Roelof Botha, the grandson of former South African foreign affairs minister Pik Botha, was closely involved in the funding of social networking site Tumblr, which Yahoo this week agreed to buy for US$1,1bn. Pretoria-born Botha, who served on Tumblr’s board of directors, was also a key role player in the $1,5bn, 2002 sale
The government employees’ pension fund is to acquire a 25% stake, worth about R500m, in Independent News and Media SA, according to a report on Tuesday. According to Business Day, the fund already owns a 19,5% stake in Times Media Group, which publishes Business Day and other major titles in
Vodacom expects demand for data to offset a decline in voice revenues in the next few years, but with the margins on data slimmer and the price of data being driven down by a competitive market, the operator is also hoping so-called “over-the-top” services – content, social networking and financial services are three examples
It’s Google, Google and more Google – and a bit of BlackBerry – in the latest episode of TechCentral’s weekly podcast. Your hosts Duncan McLeod and Craig Wilson talk about the big news coming out of last week’s Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco. They also
The National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) has granted Eskom a licence for its Sere wind farm in the Western Cape, the power parastatal said on Monday. “This is an exciting milestone in Eskom’s move towards a cleaner energy mix,” Eskom CEO Brian Dames said in a statement. “Sere is our first
Few people remember third place. Whether in sport, science or business, there’s little glory attached to the bronze medal. But two multinational giants, BlackBerry and Microsoft, are straining to be the third player in the burgeoning smart phone market. The latest figures from
US senator John McCain has introduced a bill that proposes forcing cable television operators to allow Americans to subscribe to only the channels they choose rather than having to pay for bouquets of channels, many of which they never watch. The prospect of paying only for the channels
The department of communications, which recently appointed a new spin doctor in the form of Wisani Ngobeni to manage the growing fall-out over allegations of nepotism and corruption against its minister, Dina Pule, has again gone on the attack against the Sunday Times. At the weekend, Ngobeni
It has an arcane name and involves complex communications technology, but there’s every reason you and I should be getting very excited indeed about “television white spaces”, the gaps in spectrum between broadcast television channels. Google and Microsoft are pouring millions of dollars
Altron has made an offer to buy out the minority shareholders in its subsidiary Altech, the two JSE-listed companies announced on Friday. The move sent Altech’s share price soaring by more than 30% on Friday afternoon, shortly after news of the offer was published. The move had been widely expected
