Author: Duncan McLeod

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Duncan McLeod is editor of TechCentral.

Microsoft is officially launching itself into the smartphone hardware business. The US software company has made a E5,4bn cash offer to buy Nokia’s device and services business, to license the company’s patents and to use Nokia’s mapping services

Telkom’s general executive for regulatory affairs has resigned. Staff were informed on Monday that Andrew Barendse was leaving the telecommunications group. Barendse’s resignation comes just weeks after TechCentral revealed that newly appointed Telkom group CEO Sipho Maseko

Investors cheered Steve Ballmer’s decision to step down as CEO of Microsoft. The share price leapt higher by more than 7% on the day of the announcement that he would leave within the next 12 months, once a successor had been identified. Most critics said that, at best

Free software advocate Richard Stallman has told an audience in Johannesburg that South Africans should put pressure on government to scrap the electronic tolling of South African roads because the surveillance inherent in the system is a threat to their freedom

Link Africa, the fibre communications company previously known as i3 Africa, has scaled back its business, closing its Johannesburg office and ending its plans, at least for now, to build fibre-to-the-home infrastructure in South Africa’s big cities. TechCentral has learnt that 15 managers

Telkom’s bosses received huge pay hikes in 2013, despite deepening financial woes at the telecommunications group. Former group CEO Nombulelo Moholi, who left Telkom in March, took home slightly less money than she did in the prior year – a total of R11,6m, from R12,1m before – but this

Telkom paid the controversial former MD of its international operations and subsidiaries, Motlatsi Nzeku, a R13m “retirement settlement” to leave the telecommunications operator. The figure is contained in Telkom’s 2013 annual report

Vodacom has instituted legal proceedings against bulk SMS provider Telfree, claiming R54m it says it is owed for carrying millions of text messages across its network.
Rival MTN is already involved in a messy legal battle with Telfree. It wants to courts to find that it doesn’t have to carry Telfree SMSes

After an absence of several years, Ster-Kinekor is set to reintroduce IMAX threatres in South Africa, the cinema chain operator’s CEO Fiaz Mahomed revealed on Wednesday. The company has already begun construction of an IMAX theatre at the Gateway Theatre of Shopping north of Durban

Technology distributor Mustek has hiked its full-year dividend by 18%, from 17c/share to 20c/share, on the back of a strong improvement in cash from operations. Revenue from continuing operations rose by 16,3% to R4,1bn. Cash from operations rose by 226% to R145,5m due to inventory