Markets

Citing "slowing consumer purchases" amid high penetration rates in mature markets, IDC now forecasts tablet shipments will grow 19.4% in 2014 (to 260.9 million units), down from a prior estimate of 22% (271 million units).

OpenStack software solutions specialist Mirantis has announced its expansion plans across Europe with a new office in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.

With enterprise server sales under pressure and the cheap white-label servers used by data centres gaining more ground, IDC estimates global server revenue fell 4.4% Y/Y in Q4, a decline steeper than Q3's 3.7%.

European cloud services platform operator Interoute has launched its sixth European Virtual Data Centre (VDC) zone in Milan, in Italy.

Germany-based payment service provider (PSP) Computop has announced its partnership with a UK clothing retailer Joules as the company is getting ready for international expansion.

EU antitrust commissioner Joaquin Almunia has defended a deal with Google following criticism from rivals and others, saying there had been no gentlemen's agreement to close the case.

UNIT4, a Dutch cloud software group, has posted at the end of 2013 a decline of 37% in net profit which stood at €14.8m against €23.5m in the same period a year ago.

Polystar, a Sweden-based specialist in network analytics, monitoring and test solutions, has announced its expansion plans and new offices opening.

Specialist in IT systems management software Kaseya has announced a strong performance as it closed 2013. The results have been driven by increased SaaS adoption, new customer acquisition and recent management changes, it says.

Telenor Group's Q4 saw reported revenues of NOK 28bn (€3.3bn), showing organic revenue growth of 1%. EBITDA before other items was NOK 8.99bn (€1.1bn) and the EBITDA margin was 32.6%.