Naspers Wilting In The Heat + DEMO Africa 2016 Highlights

Published: Aug. 29, 2016, 7:03 a.m.

b"The gravy train may well be over at Africa\\u2019s largest tech company (by market value)\\u2014 Naspers.\\n\\nNaspers CEO, Koos Bekker, told investors late last week that the coming year is going to be a trying one for the company. At this point, Naspers has only one card up its sleeve, and it\\u2019s called Tencent Holdings. After all, Naspers\\u2019 33 percent stake in the Chinese technology company currently accounts for almost half its revenue, and its internet and pay-tv businesses are stalling at a time when they desperately need growth to keep competitors like Google, Facebook and Amazon at bay.\\n\\nBekker\\u2019s cautionary statements led to a 0.3 percent decline in the firm\\u2019s share price-- which seems like a tame reaction by the market considering that S&P Global Ratings had already changed its outlook on Naspers' credit rating to BBB-, which is only one step up from junk status. In short, it\\u2019s rough in these streets.\\n\\nLast week saw DEMO Africa hosted in Southern Africa for the first time in its five year history. DEMO Africa 2016 went down in Sandton, Johannesburg, and we're pleased to say that it exceeded our expectations in almost every way.\\n\\nThe conference brought together 27 startups from across Africa, angel investors, venture capitalists, enterprise representatives and public officials all under one roof to engage in dialogue and witness adjudicated pitching sessions.\\n\\nWhat was most impressive, though, was the Pan-African crowd and the quality of the engagement that took place. In this episode of the African Tech Round-up, Andile Masuku shares snippets of great conversations he had with power players who are intricately involved with the continent\\u2019s tech ecosystem.\\n\\nTune in for insights from Investor and Founding President of the African Business Angels Network, Tomi Davies, Microsoft\\u2019s Director for Venture Capital & Start-ups, Africa Initiatives (Microsoft 4Afrika), Amrote Abdella, the City of Joburg\\u2019s Director of Economic Development Facilitation, Tsholo Mogotsi, Angel Investor, Farouk Jivani, and Managing Partner of the Lions @frica initiative, Stephen Ozoigbo.\\n\\nMusic Credits:\\nMusic by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)\\nMusic licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0"