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Nvidia abandons Arm acquisition

The company’s plan to acquire British chip designer Arm for $40 billion has been abandoned due to difficulty in getting regulatory approval.
Paul Booth
By Paul Booth
Johannesburg, 28 Feb 2022

The ICT market last month was dominated by Nvidia’s abandonment of its UK-based ARM deal, the finalisation of the AMD/Xilinx deal and AT&T’s planned spin-off of WarnerMedia in a deal valued at $43 billion. 

Key local news

  • The SA-based Mara Phones smartphone manufacturing facility is no more.
  • Salesforce has established its first legal entity in SA.
  • Vumatel has acquired a 45% non-controlling stake in Herotel, a fixed wireless internet service provider.
  • The R1.3 billion investment led by Arrowroot Capital, with participation from Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, Endeavor Global and Harvest in SA-founded Clickatell.
  • The appointments of new CEOs and MDs at Cisco and XLink.

Key African news

  • Seacom will acquire selected infrastructure assets from Africell in Uganda that wound down its operations last year.
  • The $250 million investment led by Avenir Growth Capital and Tiger Global in Nigeria-based Flutterwave, an Africa-focused fintech firm.
  • The appointments of new CEOs and MDs at Africa Data Centres, Cisco, Park Place Technologies and Westcon-Comstor.

Key international news

  • Altair acquired Cassini, a next-generation cloud native technology for Industry 4.0.
  • Anexinet bought Veristor Systems, a fellow list maker.
  • Apple purchased AI Music, a start-up that uses artificial intelligence to generate tailor-made music.
  • AudioEye acquired Square ADA, a trusted accessibility solution in the Squarespace ecosystem.
  • BCE bought Canada-based EBOX, an internet, telephone and television service provider.
  • Bharti Airtel purchased a strategic stake in Aqilliz, a 'blockchain as a service’ company, and formed an agreement to acquire about a 25% equity stake in Lavelle Networks, an SD-WAN start-up.
  • Carlyle Group acquired Involta, a hybrid IT, cloud computing and data centre services company.
  • Check Point Software Technologies bought Spectral, which focuses on code safety and trust, fast code scanning and providing a simple developer experience.
  • UK-based Chess has announced the acquisition of TTNC, a telecommunications solutions provider.

AMD has finalised its $50 billion acquisition of Xilinx.

  • Cloudflare bought Vectrix, a company that provides businesses with one-click visibility and control across all of their SaaS applications.
  • Concord purchased SwiftWIN Solutions, a provider of digital consulting services.
  • Converge Technology acquired German-based Visucom, a fellow solution provider.
  • Daisy bought UK-based XLN Group, a business broadband provider.
  • Datadog purchased CoScreen, the collaboration platform for technical teams.
  • Descartes Systems Group acquired NetCHB, a leading provider of customs filing solutions in the US.
  • FIS bought Payrix, an innovative fintech company that specialises in enabling SaaS-based platforms to embed payments and financial technology into their offerings to enhance the payments experience for SMEs.
  • ForeScout purchased CyberMDX, an early-stage healthcare security vendor.
  • The GB Group acquired Cloudcheck, a New Zealand-based provider of electronic identity verification and anti-money-laundering solutions.
  • General Informatics bought CMS IP Technologies, an MSP.
  • Godspeed Capital purchased the Savli Group, a provider of software and IT automation solutions to mission-oriented federal agencies.
  • Gupshup acquired Knowlarity Communications, a global leader in cloud communications, offering cloud telephony and contact centre automation ($100 million).
  • HP bought Choose Packaging, a packaging development company and inventor of the only commercially available zero-plastic paper bottle in the world.
  • IBM purchased Sentaca, a telco consulting services and solutions provider, and Neudesic, a Microsoft Azure partner.
  • Juniper Networks acquired WiteSand, a pioneer of cloud-native zero trust network access control solutions.
  • Lemongrass bought Wharfedale Technologies, adding new specialisations in SAP migration and management on Microsoft Azure.
  • UK-based Midwich purchased UK-based distributor Nimans along with other subsidiaries from Nycomm Holdings.
  • NetApp acquired Fylamynt, a developer of CloudOps automation technology.
  • NewRocket bought Service Stack Technologies, a ServiceNow partner.
  • nLIGHT purchased the assets of plasmo Industrietechnik, an Austrian-based provider of automated quality assurance and diagnostic solutions.
  • Razorpay acquired a majority stake in Curlec, a leading Malaysian fintech start-up.
  • Radware bought SecurityDAM, a cloud DDOS network operator.
  • Resideo Technologies purchased privately held Arrow Wire & Cable, a leading regional distributor of data communications, connectivity and security products.
  • Ricoh acquired Axon Ivy, provider of a digital process automation platform.
  • SovTech bought MACS Software, one of the UK's leading independent providers of warehouse management services.
  • Softline Holding purchased India-based Umbrella Infocare, a cloud services company.
  • Spotify acquired Podsights and Chartable, two services that provide greater insights for advertisers and podcasting publishers.
  • Snyk bought Fugue, a cloud security posture management vendor.
  • The Channel Company, parent of CRN, purchased bChannels, a 23-year-old global channel marketing powerhouse with a breakthrough AI-based precision marketing platform.
  • The Purple Guys acquired Technology Pointe, a fellow MSP.
  • Tyler Technologies bought eDirect, a provider of technology solutions for campground and outdoor recreation management.
  • Upstack purchased DVP Technologies, which provides networking, data and cloud solutions, and Subsidium Technologies, which specialises in communications, cloud and collaboration solutions.
  • Veritas Capital acquired Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company, a learning technology company ($2.8 billion).
  • Xerox bought Powerland, an IT services provider in Canada.
  • 3D Systems has entered into an agreement to acquire Kumovis, a German-based additive manufacturing solutions provider for personalised healthcare applications.
  • Akamai has agreed to purchase Linode, which bills itself as an alternative to Amazon Web Services ($900 million).
  • AMD has finalised its $50 billion acquisition of Xilinx.
  • Apple and Broadcom have persuaded a US appeals court to throw out a jury verdict requiring them to pay $1.1 billion for infringing California Institute of Technology patents related to WiFi technology for iPhones and other Apple devices.
  • Irish IT procurement and services firm Arkphire has rebranded to Presidio following its acquisition by the US reseller in 2020.
  • AT&T will spin off WarnerMedia in a $43 billion transaction to merge its media properties with Discovery.
  • Atlassian will be acquiring chatbot service Percept.AI.
  • AVI-SPL has agreed to acquire Dublin-based AV integration specialist Sonics.
  • Belden has inked a deal to sell its cyber security subsidiary ($350 million).
  • BlackBerry will sell its legacy patents primarily related to mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking to a special purpose vehicle, Catapult IP Innovations, formed to acquire the company's patent assets ($600 million).
  • Citrix Systems is to be taken private for $16.5 billion, including debt by affiliates of Elliott Management and Vista Equity Partners.
  • Cloudflare has agreed to purchase Area 1 Security, an e-mail security company.
  • Darktrace has agreed to buy attack surface management vendor Cybersprint.
  • EMCORE has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets and liabilities of the L3Harris Space and Navigation Business.
  • EQT and Verdane have agreed to sell SaaS provider Forsta to Press Ganey, a healthcare analytics company.
  • Equifax has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Efficient Hire, a provider of cloud recruiting, onboarding and HR management solutions.
  • Georgian and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec have agreed to buy a 50% stake in ESentire, a cyber security company.
  • Help/Systems has signed an agreement to acquire Tripwire to extend its cyber security portfolio.
  • Intel has signed a definitive agreement under which it will acquire Tower Semiconductor ($5.4 billion).
  • London Stock Exchange Group has agreed to buy cloud-based technology provider TORA ($325 million).
  • LogMeIn is now officially following the launch of a new platform, GoTo Resolve that combines support and communication solutions all in one application.
  • Mohalla Tech, the parent company of India's ShareChat, will acquire local rival MX's short-video platform ($700 million).
  • Nvidia’s plan to acquire British chip designer Arm for $40 billion has been abandoned.
  • Panjit International has announced plans to acquire up to a 30% stake in power management IC specialist Champion Microelectronic.
  • Persistent Systems will acquire assets of Data Glove, a provider of cloud and application transformation and infrastructure and managed services.
  • PriceRunner, a Swedish price comparison firm, was suing Alphabet-owned Google for about €2.1 billion, the latest firm to take legal action alleging the search giant manipulated search results.
  • Resideo Technologies has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire First Alert, a leading provider of home safety products ($593 million).
  • SoFi is buying banking software provider Technisys.
  • Sony Interactive Entertainment will acquire Bungie, the original creator of the Halo video game and developer of Destiny ($3.6 billion).
  • Syria's telecommunications authority has awarded Wafa Telecom a licence to be the country's third mobile telecoms operator.
  • Telefonica SA has agreed to buy – with its partner, fashion retailer Zara's owner Amancio Ortega – a 40% stake in its unit Telxius, a telecoms infrastructure operator (€216 million).
  • Tenable Holdings has signed an agreement to acquire Cymptom, a leader in attack path management.
  • Privileged access management vendor ThycoticCentrify has renamed its business Delinea.
  • Toshiba aims to break up into two companies with the spinning off of its devices business.
  • ViacomCBS will change its name to Paramount.
  • The investments by Accenture in SwayBrand, a multicultural media technology platform that helps brands connect with diverse influencers, and Talespin, a spatial computing company focused on workforce talent development and skills mobility.
  • The $760 million investment by Apollo Global Management in Legendary Entertainment, the studio behind recent films such as Dune and Godzilla vs Kong.
  • The $100 million investment by Blackstone in media-tech firm Cloudinary.
  • The $325 million investment by Georgian and CDPQ in eSEntire, a managed detection and response vendor.
  • The investment by Insight Partners in Gamma, a provider of integrated multi-physics system simulation software.
  • The $200 million investment by India's Reliance in Glance, a lock screen content company backed by Alphabet and owned by ad-tech firm InMobi.
  • The investment by Saudi Aramco of a 7.4% stake in Norwegian industrial software group Cognite.
  • The investment by Wipro in vFunction, a start-up that has developed a scalable, AI-based technology platform for modernising Java applications and accelerating migration to the cloud.
  • The $100 million investment led by Evolution Equity Partners in multi-factor authentication provider Beyond Identity.
  • The $116 million investment led by 20VC in Tripledot, a casual mobile games developer.
  • The investment led by Alkeon Capital in Starburst, a data analytics firm.
  • The $140 million investment led by an Alphabet unit in Salt Security, Palo Alto’s cyber security start-up.
  • The $140 million investment led by Capital G in Salt Security, which offers protection against attacks on APIs.
  • The $500 million investment led by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala in Asian data centre operator Princeton Digital Group.
  • The $250 million investment led by Liberty Strategic Capital in cyber security services provider BlueVoyant.
  • The investment led by Lightspeed and Silver Lake in Alchemy, a Web3 developer platform.
  • The investments led by NEA in Branch, a developer of a mobile linking and attribution platform designed to unify user experience and measurement across devices and channels ($300 million), and Uniphore, developer of a conversational automation platform designed to help enterprise businesses manage interactions with their customers ($400 million).
  • The $450 million investment led by Sequoia India in Polygon, which offers a decentralised Ethereum scaling platform designed to help developers build and manage apps.
  • The $200 million investment led by Temasek in Amber Group, developer of a global digital asset platform.
  • Investments led by Tiger Global in Genesis, provider of an application development platform for financial institutions ($200 million); Israel-based Cheq, a creator of go-to-market cyber security products that protect customer data from bots and fake users ($150 million); and Timescale, which offers an open source time-series SQL database ($110 million).
  • The $250 million investment led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Global in Chargebee, an enterprise software start-up.
  • The $1 billion investment led by Vista Equity Partners in cloud-based security solutions provider Securonix.
  • The appointments of new CEOs at Adjust, ARM, Brightcove, Chinadata Group, Diebold Nixdorf, ExtraHop, Keysight Technologies, Orange, SecureAuth, Sharp, Swisscom, Verisk and Vishay Intertechnology.
  • An IPO filing from Cybereason (USA).
  • IPOs/listings from Anghami (Nasdaq), Direct Digital Holdings (Nasdaq), Elm (Saudi Arabia), Maris Tech (Nasdaq) and Qingdao AInnovation Technology Group (Singapore).

Research results and predictions

  • Overall spending on ICT across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa will top $229 billion this year, an increase of 2.7% over 2021, according to IDC.
  • The Middle East and Africa personal computing devices market, which is made up of desktops, notebooks, workstations and tablets, posted strong year-on-year growth of 11.5% in the final quarter of 2021 with shipments reaching 6.8 million units, according to IDC.

Stock market changes

  • JSE All share index: Up 1%
  • FTSE100: Up 0.3%
  • DAX: Down 6.9%
  • NYSE (Dow): Down 1.9%
  • S&P 500: Down 1.1%
  • Nasdaq: Down 0.6%
  • Nikkei225: Down 0.9%
  • Hang Seng: Down 3.3%
  • Shanghai: Up 2.7%

Look out for

  • An Alphabet stock split.
  • KKR orchestrating an Optiv IPO or sale at more than a $3 billion valuation.
  • Microsoft buying Mandiant.

Final word

Fortune magazine recently published its latest ‘The World’s Most Admired Companies’ list. In the top 10 were:

1: Apple

2: Amazon

3: Microsoft

7: Alphabet

9: Netflix


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