Page 8 - bne_Tech_0809_2018

Leaders
August/September 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Romania’s Bittnet announces third takeover in one year
Romanian IT integrator and specialised training company Bittnet, controlled by brothers Mihai and Cristian Logofatu, reached an agreement to buy 25% in local educational software producer Equa- torial Gaming for RON1mn (€215,000).
The move came only one month after Bittnet, which is listed on the local AeRO market of the Bucha- rest Stock Exchange, announced it had reached
an agreement to take over the majority stake in another IT software producer, Elian Solutions.
Equatorial Gaming is the third major deal for Bittnet in less than one year. To finance the latest two deals, it launched a private placement worth €1mn.
"An estimated €100bn are spent annually in Europe with training programs. In recent years, we have taken advantage of our leadership posi- tion in the IT training market in Romania, but we also recognize that in order to remain leaders and continue to consolidate our position, we must
constantly bring new solutions to our customers,” said Bittnet CEO Mihai Logofatu.
Bittnet might get another 20% in Equatorial Gaming by the conversion of a RON1mn convert- ible four-year loan.
Bittnet is buying Elian Solutions in two stages: firstly it will achieve a 33% stake by a capital increase and afterwards it will purchase the necessary stakes to finally reach a 51% stake
Last September, Bittnet also completed the ac- quisition of local IT solutions provider Gecad Net for around €600,000. Following the acquisition, Bittnet said it aimed to double its turnover to €10mn and expand its customer base six times.
Bittnet was founded in 2007 and the company’s main activity is IT training and delivering end-to-end IT infrastructure services and solutions from market leaders like Cisco, Microsoft, Dell, VMware and HP.
Russia’s VK announces privacy changes to protect users from arrest
Russia social media site vKontakte (VK) expanded its privacy functions to give its users more tools to protect them from arrest, the company said.
The Kremlin has been cracking down on online criticism of the government. Vedomosti reports that of 182 criminal cases launched in 2017 for social network posts, 138 were based on VK posts, with another four people prosecuted for posts on Odnoklassniki and two for posting on Facebook.
The arrests have tarred VK with a reputation for being “too compliant” with the authorities, and is now making it harder for them to see what is posted or who posted it.
VK managing director Andrey Rogozov said the social network had begun implementing new privacy features due to the rise in criminal prosecutions in Russia for reposts and likes. Changes include making photos private by default, allowing only the original poster to see which users had reposted their material, and ultimately leading to the ability for users to make their profile entirely private, BCS Global Markets reports. Rogozov also said that more changes to the social network are in the works.
“Ongoing reports about criminal charges for social network posts are likely to lead to changes in fea- tures, user behaviour, and ultimately law enforcement practice but do not represent a fundamental threat to VK's business, we believe,” BCS GM said in a note.