Xerox threatens to get hostile

The ongoing battle between HP and Xerox, and the acquisitions by Microsoft and PayPal, dominated the international ICT market last week.

At home, Cell C was still the focus of attention.

• Satisfactory interim numbers from the Huge Group, with revenue up 14% and profit up 7.4%.
• Mixed interim figures from Naspers, with revenue up 14.4% but profit down 4.2%; and Prosus, with revenue up 12% but profit down 9.4%.
• Mixed year-end figures from Reunert, with revenue up 2.4% but profit down 30.2%.
• Positive trading updates from Etion and PBT Group.
• Kenyan Internet provider BRCK will launch its free Internet service in SA, having expanded this year to become the largest supplier of public WiFi in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Huge Group has entered into a partnership with MTN to provide additional telecommunications services to the Huge Group companies.
• MTN South Africa has signed a new long-form roaming and services agreement with Cell C.
• Ireland-based Openet, which provides digital business support systems to telcos, has set up an office in Johannesburg.
• A withdrawn JSE cautionary by Blue Label Telecom.
• The appointment of Hugh Muller as head of Openet in SA.

• Angola Cables and Nokia have collaborated to provide a direct optical connection between Africa and North America. The fibre-optic routing between Sangano in Angola and Boca Raton, Miami in the US, has completed its final acceptance trial.
• Ireland-based Anam Technologies has opened its Anam Africa headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Jumia Technologies, often called "the Amazon of Africa", has suspended its e-commerce platform activities in Cameroon.
• Orange has completed its sale of its Orange Niger division to Zamani Com SAS company.
• The appointment of Murthy Chaganti as CEO of AirtelTigo.

• Formula Systems acquired Unique Software Industries, a software development and services company.
• Google bought CloudSimple, a leading provider of secure, high-performance, dedicated environments to run VMware workloads in the cloud.
• HKW purchased John M Floyd & Associates, a provider of software and consulting services for community banks and credit unions.
• Marlin Equity Partners acquired Wax Digital, a London-based provider of procurement and spend management software for organisations.

Kenyan Internet provider BRCK will launch its free Internet service in SA.

• NCR bought POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale and restaurant solutions company.
• Sonos purchased Snips SAS, an AI voice platform for connected devices that provides private-by-design voice technology.
• Amazon.com has filed a lawsuit in a federal US court contesting the US Defence Department's decision last month to award a Pentagon cloud computing contract worth up to $10 billion to rival bidder Microsoft.
• Bain Capital and some other investors are selling their remaining stake in Genpact, about seven years after the private equity company acquired a 30% stake in the business process management company.
• ComTech Telecommunications has agreed to purchase UHP Networks, a leading provider of innovative and disruptive satellite ground station technology solutions.
• Cyxtera Technologies intends to spin out its cyber security business into a separate company, to accelerate its efforts in the rapidly changing cyber security industry, which will operate as AppGate.
• Facebook has agreed to turn over additional documents, after the California state attorney general's office went to court this month to compel the social media firm to comply with requests for information in its privacy investigation.
• HP has rejected a $33.5 billion takeover offer from Xerox, saying it is too low, but the PC and printer maker made clear it is interested in discussing a deal to combine with its smaller rival, and threatened to go hostile with its bid if the personal computer maker did not agree to a “friendly” discussion before 25 November.
• Marissa Mayer, ex-CEO of Yahoo, has established a new venture, Lumi Labs, which is focused on building AI applications for consumers.
• PayPal has agreed to purchase Honey Science, the provider of a shopping and rewards platform, in a deal valued at about $4 billion.
• Sage Group has entered into an agreement to sell its Sage Pay business to Elavon Financial Services for about £232 million.
• ServiceNow has joined the S&P 500 Index.
• SoftBank has signed a $30 billion merger deal between Internet portal Yahoo Japan and chat app Line.
• Sony Pictures Entertainment has acquired AT&T’s minority stake in Game Show Network.
• US regulators have labelled two large Chinese telecommunications firms, Huawei and ZTE, a “national security threat” and voted to ban them from a federal subsidy programme, the latest move in a broader push to close them off from American customers.
• Vista Equity Partners has agreed to purchase Accelya, a provider of financial, commercial and analytics software and services for the airline and travel industry. It has also agreed to take a majority stake in Sonatype, a creator of automation technology for software supply chains.
• Apple and Intel have filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Fortress Investment Group, alleging the SoftBank Group Corporation unit stockpiled patents to hold up tech firms with lawsuits demanding as much as $5.1 billion.
• GCP Applied has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against AVM Industries.
• Viavi Solutions has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission to initiate a patent infringement investigation against LG Electronics, LG Electronics USA, LG Innotek and Optrontec.
• A US appeals court has voided a jury's calculation that Apple should pay $503 million for infringing patents owned by licensing firm VirnetX Holdings, setting the stage for another potential trial in a decade-old legal battle.
• Excellent quarterly results from StoneCo and Viomi Technology (back in the black).
• Very good quarterly figures from Endava.
• Very good half-year figures from Eckoh.
• Good quarterly numbers from Formula Systems, Intuit and NetEase.
• Satisfactory quarterly results from American Software and Mobile TeleSystems (back in the black).
• Satisfactory half-year numbers from Telecom Plus.
• Mediocre quarterly results from Motech.
• Mediocre half-year figures from CML Microsystems and Inmarsat.
• Mixed quarterly figures from ESCO Technologies, Gilat Satellite Networks and IEC Electronics, with revenue up but net income down; and from Amtech Systems (back in the black) and Nuance Communications (back in the black), with revenue down but net income up.
• Mixed year-end figures from Sage Group, with revenue up but net income down.
• Quarterly losses from Anaplan, Aurora Mobile, Avaya, Bilibili, Cabot Microelectronics, CooTek, i3 Verticals, Pinduoduo, Pure Storage, Sonos, Splunk and TSEC.
• A half-year loss from SRT Marine Systems.
• The appointments of Ralph Andretta as CEO of Alliance Data Systems; Osnat Ronen as chairman of Partner Communications; Mike Sievert as CEO of T-Mobile US (as of spring 2020); and Dhrupad Trivedi as CEO of A10 Networks.
• The resignations of Anil Ambani, chairman of indebted conglomerate Reliance Communications; and Adam Chesnoff, chairman of Partner Communications.
• The departures of Lee Chen, founder and CEO of A10 Networks (stays on as chairman); and John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile US (as of US spring 2020).
• A planned IPO from Swiss banking software company Avaloq.
• Planned IPOs in Hong Kong from Megvii, a Chinese artificial intelligence firm; and Yeahka, a Chinese payment technology services provider.
• An IPO filing in Australia by US-based Nitro Software, a provider of PDF tools, and an Adobe rival.
• An IPO filing for the NYSE from Bill.com, a creator of cloud-based financial software for small and medium businesses, founded in 2006.

Worldwide:

• Less than one-fifth of HR leaders believe performance management is effective at achieving its primary objective, according to Gartner. Though companies have been prioritising performance management improvements for years, 81% of HR leaders are still making changes and experimenting with their organisation’s performance management efforts.
• Mobile revenue in Africa will rise from $54.31 billion in 2019, to $67.12 billion in 2024, according to Ovum.

• JSE All share index: Up 1.3%
• FTSE100: Up 0.3%
• DAX: Down 0.6%
• NYSE (Dow): Down 0.5%
• S&P 500: Down 0.3%
• Nasdaq: Down 0.2%
• Nikkei225: Down 0.8%
• Hang Seng: Up 1%
• Shanghai: Down 0.2%

International:

• Sony acquiring a stake in the Indian television network controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani.

Africa:

• Orange listing its African businesses.

South Africa:

• Further developments regarding Cell C and the rumours of Telkom SA’s bid for the company.

Inc. magazine’s annual guide to the 5 000 fastest-growing privately held companies in the US has recently been published. Included in the list, with their rankings, are:

8: Selected Solutions Group, a telecommunications firm

22: SD3IT, a computer hardware company

23: ConvertKit, an e-mail service provider

24: Printify, the provider of a transparent print-on-demand platform

25: Awardco, the provider of an award recognition software platform

29: LumenAd, the provider of a software advertisement management platform

40: Allata, an IT systems development company

46: Beeswax, the provider of a bidder as a service solution

47: Netizen, a cyber security operations services company

48: phData, an IT management company

52: Podium, the provider of a customer interaction platform

60: Pax8, a value-added cloud distributor

61: Terminus, the provider of an account-based marketing platform

64: TradePending, a provider of software that connects auto shoppers with real market data through simple Web site integrations

68: Fetch Rewards, the provider of a mobile shopping platform that rewards shoppers for buying

73: Pendo, a product cloud creator for digital products and data-driven product teams

74: Core Software Technologies, a software company that specialises in providing business technology solutions to organisations

83: Asset Panda, a cloud-based asset tracking software and app

89: DigitalOnUS, an IT systems development company

94: US Mobile, a telecoms company