David Kan, Mustek

Nazara Technologies, a mobile games developer and publisher, has entered into a partnership with Electronic Arts (EA) to distribute mobile games to over 770 million mobile phone consumers across Africa. The agreement entitles Nazara to exclusive distribution rights of EA mobile games to all telecom operators across the African continent in 49 countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana. EA’s portfolio of products includes top quality games such as Need For Speed The Run and EA Sports FIFA 13, which will be made available to consumers on Java and Android platforms through “N Play”, one of Nazara’s high traffic mobile gaming platforms.

Samsung and Getty Images have entered a partnership to help people across the globe share their stories through the power of photography. “Joining forces with an iconic brand like Getty Images is a natural progression for Samsung. Getty Images is the perfect partner to allow our consumers from around the world to share their individual stories faster and through better quality images than ever before,” says Michael Gibson, business leader for digital imaging at Samsung Electronics SA.

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Shaun Barendsen, HDS" />Teradata Corporation recently announced global availability of Marketing Studio 9, the latest version of its industry-leading Marketing Operations solution. Marketing Studio 9, part of the Teradata Integrated Marketing Cloud, delivers on the vision of connecting a company’s marketing campaigns with its internal operations and marketing spend activity to enable better, faster decisions through a data-driven approach to all marketing efforts and processes. Marketing Studio 9’s comprehensive offering also enriches both the product and technology experience of its users – today’s most advanced marketers. Now, thanks to the wide range of user-experience enhancements to the technology platform, companies can manage campaigns, spending and internal operations all through one global view, and drive trustworthy measurable results.

Mustek has completed the purchase of a 26% stake in former ConvergeNet entity Sizwe IT Group. This follows ConvergeNet’s restructuring announced last July, when it said it would sell several units, shut down its head office, and retrench staff as a result of its “deteriorating financial performance” due to “excessive costs and a lack of strategic focus”. Mustek paid R15.1 million, a fraction of the R40 million ConvergeNet paid just a year ago for a quarter of the company. Mustek will loan R6.7 million to Zaloserve, which is Sizwe’s ultimate holding company.

Clarotech has been appointed Digium’s newest authorised training partner, currently the only training partner in Africa. Courses are run at Clarotech’s Cape Town offices, under head trainer and dCAP holder Tony Russell. The Asterisk Fast Start and Asterisk Advanced courses are both presented twice annually, with additional dates available on request. Its aim in making Digium’s training courses available locally is to improve the overall standard of Asterisk professionals in the region.

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) is embarking on an aggressive growth strategy across sub-Saharan Africa, following the full integration of Shoden Data Systems into Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. Shoden was acquired by Hitachi Data Systems Corporation in February 2012, and officially changed its name to HDS in August last year. Shaun Barendsen, HDS General Manager for sub-Saharan Africa, says with the integration process complete, the company looks forward to a surge in growth over the next few years.

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Tim Humphreys-Davies, Pinnacle Africa" />NUTANIX recently announced it has been granted a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office recognising the company’s fundamental storage architecture for virtualised data centres, which not only obsoletes 20-year-old storage area network (SAN) technology, but also challenges the entire industry to design a next-generation storage architecture with comparable performance and scalability. The patent provides clarity as to how software-defined storage solutions are optimally designed and implemented, while at the same time bringing the technology into mainstream enterprises around the world.

Pinnacle Africa was recently appointed as an official distributor of Samsung Techwin’s B2B CCTV products. According to Pinnacle Africa managing director Tim Humphreys-Davies, the distribution rights will see Pinnacle bring Samsung’s industry-leading B2B security and surveillance products, including its high-performance premium security solutions, directly to customers through their expansive network of dealers across South Africa. “The addition of the Samsung Techwin product line to our growing array of products provides us with a unique opportunity to bring an industry-leading line of surveillance solutions to our dealers who are seeing an increase in the number of requests for security solutions for both consumer and commercial installation products,” Humphreys-Davies said.

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