lending platform PaySense.

Fast Company magazine recently published its 2019 Best Workplaces for Innovators list. Included from a technology perspective are:

• Activision Blizzard, the video games publisher;
• Amazon;
• AMD;
• Ansys;
• Attivo Networks, a cyber security firm;
• Blue Prism, the robotic process automation company;
• Cloudflare, a company that creates products that improve Web site security and performance;
• Influxdata, a database firm;
• Mozilla;
• Pivotal Software;
• Rubikloud Technologies, a company that combines retail data with machine learning and artificial intelligence to help businesses market and manage customer experiences;
• Salesforce.com;
• SAS; and
• Workiva, a provider of cloud-based data management tools.