Author: Gugu Lourie

To understand the new smart monitors and other pro devices of tech health, we should look to Silicon Valley and the quantified movement of the latest generation. Apple’s Watch records exercise, tracks our moves throughout the day, assesses the amount of time we are stood up and reminds us to get up and move around if we have been sat for too long – let’s not forget Tim Cook’s “sitting is the new factor” line. Routinely evaluating your risk factors for various medical conditions, screening for cancer and other diseases, and assessing your lifestyle habits helps you stay healthy. It’s…

Cisco announced today plans to buy privately-held, U.S.-based Socio Labs, a modern event technology platform that provides event organizers with everything they need to successfully host in-person, virtual or hybrid events of any size and format. The purchase price was undisclosed. Together with Webex, Socio Labs and recently acquired audience engagement technology from Slido will enable Cisco Webex to deliver the industry’s most comprehensive hybrid event management solution. “The future of events, like the future of work, will be hybrid,” said Jeetu Patel, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Security and Collaboration. “With that comes increased complexity of…

To understand the new smart monitors and other pro devices of tech health, we should look to Silicon Valley and the quantified movement of the latest generation. Apple’s Watch records exercise, tracks our moves throughout the day, assesses the amount of time we are stood up and reminds us to get up and move around if we have been sat for too long – let’s not forget Tim Cook’s “sitting is the new factor” line. Routinely evaluating your risk factors for various medical conditions, screening for cancer and other diseases, and assessing your lifestyle habits helps you stay healthy. It’s…

South African company Ulink is bringing Virtual Reality solutions into schools in South Africa. Virtual reality is a simulated experience that can be similar to or completely different from the real world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment, education and business. Ulink is ensuring that South Africa is ahead of the curve, taking this new technology into the education space, and empowering our children’s development by factoring in the advancement of technology and adapting learning accordingly. The company is placing the focus on how the technology can be used to aid learning. There are clear educational benefits to be drawn…

Global tech investors Prosus announced plans to buy up to 45.4% of shares in its parent company, Naspers.  Post the transaction, Prosus free float would double to more than $100 billion (R1.4 trillion), increasing liquidity, market index weightings and enhanced trading dynamics. The Prosus board believes that the company will benefit from the step-up in size of its free float resulting from the proposed transaction. This transaction is expected to bring increased liquidity, improved market index weightings as a Top 20 STOXX 50 company, and enhanced trading dynamics, creating value for both Prosus and Naspers shareholders over the long term.…

Transaction Capital, the owners of SA Taxi, is in talks to buy an additional stake in WeBuyCars, a South African online car marketplace. The JSE-listed company informed investors today that it has entered formal negotiations with WBC Holdings (WBC Holdco), the holding company of WeBuyCars, and its shareholders to conclude a transaction in the short term. Transaction Capital said the deal would result in Transaction Capital Motor Holdco holding 74.9% of the shares in and acquiring control of WBC Holdco. Founders of WeBuyCars would have the remaining 25.1% stake. The company currently holds a 49.9% stake in the South African…

Phuthuma Nhleko, former MTN Group executive chairman, has been appointed as an independent non-executive director of the JSE. His appointment is effective 1 July 2021. The JSE also announced that Nhleko has also accepted the board’s invitation to serve as chairman-designate and will assume the role of JSE board chairman, with effect from the annual general meeting to be held in May 2022. “The board extends a warm welcome to Phuthuma and looks forward to his contribution and leadership,” said the JSE. Nhleko has extensive experience, both in South Africa and globally, in telecommunications, organisational strategy development, operations, M&A, corporate…

The South African government is embarking on developing regulations that will guide and regulate the implementation and roll-out of autonomous vehicle technology (AVT). In its Annual Performance Plan for the financial year 2020/21, the Department of Transport disclosed that we could not avoid the imminent changes in our road transportation system as a country. “These regulations, therefore, will ensure that the country remains competitive towards what the world will be offering. The country will be in a position where it can trade and operate the vehicles with autonomous technology,” the department said. The rest of the world is confronted with…

Twitter is officially adding the Tip Jar feature to the platform to enable users to send money directly to their favourite accounts. Starting today, everyone using Twitter in English can send tips to applicable accounts on Twitter for iOS and Android. “You drive the conversation on Twitter and we want to make it easier for you to support each other beyond Follows, Retweets, and Likes. Today, we’re introducing Tip Jar – a new way for people to send and receive tips,” Esther Crawford, Twitter’s Senior Product Manager, wrote in the company’s blog. “We $ee you – sharing your PayPal link…

The Estonian government’s e-Residency programme, a pioneer of the world’s first digital residency initiative, has launched a new digital ID card collection in Johannesburg. Many people have traveled from country to country while they remote worked over the past decade, but there were limited ways to do so legitimately until recently. Antiquated visa systems required travelers to define themselves as entrepreneurs or workers and required a company to sponsor their stay — an expensive, bureaucratic route with few guarantees. Instead, most people chose to label themselves as “tourists” but risked deportation if the authorities caught them out. For more read:…

The Facebook Oversight Board has ruled to uphold the decision to ban former US President Donald J. Trump from the social media network. Facebook’s Oversight Board acts as a quasi-court over the company’s content decisions. The former president was banned from both Facebook and Instagram in January following the Capitol Hill riots. The Oversight Board said it has upheld Facebook’s decision to suspend Trump’s access to post content on Facebook and Instagram on January 7, 2021. However, as Facebook suspended Trump’s accounts ‘indefinitely,’ the company must reassess this penalty, it said. “Within six months of this decision, Facebook must reexamine…

Attacq, the owners of Mall of Africa in Midrand, has launched SHôPING, a new app to offer online shopping. The app, launched in April 2021, allows The Mall of Africa’s customer and merchant community to access the Dashpay transaction platform. the platform facilitates in-mall navigation, wallet-less shopping and cashless gift card solutions, consolidating communication channels and offering a seamless customer experience to take the brick & mortar experience into the digital space. SHôPING is set to benefit merchants by increasing basket sizes as customers make use of a bespoke virtual currency – ZAKA – which can be earned and spent…

Crystal Partners, a newly launched female-owned and led South African investments entity, wants to be the premier choice partner for global and local companies seeking to establish and expand their footprint on the African continent. The investment firm has appointed sixteen specialists to seek agriculture, energy, technology & innovation, health, and mining opportunities. The company has been established as the Alternative Investment arm of the Sandton-based pan-African diversified investment company Beryl Group, focusing on proprietary investments. It holds equity interests in a balanced portfolio of medium and large capitalised companies spanning three core sectors: Logistics and Rail, Coal, and Financial…

The MoMo, a mobile money service, for MTN is gaining traction with its South African subscribers. Since its relaunch in South Africa in January 2020, MoMo has performed well, with approximately 3.1 million registered users on 31 March 2021, said MTN. “The focus remains on scaling the MoMo business and deepening financial inclusion through driving adoption as well as innovative and relevant service offerings,” the company informed investors today. Also read: Why the Relaunch of MTN’s MoMo is More Than a Mobile Money Service in SA? MoMo allows users to purchase airtime, prepaid electricity, and pay for their municipal bills…

MTN has received bids for the sale and lease back of some of its 13 000 South African telecommunications towers. Last December, MTN announced it was looking to sell and lease back part of its tower portfolio. “MTN SA continues its work in exploring a potential sale and leaseback of its passive tower infrastructure,” said Ralph Mupia. “Having issued invitations to offer expressions of interest in this regard, MTN SA has received over 20 responses and has engaged financial advisors to assist with the process. “We anticipate that this process will be concluded by the end of Q3 2021.” Under…

MTN Group announced today that it has established its first FibreCo in Zambia as part of its Ambition 2025 strategy to spin off fibre business. In March, MTN announced plans to demerge its Fibre and FinTech business and to bring third party investors to unlock value trapped in the company. MTN has 85 000 km of fibre network across the African continent and intends to seek partners to expand its footprint. The company will need about $500 million investment over the medium term to invest in the expansion of its fibre business into an open-access network. “GlobalConnect’s fibre development and separation projects are also…

MTN Group said on Wednesday that it expects to spin off its FinTech Business before the end of the first quarter in 2022. In March, MTN announced plans to spin off its FinTech Business. For more read: MTN Set To Spin Off Fibre, FinTech Businesses, Invite Third Party Investors “The FinTech separation project is progressing well, in line with our Ambition 2025 strategy,” Ralph Mupita, MTN Group CEO, said on Wednesday. “MTN Rwanda recently received a license to operate a separate fintech entity bringing the number of separated entities to 12 (out of 16 fintech markets). “We continue…

MTN Group announced on Wednesday that it had lost 1,7 million customers in the quarter ended 31 March 2021 hit by new SIM registration regulations in Nigeria. The company said excluding the Nigeria subscribers were up 3.4 million. MTN now has 277.9 million subscribers. On Monday, MTN Nigeria announced that its subscribers dropped by 5 million to 71.5 million due to the effects of customer churn and the regulatory restrictions on new SIM sales and activations. Last December, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) announced that the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) directed the NCC to embark on…

UK-based EV startup Arrival is working with Uber to design and build an affordable, purpose-built electric vehicle for the ride-hailing industry. The startup said the Arrival Car is expected to enter production in Q3 2023. Arrival will collaborate with Uber drivers in the design process over the coming months to ensure the Arrival Car reflects the needs of professional drivers and their passengers, with the final vehicle design expected to be revealed before the end of 2021. The Arrival Car will address the global need to shift ride-hailing and car-sharing services, with over 30 million estimated drivers across the ride-hailing…

Sony Interactive Entertainment has made a minority investment in Discord, a popular gaming-focused chat app. Sony will integrate the gaming-focused chat app with PlayStation’s own built-in social tools. “At PlayStation, we’re constantly looking for new ways to enable players around the world to connect with one another, form new friendships and communities, and share fun experiences and lasting memories,” Jim Ryan, President & CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment said. “It’s in this spirit that we’re excited to announce a new partnership with Discord, the communication service popularized by gamers and used by more than 140 million people every month around…

Standard Bank has launched a service status page to keep customers up to date about the status of banking services and offerings, following the extended disruption to banking services. Yesterday, the bank said it had identified a hardware issue that impacted its Mobile App, Internet Banking and ATMs. The issue has now been resolved and services across all banking channels are now fully restored. We apologise for the frustration that such disruptions cause you, the bank said on Twitter. Standard Bank said today it has launched a new service status page to give you real-time status of our banking services…

Dell Technologies is selling Boomi, a provider of cloud-based integration platform as a service (iPaaS), to investment firm Francisco Partners, and private equity firm TPG, for $4 billion (R57 billion). This is part of a strategy by the company to shave off its debt problem created when they bought EMC in 2015. In April, Dell announced plans to spin off its 81% equity ownership of VMware, forming two standalone public companies. The tech firm acquired VMware as part of the $67 billion (R963 billion) EMC acquisition in 2015. Under terms of the planned spin-off, VMware will distribute a special cash dividend of $11.5 –…

Verizon is to sell Verizon Media for $5 billion to New York Stock Exchange-listed Apollo Global Management. Verizon will retain a 10% stake in the company, which will be known as Yahoo at the close of the transaction and continue to be led by CEO Guru Gowrappan. Verizon Media comprises iconic brands such as Yahoo and AOL, as well as leading ad tech and media platform businesses. The corporate carveout will allow Verizon Media to aggressively pursue growth areas and stands to benefit its employees, advertisers, publishing partners and nearly 900 million monthly active users worldwide. “We are excited to…

Telkom has unveiled the May Big Deal, which is data-packed and keeps you connected for next to nothing. The SmartBroadBand 20GB Wireless LTE SIM-Only May big deal offer with 20GB of data is available for R99 a month. The Telkom March Big Deal deal includes the following: 10GB Anytime data 10GB Night Surfer data LTE MiFi router R99 Once-off activation fee Connects up to 16 devices Why the May Big Deal? Enjoy the convenience of connecting instantly, anywhere and at any time. No landline required, no technician needed. Just insert your SIM card, plug it and enjoy a fast, reliable connection. And…

YeboYethU, the broad-based black economic empowerment arm of Vodacom, says it is trying to find thousands of elusive shareholders who are yet to claim millions of rand in dividend payouts.   Last August, YeboYethu announced it was looking for thousands of shareholders owed close to R74 million.   “As things stand, 11 515 shareholders have not claimed dividends with a total value of R66 178 220.60,” a Vodacom official told TechFinancials.   The revelation that just over R66 million was yet to be claimed suggests that YeboYethu has only paid out R8 million to investors.   Some of the reasons…