Author: Gugu Lourie
Massmart, the owners of Game, Makro, Builder’s Warehouse and CBW, has revealed plans to pilot a standalone liquor store format. The new liquor store format will be powered by Makro. Massmart, which is owned by the world’s largest grocer, Walmart, revealed its plans for the standalone liquor store format in its latest integrated annual report. “We are prioritising the merchandise categories of bulk food, liquor, general merchandise, and DIY and the customer segments in which we are market leaders,” the company said in the report. “Our wholesale integration will be further enhanced by the unifying of IT systems and the enhancement…
Pick n Pay announced today that it paid R33 million to buy on-demand, online grocery service Bottles. In November 2020, Pick n Pay said it purchased the application system infrastructure and the related intellectual property relating to the Bottles on-demand mobile application for a purchase price of R33 million. “No goodwill arose from this transaction as the fair value of the underlying assets purchased equated to the consideration paid,” the company disclosed today. In addition to expanding its scheduled delivery service, Pick n Pay extended its Click n Collect offer and repositioned its one-hour liquor delivery partnership with Bottles into an…
Cell C seems unperturbed by losing close to 2 million customers in the 2020 financial year. The struggling mobile phone operator disclosed that its subscribers dropped by 13% to 12,5 million in 2020 versus 14,4 million in 2019. Losing a customer impacts a business in several ways; loss of a sale and future sales, reputational damage if a dissatisfied customer tells their friends or broadcasts it on social media, and loss of valuable referrals. But Zaf Mahomed, Cell C chief financial officer, said the company’s results reflect a business in transition. “We are starting to see the impact of our…
Pan-African cloud-based digital service provider inq. has announced that they are now a strategic managed security services partner of Elastic, the company behind Elasticsearch and the Elastic Stack. The aim of the partnership is to meet the increasing need for cybersecurity solutions in Africa and provide customers with security for connectivity and application tools to minimise their risk. “inq has benefited immensely from implementing Elastic’s security solutions across all of our operations in seven countries. We now want to enable our customers with the same tools to provide them with visibility across their networks, servers, security and advance their threat…
Cool Ideas now has the fastest fixed broadband speeds in South Africa, a report by speed test service Ookla said Friday. Speedtest Intelligence reveals the ISP was the fastest fixed broadband provider among top providers in South Africa in Q1 2021 with a Speed Score of 37.80. Cool Ideas was the fastest fixed broadband provider in South Africa with a Speed Score of 37.80, followed by Afrihost at 31.32 and Webafrica at 30.87. Calculating mean latency for top fixed broadband providers in South Africa during Q1 2021, Cool Ideas had the lowest latency at 10 ms, said Oookla. The ISP was started in…
New research from credible network speed-testing services has put MTN ahead of rival Vodacom in terms of the speed available on their respective networks. The reports from Ookla reveals MTN was the fastest mobile operator among top providers in South Africa in Q1 2021 with a Speed Score of 54.38 on modern chipsets. MTN also came up tops in the highest 4G Availability in the country with 90.5%. “Examining the percentage of an operator’s known locations where a device has access to 4G LTE service, we found that MTN had the best 4G Availability in South Africa during Q1 2021 at 90.5%,” said Ookla. “We…
IT giant IBM has acquired myInvenio, an Italian startup that builds and operates process mining software. myInvenio provides customers with a comprehensive AI-powered automation portfolio for business automation – including process mining, robotic process automation (RPA), document processing, workflow, and decisions – all built on Red Hat OpenShift. Process mining software can help organizations easily capture information from enterprise transaction systems and provides detailed — and data-driven — information about how key processes are performing. With the acquisition of myInvenio, IBM will help companies overcome the challenge of streamlining business processes that are cumbersome or create bottlenecks, slowing down innovation and…
Dell Technologies 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 – $12 billion (R172 billion) to all its shareholders and those of VMware. VMware will continue to use Dell Financial Services to help its customers finance their digital transformations. “By spinning off VMware, we expect to drive additional growth opportunities for Dell Technologies as well as VMware, and unlock significant value for stakeholders,” said Michael Dell, chairman and…
Vodacom has launched VodaLend Voucher Advance, which allows its customers to buy food and appliances on credit through VodaLend. Through Voucher Advance, Vodacom customers can choose to ‘pay now’ and buy vouchers at a discounted rate or get an advance and ‘pay later’. Qualifying Vodacom customers can access an interest-free advance on a Nando’s voucher starting from R25, or an R250 advance on vouchers from Hirsch’s. Hirsch’s is the biggest home appliances store in South Africa with branches nationwide. Once a voucher has been issued, customers will have 30 days to pay back their Voucher Advance. Vouchers are valid for…
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…
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…
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…
EOH turnaround plan is slowly starting to pay off as the JSE-listed technology group narrows headline loss for the six months ended 31 January 2021. The company said total headline loss per share (HEPS) improved by 83%, with losses narrowing from 350 cents per share to 60 cents per share. HEPS is South Africa’s main profit gauge. EOH said it is making a headline loss because of its over-indebted capital structure and inefficient legal entity structure. The management team continues to address this as a core focus area. Revenue was R4.4-billion, from R6.2-billion in the prior six-month period, EOH said. EOH…
Facebook or Instagram users can now appeal content to the self-styled Oversight Board which they want to be removed. For now, users could only appeal to have content restored to the platform after it had been removed by Facebook moderators. Content eligible for appeal to the board still includes posts/statuses, photos, videos, comments, and shares. “The Board will use its independent judgment to decide what to leave up and what to take down. Our decisions will be binding on Facebook,” the Oversight Board said in a statement on Tuesday. From today, this option is being rolled out and will be…
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…
How much is Epic Games valued as a unicorn? The maker of popular game Fortnite announced today that it completed a $1 billion (R14,5 billion) round of funding, which will allow the company to support future growth opportunities. Epic’s equity valuation is now $28.7 billion (R422 billion). This round includes an additional $200 million (R2,9 billion) strategic investment from Sony Group Corporation, which builds on the already close relationship between the two companies and reinforces their shared mission to advance the state of the art in technology, entertainment, and socially-connected online services. Other investment partners include Appaloosa, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity…
Capitec Bank CEO Gerrie Fourie had his pay cut in half in 2021, compared to 2019. Fourie’s total pay dropped to R49 million in 2021 versus R94.9 million in 2019. In 2021, his total salary cut was R23 million. Fourie’s guaranteed pay amounts to R13 million and R31.8 million in long-term incentives. Total guaranteed pay in light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Capitec board decided that executive directors will not receive an increase in their guaranteed pay from May 2021. Capitec chief financial officer, Andre du Plessis, was paid R33.3 million in 2021 versus R52 million…
Capitec Bank revealed that its retail clients using digital channels climbed by 28% to 8.6 million for the year ended 28 February 2021. “We are the biggest digital bank in South Africa with 8.6 million active users of either the Capitec banking app, USSD channel or a combination of digital channels,” the digital bank said. Capitec Bank continued to grow its active client base during the past year by an average of 160 000 clients per month – a 14% increase to 15,8 million customers. Gerrie Fourie, CEO of Capitec Bank, says the bank’s agility and tech focus came to the fore…
Microsoft has entered into a definitive agreement to buy Nuance Communications, a market leader in conversational AI and ambient intelligence, for $19.7 billion (R277 billion). Today’s acquisition announcement represents the latest step in Microsoft’s industry-specific cloud strategy. Microsoft’s acquisition of Nuance builds upon the successful existing partnership between the companies that was announced in 2019, the company said. By augmenting the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare with Nuance’s solutions, as well as the benefit of Nuance’s expertise and relationships with EHR systems providers, Microsoft will be better able to empower healthcare providers through the power of ambient clinical intelligence and other Microsoft…
Tim Hogins has launched Blacqmarket, the first online global marketplace securely backed by a blockchain in South African townships. Hogins is the founder of South Africans Green Outdoor Gyms, GOG Lifestyle Parks (GOG Gardens Soweto) and Happy Island, the biggest water theme park in Africa. Hogins, who hails from Randfontein, owns Hogins Enterprises, a diverse group of companies. A former security guard turned business magnate (serial entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist), says Blacqmarket is an equal opportunity large scale employer, proud supporting SMME entrepreneurship. “We live in unprecedented times. With the constant threat of unemployment, economic downturn and the COVID 19 pandemic…
The BMW brand delivered 560,543 vehicles to customers reflecting a 36.2% rise in the first quarter of this year. With 70,207 units sold in the first quarter of the year, the BMW Group more than doubled its global sales of both plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and fully electric cars. “Our sales performance was boosted by strong demand for our electrified vehicles, in particular. In the past three months, we doubled our global sales of electrified vehicles compared to the same period last year,” said Pieter Nota, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Customer, Brands and…
Naspers unit Prosus Ventures announced on Thursday it has co-led a $350 million (R5 billion) investment in HealthTech company API Holdings, which owns India’s largest integrated digital healthcare platforms. The investment was co-led by Prosus Ventures and TPG Growth. Existing investors including Temasek, CDPQ, LGT Lightrock, Eight Roads & Think Investments also participated in the Series E round. Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures) is the venture investing arm of Prosus that identifies new consumer needs that are being transformed by technology and finds founders and entrepreneurs at companies across the globe who are addressing those needs in the most innovative…
Naspers unit Prosus has co-led a €223 million (R3, 8 billion) investment round in Norwegian e-grocery business, Oda. Oda also rebrands today from Kolonial.no. The startup based out of Oslo offers same-day or next-day delivery of food, meal kits and home essentials. The funding round led by Prosus and SoftBank. Vision Fund 2[1]. Existing investors Kinnevik and REMA both participated in the investment round managed by Carnegie. As part of the transaction, Neil Cunha-Gomes, Investor at SoftBank Investment Advisers, and Roger Rabalais, CFO Food Delivery at Prosus Group, will join Oda’s board. While the food delivery companies within the Prosus portfolio…
T-Mobile is finally bringing the much-hyped 5G Home Internet to households in America. The telco announced today its Un-carrier move, described as a sweeping set of initiatives that mark the beginning of the #5GforAll era. The US-telco said its Home Internet launches today with more than 30 million households eligible and 10 million of which are in rural areas. Over the past few years, billions of dollars have been spent to build 5G networks. Billions more have gone for breathless ads touting the promise of a 5G-powered future. But for most people, 5G has been a total nonevent. Why? Because…
The Dutch arm of South African internet titan Naspers, Prosus announced on Wednesday it would sell a 2% stake in software giant Tencent worth $15 billion (R218 billion) at current prices in an accelerated offering to institutional investors. The sale would lower Prosus stake in Tencent to 28,9% from 30,9%. Prosus intends to use the proceeds of the sale to increase its financial flexibility to invest in growth, plus for general corporate purposes. “Tencent is one of the world’s best growth enterprises. It has consistently delivered value since listing in 2004. Prosus’s commitment to Tencent remains steadfast,” Prosus Chair Koos…