Telkom and MTN abandoned their proposed merger without much of a fight, indeed without any fight at all. Word is the Competition Commission struggled to get the parties to consider accepting any sort of conditions that might have helped secure the necessary approval. And then neither even considered an appeal to the tribunal, which has been known to reject commission recommendations.story_article_left1The ease with which Telkom and MTN walked away from their bilateral roaming and radio-network sharing agreement has prompted speculation that at least one of the parties preferred not to go through with the merger.Telkom is seen as the more reluctant partner. S ince sealing the agreement 18 months ago, it may have realised there are better opportunities on the horizon. In telecommunications things change rapidly and what might have looked like a great deal at the beginning of 2014 may look decidedly sub-optimal as we come to the end of 2015.Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko said as much in a conference call with analysts on Tuesday. He made reference to speculation about some sort of deal with Cell C and, without committing, indicated this was in the mix of options facing Telkom. How convenient it must have been that the commission gave him an easy escape from the MTN deal.Is it possible that clauses will be injected into future deals obliging parties to consider Competition Commission conditions - within reason?Lewis shares perk upThere was relief for Lewis shareholders this week as the share edged up 3.5% following the group's annual general meeting (AGM). The recovery was surprising given the fractious nature of the AGM and the fact that nothing justifying shareholder cheer emerged from it.story_article_right2In addition to a prolonged discussion about unsavoury and possibly illegal credit-granting practices, concerns were raised about some of the group's accounting policies, in particular those relating to the controversial insurance products sold by the furniture retailer.The AGM's voting results make for interesting reading. Sixty-four percent of the shareholders were represented at the meeting, of which 6.5% voted against chairman David Nurek's re-election as a non-executive director and a very significant 23% voted against Nurek's membership of the audit committee. The same proportion voted against Ben van der Ross's membership of the audit committee and opposed the reappointment of PwC as the auditors.It was left to the vote on remuneration for shareholders to express their greatest concern. Forty percent of those voting at the meeting voted against the group's remuneration policy.Most voting is done by proxy ahead of the meeting, so it's evident shareholders were worried even before the AGM's heated debate . Until all this is resolved, it's difficult to see the share returning close to recent highs.Naspers is all about ChinaThe Naspers share price, which is a proxy for China sentiment, had another volatile week. Not quite as volatile as the previous week, but still a little stomach churning for those with a large exposure to the share (anybody with more than 10 of them).The latest news from China is not encouraging; the manufacturing sector continues to shrink and, as the Financial Times notes, consumption is not taking up the slack.Particularly worrying for Naspers shareholders will be the news that sales of smartphones in China have started to fall. Tencent's phenomenal growth over the past few years benefited hugely from the dramatic spread of smartphones.story_article_left3Trying to work out what is happening in China - even if you're in the country - is a foolhardy exercise; the country never fails to surprise. But in the absence of any signs of progress with its ambitious "one belt, one road" strategy to develop the regional economy, it's difficult to be too optimistic. And what a disappointment that the International Monetary Fund won't let the renminbi into its currency gang for at least another year. This week the fund announced the Chinese currency would not be included in its basket of reserve currencies, with the dollar, sterling, euro and yen,because it was not "freely usable".All of this may - or may not - have had an influence on the decision by Naspers's chief investment officer Mark Sorour to sell around R600-million worth of shares during the week.AshleyMadison and HSBCSo how many people in South Africa are desperately hoping they have not made it on to either list of cheats: the AshleyMadison list of cheating partners, or the HSBC list of tax cheats?For those who've managed to escape the wall-to-wall coverage of the hacking activity that has propelled AshleyMadison.com to media centre stage, the dating service is an infidelity website whose tagline is "Life is short. Have an affair". Hackers dumped e-mail addresses of millions of its customers, thought to have been secret, in the public domain.Less public, at this stage, is the list of South Africans who used a foreign HSBC account to evade their tax obligations. The SA Revenue Service (SARS) gave them until August 12 to come forward voluntarily, after which, it said, it would start issuing audit notification letters.Presumably only SARS would be able to work out how many South Africans are on both lists...