CEE tech: Cisco snaps up Czech security group Cognitive
Nicholas Watson of bne
John Chambers is true to his word. Just weeks after the Cisco Systems chief executive said he had written a blank cheque to beef up its security business, the US technology giant has acquired the Czech Republic’s little-known but highly promising Cognitive Security.
The deal is further proof of central and eastern Europe’s growing clout in technology, in particular cyber security. Continue reading »
Tech Mahindra’s free rape alarm app
After the fatal assualt and gang-rape of a 23 year-old woman in Delhi last month, Tech Mahindra – a technology and consulting company in the Mahindra Group – has made free to the Indian public an application designed to “help make our streets safer for women”. Continue reading »
S Korea: shrugging off the threats
Investors don’t seem to mind North Korea’s missile threat that much. South Korean shares rose to a six-week high on Monday, despite North Korea’s announcement that it will fire a rocket in December for the second time this year.
The latest threat from North Korea may affect the country’s upcoming presidential election by boosting the popularity of the conservative candidate Park Geun-hye – but has failed to make an impact on the country’s financial markets. Continue reading »
India’s Topsgrup: appetite for risk
Not every company would be happy to have a prominent right-wing extremist on its roster of clients. But for Topsgrup, India’s largest private security company, Bal Thackeray – leader of the Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena political party and one of the most powerful men in Mumbai before he died this month – was just an ordinary Joe. Continue reading »
Huawei: another US probe
Huawei has not yet digested the last US public relations crisis as the next challenge is hitting.
Just ten days after a US Congress report called the Chinese telecom gear maker – and its smaller Chinese peer ZTE – security risks and proposed barring them even more strictly from the US market, Reuters reports another probe. Continue reading »
G4S could be hit by South African plans to boost local ownership of security groups
G4S, the global security company that came a cropper over its London Olympics contract, could be forced to sell off a chunk of its important South African subsidiary.
A new bill aims to curb the power of multinational private security companies operating in South Africa – by requiring them to have at least 51 per cent of the local subsidiary’s shares into South African hands. Continue reading »
Corporate watch: Paramount Group takes off with new aircraft
The ‘Ahrlac’ jet may not be an aircraft that you have heard of, but it has its place in aerospace history: it’s the first defence aircraft to be completely designed and manufactured in Africa.
Ivor Ichikowitz, founder and chief executive of its maker, Paramount Group, says proudly: “It’s 100-per-cent homegrown – it’s a big story for Africa, for realising that we don’t have to rely on the west to do things.” Continue reading »
G4S: emerging markets expansion will survive Olympics fiasco
G4S took a heavy blow in the UK this week, losing a £50m contract following its botching of Olympic security. With its reputation tarnished, worse may follow. However, even in the unlikely event that the UK government restricts the firm’s access to its proliferating outsourcing opportunities, G4S is much more than a UK company. Continue reading »
Nigeria: opportunity vs insecurity
In a five-star hotel in Ikoyi, the smartest part of Lagos, a few hundred suits tuck into sausages and egg over breakfast. The love flows. Peter Grauer, special guest and Bloomberg chairman, tells them how impressed he is with Nigeria. The head of the Nigerian stock exchange expresses his fondness for Grauer’s terminals.
Nigeria is rising, all seem to agree. There’s a problem though. As Arunma Oteh, head of the Securities and Exchange Commission points out, when people think of Nigeria today, the thing that springs to mind is not opportunity but insecurity. Continue reading »
Russia’s election cameras: what next?
Cameras set up at polling booths provided endless hours of amusement on Russian election day earlier this month. Now Rostelecom, the Russian phone company, is looking to get more mileage out of the video surveillance system it helped install.
As Rostelecom announced today, the Rb13bn ($440m) video surveillance project will live on, helping to transmit classroom lessons via the web and provide more security in schools. Continue reading »
Five unlikely shelters in the storm
Tired of the usual investment advice on the Brics? On the lookout for new up-and-coming countries? Here are few recommendations that you might not have considered.
Control Risks, a consultancy which looks mainly at political and security risks around the world, released a report called RiskMap 2012 on Monday – with some intringuing investment pointers. Its top five? Bulgaria, Colombia, Libya, Mozambique, and Sri Lanka. Continue reading »
G4S looks to secure EM business
Here is another British company that is increasing its bet on emerging markets. With 29 per cent of group revenues already coming from EM, security company G4S on Tuesday set a target of 50 per cent by 2018.
With 625,000 staff already on its books, we will be seeing a lot more of those black-uniformed security men with the G4S logo on their chests in India, China and Middle East.
Brazil security: there’s more work to do
Many Brazilians have been glad to see their country’s emergence as a vibrant economic power begin to eclipse yesterday’s national stereotypes: football, sex, and violence.
But last week, the world was given a grim reminder of the less attractive aspects of the old Brazil, when Google Street View reportedly captured images of dead bodies strewn throughout the streets of Rio and other cities. This made a small splash in the foreign press, but not so much locally, where the images were unfortunately less surprising. Continue reading »
UAE: BlackBerry, coffee, and snooping
BlackBerry users in the United Arab Emirates narrowly avoided the cold turkey of having to abandon their devices after the government last week lifted its threat to ban them.
Now a public relations drive has started with Research In Motion, the Canadian maker of BlackBerry, pledging free coffees and doughnuts to users at outlets of Caribou coffee houses over the next three “Happy Thursdays”. But some clarity over the security of their service would calm nerves more. Continue reading »
Violence casts shadow on Mexican businesses
By Ronald Buchanan in Mexico City
Foreign investors in Mexico have shown no visible signs of flinching at the violence plaguing northern Mexico. Not so much the locals, it would appear.
The Mexican Oil Congress and Expo was being wound up in Mexico City over the weekend after a second postponement caused a change in the original plans to hold the event in the northern gulf port of Tampico. Tampico is in Tamaulipas, the state where 72 migrants were massacred last week. Continue reading »
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