Heartlines, a values, transformation and upliftment initiative is working to finalise its Forgood channel to inform, connect and inspire South Africans for social action. The Convergence Partners Foundation is a founding partner of Heartlines Forgood social networking platform.

The support provided by Convergence Foundation included financial as well as advisory assistance in setting up the platform. This was done in partnership with the investee companies in the Convergence Partners portfolio.

Convergence Foundation believes strongly in the need to develop, build and strengthen the value system within our society and that technologies such as social networking platforms can contribute significantly to achieving these objectives.

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On 15 July 2010, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (“NTT”) Dimension Data Holdings plc (“Dimension Data” or “DiData”) announced that they have reached agreement on the terms of a cash offer to be made by NTT for 100% of Dimension Data. The offer, totalling approximately GBP 2.1 billion (R24.4 billion), was unanimously recommended by both Boards of Directors.

NTT, one of the largest global telecommunications service providers in the world, has limited presence in certain emerging markets where Dimension Data is very strong, specifically Africa and the Middle East. The transaction is a huge vote of confidence in DiData, South African and Africa, and the rationale of both parties is to capitalise on the significant growth opportunities that are unfolding.

Andile Ngcaba, Chairman of Dimension Data’s Middle East and Africa business (“DDMEA”), as well as of its minority shareholder Convergence Partners, is excited about the deal and how its positions DiData in this region. “With access to the resources, products and R&D of the NTT Group, DDMEA is better positioned than ever to grow its presence and capitalise on new and fast growing market opportunities, such as cloud computing. The deal is great for the country and the company”.

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Convergence investees SkillPod Media and Integrat have launched their joint mobile games portal, Play4Games.co.za, which supports all the most popular smart phone handsets. The site has been branded as Play4Games and forms part of Integrat’s mobile entertainment brand Play4. The platform makes use of the Integrat High Gate mobile payments platform and the SkillPod Media mobile games platform.

Gaming is increasingly moving from the console and PC to the smartphone. This trend is driven by factors including the higher penetration of smartphones, the affordability of these devices, easier access to app stores, increased penetration of Flash on mobile devices and the ever growing installed base of the Opera Mini browser.

In the past smartphones were targeted at business users, but this trend is steadily changing and today it’s become a trend for the youth to be seen with their smartphones.

Research figures show that worldwide mobile game sales will reach- €7 Billion by 2013 (Source: BuddeComm). This will be fuelled by greater penetration of new generation handsets, cheaper data costs and increased connectivity speeds, fuelled by increased network speeds and access to wireless networks. The mobile web is on the increase and in South Africa more users access the web from their mobile phones than from computers.

Web browsers play an important role in this growth, as they are striving to improve the functionality, user experience and speed of the mobile web. Opera’s iPhone browser was downloaded more than 2.6 million times, during April, creating 70% of user growth in the month for Opera’s mobile browser. In June alone more than 26.4% of cellphone browsing has been done through Opera’s browser, according to Web analytics firm StatCounter.

In conclusion it is safe to say that mobile gaming is here to stay, both locally and internationally and it remains an incredibly popular form of entertainment and technology is driving the growth from a multitude of angles and across multiple devices.

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SkillPod Innovation

SkillPod Integrat

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Dimension Data and Convergence Partners Foundation has extended their e-learning program into the Limpopo Province, by establishing an e-learning centre at the Hudson Ntsanwisi School, over the weekend.

This is the sixth province included in the program, which focuses on using technology to improve education in underprivileged schools. DiData says it aims to have 40 000 learners throughout SA on its e-learning programme by 2015.

Andile Ngcaba, chairman of DiData Middle East and Africa and Convergence Partners, says while the primary objective is to improve the quality of education in disadvantaged schools, the program has additional benefits, such as demystifying technology for both teachers and learners.

Each e-learning centre includes a trolley equipped with computer equipment that can be moved around the school; connect to the Internet; and features education software aligned with the Grade 10, 11, and 12 maths, science, English, and life skills curricula.

Ngcaba says: “Our e-learning program is more than an education tool – it’s a community builder.” He explains that learners are able to access the technology during school hours as well as on Saturdays. This ensures the technology is not simply an additional teaching aid, but encourages learners to take responsibility for their own education and become catalysts for the establishment of a learning society, notes Ngcaba.

On Saturdays, the e-learning centers enable parents and the general community to participate in the modernisation of their children’s education, he adds, and to support them in becoming technology proficient.

According to DiData, during the past three years it has implemented its e-learning program in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, the Eastern and Western Cape, and the North West Province. This has introduced over 10 600 Grade 10, 11, and 12 students and their teachers to the advantages of online and computer-assisted learning.

The program is already delivering an improvement in matric pass and university entrance rates in participating KwaZulu-Natal schools, where it was first introduced to Grade 10 learners three years ago.

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Inala Technologies and Convergence Partners Chairman, Andile Ngcaba announced the appointment of Executive Director, Laurentius Human, as Chief Executive Officer of Inala with effect from June 2010. The company, which has grown into one of Africa’s leading Telecommunications and Broadcast systems providers over the past 14 years, is currently represented in 17 African countries and is poised to expand into India, South America, the Middle East, and Turkey.

Human is well known in the technology sector in South Africa and Canada. He brings a wealth of local and international business experience and will provide stewardship to Inala through the next phase of its growth and international expansion.
Ngcaba said the current CEO, Braam de Villiers, would remain active in the company and continue to develop the company’s international business interests and assist in its global expansion.

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Dimension Data, the $4 billion IT solutions and services provider, has achieved Global Certification from Cisco. This elite designation recognises Dimension Data as having fulfilled the training requirements and program prerequisites to sell, deploy and support Cisco® networking solutions around the globe. Dimension Data becomes one of four organisations with this elite status worldwide.

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The Technology Top 100 (TT100) awards ceremony was held at Vodaworld last night. Convergence Partners’ investee SkillPod media was a finalist in the Excellence in the Management of systems category.
The SkillPod Media team and shareholders are delighted with this award of recognition for the time, effort and investment that have been put into the development of the globally competitive casual gaming platforms and services, which are being used by many of South Africa’s top media businesses, including Media 24, KTV and Independent Newspapers. The platforms and services have been implemented with a number of leading international publishers in as far a field as Netherlands, USA, Poland, Luxembourg, Hungary and Ukraine. The next few months are an exciting time for SkillPod, with further expansion of the online games platforms into Turkey and Vietnam.

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New Dawn, the first of its kind joint venture between Convergence Partners and Intelsat, is on track to launch its $250m geostationary communications satellite, which is targeted at the African market, by the end of the year, Flavien Bachabi, vice-president for Intelsat Africa said yesterday, 13 April 2010.

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Business Day

IT News Africa

Tech Central

IT-Online

At the ninth annual Metropolitan Oliver Empowerment Awards ceremony held on the 25th March 2010, Dimension Data was awarded the prestigious most empowered ICT company award.  The award recognised the significant strides taken by DiData in demonstrating its commitment to black economic empowerment, reflected in both its shareholding and employment equity practices. The chairman of Convergence Partners, Andile Ngcaba, is actively involved in driving the black economic empowerment strategy of the company in his role as executive chairman of Dimension Data Middle East and Africa. Convergence Partners, as the lead participant in the black economic empowerment consortium that partnered DiData, is proud to be associated with this achievement.

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Convergence Partners, together with Altius Investment Holdings, takes a 40% strategic equity stake in Bloodhound Technologies, a leading South African radio frequency identification (RFID) systems and solutions provider.

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