Silicon Valley is as much about creating legends as it is about changing reality. Where else could a guy get turned down for a job and then, five years later, sell his company to the people that turned him down for US$19bn? I’m talking, of course, about
Nineteen billion dollars. Two hundred and ten billion rand. Nearly R500/user. That’s how much Facebook has agreed to pony up for WhatsApp, the fast-growing but still very much loss-making cross-platform mobile instant messaging platform. It’s a daring – perhaps insane – bet by Facebook’s
View the latest Backspace cartoon from Jerm.
It’s the end of an era. Naspers has announced that its long-serving CEO, Koos Bekker, 61, is stepping down as CEO. Bekker, who will stand down from the Naspers board for a year, will be succeeded by the media and technology group’s head of e-commerce
Power utility Eskom declared a power emergency on Friday between 4pm and 9pm and urged South Africans to use electricity sparingly. “We are going to use the available resources to man the system but there is a risk of load-shedding,” spokesman Andrew
An announcement regarding the mooted acquisition by Vodacom of Neotel could be made within the next couple of weeks, with due diligence nearing completion. That’s the word from Neotel CEO Sunil Joshi, who was speaking to TechCentral in
Controversy-plagued SABC acting chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng is going nowhere if his boss — the only person who can fire him — has her way. SABC board chairman Ellen Tshabalala said this week: “Hlaudi is diligent and very capable. The members of the board are right behind
Telkom has weighed in on the battle raging in the telecommunications industry over mobile termination rates, the fees operators pay each other to carry calls between their networks. Group CEO Sipho Maseko says recent moves to oppose reduced rates, which will take effect on 1 April, will delay reducing the cost
Vodacom and New Media Publishing have launched an application for Android and iOS that provides rugby fans with detailed information about the 2014 Super Rugby season, which kicked off this month. The Vodacom Super Rugby Stats app, which is available for free, was developed under the
The telecommunications industry has spent the past four years on a journey towards cost orientation, regulatory best practice and parity. That journey must continue and MTN fully expects termination rates to go on falling. But this fall must be informed by a transparent and credible cost study that reflects the
