Avaya files for bankruptcy again

Paul Booth

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The Avaya bankruptcy news and several acquisitions by Accenture and NV5 Global dominated the technology world last month.

• Cyber Security South Africa and its sister companies Credence Security and Cyber Security Africa Distribution are rebranding and consolidating under a new brand identity – Trinexia.
• Ellies Holdings has agreed to buy Bundu Power, a company founded in 2005 that specialises in alternative power solutions (R202.6 million).
• Estonia-based global fintech firm Admirals Group has entered the South African market after obtaining local regulatory approval as a financial services provider from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority.
• Etion has been delisted from the JSE. 
• Groupe Canal+, the French pay-television company owned by Vivendi, has again increased its stake in MultiChoice to 30.3%.
• Naked, a South African-based artificial intelligence-based insurtech start-up, has raised about R290 million from various investors.
• The $100 million investment led by Naspers and ARS Holdings in Planet42, a start-up that rents out used cars via a subscription model.
• The appointments of new CEOs/MDs at AYO, ICASA, RedCloud Technology, Rubrik and Tarsus On Demand.

• A new CEO has been appointed at Jumia Senegal.

• 5C Network, an online medical diagnostics platform, acquired Krayen, an artificial intelligence (AI) health-tech start-up.
• Accenture acquired Bionest, a strategy and consulting firm dedicated to addressing complex strategic decisions for leading biopharma organisations across innovative areas of science, including precision medicine and diagnostics, oncology, cell and gene therapy and rare diseases. Accenture also bought Morphus, a privately held Brazil-based cyber defence, risk management and cyber threat intelligence services provider, and it has invested, via Accenture Ventures, in Ocean Genomics, a technology and AI company that has developed advanced computational platforms to assist biopharma companies to discover and develop more effective diagnostics and therapeutics.
• Auxo Investment Partners bought Morgan Royce Industries and Tack Electronics, both manufacturers of custom wire harnesses, cable assemblies and box builds for the semiconductor equipment, aerospace and defence, gaming, medical, transportation and energy equipment industries.

NetApp has quietly shut down its Spot PC virtual desktop technology business.

• Bentley Systems purchased EasyPower, a developer of design and analysis software tools, including arc flash solutions, for electrical engineering professionals.
• BetterPlace, Asia's largest SaaS and frontline workforce management platform, acquired a majority stake in MyRobin, Indonesia's blue collar workforce fulfilment company.
• Centerline Communications, a design, build and maintenance services provider for clients’ infrastructure, fibre and wireless networks, bought Canada-based Pearson Pelletier Telecom, a wireless network and infrastructure services company.
• Cohu purchased MCT Worldwide, a provider of semiconductor test handler automation equipment.
• Descartes Systems Group acquired GroundCloud, a cloud-based provider of final-mile carrier solutions and road safety compliance tools.
• Diversis Capital-backed Fishbowl Inventory, which provides enterprise resource-planning software, bought Sellware, an e-commerce manager for small and medium-sized businesses.
• Dry Line Partners purchased VizExplorer, which provides business intelligence software to the casino gaming industry.
• eBay acquired 3PM Shield, a provider of advanced AI-based marketplace compliance solutions.
• Elys Game Technology bought Engage IT Services, a premium software engineering and IT development firm.
• Enghouse Systems purchased Qumu, whose Video Engagement Platform provides video creation, content management and highly-scalable delivery solutions.
• Equifax acquired The Food Industry Credit Bureau, a provider of credit information for the food industry in Canada.
• Ernst & Young bought Tallan, a technology services company, which will be joining the Microsoft Services Group of EY.
• GI Partners purchased Rise Broadband, an internet provider that serves primarily rural communities.
• IBM acquired StepZen, which has developed a GraphQL server that helps developers build GraphQL APIs quickly and with less code.
• Magna5 bought the US assets of Apogee IT services, a Canadian MSP.
• Marqeta purchased Power Finance, a fintech infrastructure start-up.
• MicroVision acquired certain assets of Germany-based Ibeo Automotive Systems.
• NV5 Global bought Bromley Cook Engineering, a provider of forensics, specialty structural engineering and waterproofing to support facilities; Axim Geospatial, a provider of geospatial utility solutions; and Florida Diversified Consulting Solutions, a provider of owner representation services.
• Orion Innovation, a digital transformation and product development services firm, purchased Sryas, a global technology company.
• Pax8 acquired Bam Boom Cloud, a Microsoft Dynamics services company.
• SilverTree Equity bought Thesis, a software provider that offers a platform for automating university administrative tasks.
• The 20 MSP purchased Dallas Network Services and Integrated Business Technologies, two MSPs.
• Thoma Bravo-backed QAD acquired Redzone, which makes productivity software for the manufacturing industry ($1 billion).
• Avaya is filing for bankruptcy for the second time in six years.
• Cisco plans to acquire Valtix, a privately held cloud network security start-up.
• Cyren, an e-mail security and threat detection vendor, has officially decided to cease operations and will pursue liquidation of its assets.
• Equifax has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Boa Vista Serviços, the second-largest credit bureau in Brazil.
• Fidelity National Information Services plans to spin off the Worldpay merchant solutions business it acquired in 2019.
• HPE is buying Athonet, a private cellular network technology provider based in Italy.
• Indie Semiconductor has entered a definitive agreement to purchase GEO Semiconductor, a market leader in video processors for automotive cameras.
• Inflexion has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Swiss consulting services provider DSS+.
• Investcorp has agreed to buy a majority stake in software engineering company NetRom Software.
• Leeds Equity Partners has purchased TalentNeuron, a provider of human capital data and insights subscription solutions to corporations, government organisations and educational institutions, from Gartner.
• LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Aistemos, a patent classification company, which trades under the Cipher brand.
• Liberty Global has bought a 4.92% stake in Vodafone (£1.2 billion).
• The Lumine Group has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Titanium Software, which provides flexible and powerful platforms for telecommunication and government organisations to build out global carrier networks and secure private communication services.
• MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings has entered into a definitive agreement through one of its French subsidiaries to acquire the assets and operations of OMMIC SAS, a semiconductor manufacturer with expertise in wafer fabrication, epitaxial growth and monolithic microwave integrated circuit processing and design.
• A federal judge has rejected a request by Meta Platforms to throw out a $175 million jury patent verdict for walkie-talkie app maker Voxer regarding the former’s infringement of two Voxer patents related to video streaming and messaging.
• NetApp has quietly shut down its Spot PC virtual desktop technology business.
• OpenText has completed its massive $5.8 billion acquisition of fellow software and cyber security specialist Micro Focus.
• Parthenon Capital has agreed to buy Global Payments' gaming division, which will be renamed Pavilion Payments.
• PDFTron Systems, provider of document processing technology for developers and enterprises, has rebranded under the new name Apryse to better reflect the company's expanded offerings and commitment to innovation in the document processing space.
• RADCOM has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the technology, intellectual property and customer agreements of Continual, a mobility experience analytics company that uses AI and machine learning to deliver advanced insights to help telecoms operators improve their subscribers' mobility experience.
• Saudi’s PIF has bought a $265 million stake in Tencent-backed Chinese gaming company VSPO.
• Sumo Logic has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by affiliates of Francisco Partners.
• Syntagma Capital has entered into exclusive negotiations with Nexans SA to acquire its LAN/data centre and telecoms/fibre division.
• Trend Micro has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Anlyz, a provider of security operations centre technology.
• Wavenet has agreed to buy London-listed managed services provider Adept Technology.
• Zscaler has entered an agreement to acquire Canonic Security, a start-up focused on protecting against attacks that target software as a service, as concerns grow about the security of data in SaaS applications.
• The $900 million investment by Apollo Global Management Elliott Management in Western Digital.
• The investment by Booz Allen Hamilton via its corporate venture capital arm, Booz Allen Ventures, in Hidden Level, a developer of passive sensing technology of unmanned aerial systems such as drones, for high-interference environments.
• Comms VAR Focus Group has made a strategic investment in UCC provider Zest4.
• The $300 million investment by Google in Anthropic, an AI start-up.
• LLR Partners has invested in Viventium, a SaaS-based HR platform focused on health services.
• Francisco Partners invested in GreenSlate, a provider of payroll and production accounting services for the entertainment industry.
• The $180 million investment led by Springcoast Capital Partners, Splunk Ventures and Vista Credit Partners in Deepwatch, a cyber security specialist.
• The $100 million investment led by General Atlantic in Jobber, which offers operations management software.
• The $133 million investment led by Owl Rock in Juniper Square, a software company targeting private market managers.
• The $500 million investment by numerous investors in Sandbox AQ, a start-up spun off from Alphabet last year.
• The appointments of new CEOs at AMC Networks, Belden, Cass Information Systems, Conferma Pay, CyberArk, Intel 471, Perion Network, Saviynt, SBA Communications, Wish, Workiva and YouTube.
• The death of Gianfranco Lanci, former CEO of Acer.
• IPO filings from BMC Software (USA) and EPWK Holdings (Nasdaq).
• IPOs/listings from Hesai Technology (Nasdaq), Ionos Group (Frankfurt), Nextracker (Nasdaq), The NFT Gaming Company (Nasdaq) and UBTech (Hong Kong).

• According to Forrester’s Global Tech Forecast, 2022 to 2027, global tech spend will grow 4.7% to reach $4.4 trillion in 2023. The MEA and Asia Pacific regions will experience the fastest regional tech spend growth, despite macroeconomic challenges of slowing liquidity, tight labour markets and geopolitical turmoil.
• According to Gartner, worldwide shipments of total devices (PCs, tablets and mobile phones) are projected to decline 4.4% in 2023, to total 1.7 million units. In 2022, the devices shipment market declined 11.9%.
• According to IDC, overall spending on ICT across the META region will top $233.8 billion this year, an increase of 3.9% over 2022.
• According to IDC, worldwide tablet shipments posted flat growth of 0.3% year over year in 4Q22, totalling 45.7 million units. For the full year 2022, the tablet market saw a decline of 3.3%, ending two years of solid growth, although shipments remain well above pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, Chromebook shipments continued to contract in 4Q22, with shipments totalling 3.6 million units for a year-over-year decline of 24.3%. Shipments for the full year were down 48% in 2022 after an astounding 180.5% growth in 2021.

• JSE All share index: down 4.8%
• FTSE100: Up 1.5% (all-time high reached during the month)
• DAX: Up 0.4%
• NYSE (Dow): Down 3.4%
• S&P 500: Down 2.5%
• Nasdaq: Down 2%
• Nikkei225: Up 0.3%
• Hang Seng: Down 11.8%
• Shanghai: Up 0.1%

Fortune magazine recently published its 2023 listing of ‘The World’s Most Admired Companies’. Included in the list of 50 are:

• 1: Apple
• 2: Amazon and Microsoft
• 9: Alphabet
• 11: Salesforce
• 29: Netflix
• 32: Accenture
• 39: IBM
• 42: Samsung Electronics
• 45: Nvidia