Big M&A Update: Vonage, Sprint, Palo Alto, Facebook
We saw a lot of activity in security.
![Mergers and Acquisitions Mergers and Acquisitions](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/bltdb410c57ce23fd2e/652501bd202ede212b1f762d/Mergers-and-Acquisitions.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Vonage
Vonage announced in its biggest acquisition yet: NewVoiceMedia, a cloud contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) provider.
The $350 million buy merges Vonage’s UCaaS and CPaaS offerings with NewVoiceMedia’s cloud contact-center services to create "a more complete communications portfolio.” The deal should finalize in the fourth quarter.
Read about Vonage's pending transaction.
Sprint-T-Mobile
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has repeatedly criticized the planned merger of the two carriers and called for its demise.
The union asked every state attorney general to investigate "widespread negative impacts." Additional advocacy groups voiced their opposition to the deal, including Public Knowledge, Free Press and the Rural Wireless Association.
Read about why they disapprove.
GTT
GTT Communications acquired communication services provider Access Point in a deal valued at $40 million.
GTT adds a growing roster of strategic U.S. enterprise clients and deepens its presence in key verticals such as retail, manufacturing and energy. The company also said that Access Point offers complementary managed broadband, internet and voice capabilities that will reinforce its market leadership in cloud networking.
Read more about the purchase.
Facebook
This is more of a tantalizing possibility.
The massive social media company has vowed to improve its security and data-protection capabilities to regain the trust of users. News reports suggested that it will buy a security vendor to bridge the gap, or at least make a show of effort for the public. One name that came up was FireEye, a Milpitas, California-based company that has probed multiple prominent data breaches in recent years.
It's all speculation, but check out Edward Gately's analysis all the same.
Twilio
The cloud communications platform is bolstering its call-center capabilities by acquiring longtime partner Ytica.
Ytica provides contact-center reporting, speech analytics and workforce-optimization (WFO) software to enhance agent performance in the contact center, and offers businesses a unified view of the way they engage with their customers. The technology will be available as a part of Twilio Flex, the company’s application platform for the contact center.
Twilio also announced plans to buy email API platform SendGrid in an all-stock deal valued at about $2 billion.
Read details of the transaction.
Security Mania
Three security vendors made the news in the same week.
Bitdefender announced plans to buy Netherlands-based RedSocks Security, which specializes in automated detection of suspicious network behavior and combating cybercrime. eSentire said it would buy Seattle-based Versive, a cybersecurity AI company that delivers advanced threat detection and automation with its platform.
And finally, Fortinet completed its acquisition of ZoneFox, a privately held, cloud-based insider threat detection and response company based in Scotland.
Edward Gately covered the acquisitions in his security column.
InterVision
The managed IT consultancy announced plans to buy Infiniti Consulting Group, a provider of cloud services and IT consulting.
Infiniti provides AWS and Azure cloud, hybrid cloud and on-premises cloud services, as well as software design and development. Financial details of the acquisition weren’t disclosed. InterVision also gets access to a “team of expert cloud architects and technical specialists" via the acquisition.
Edward Gately has the story.
Cloudera-Hortonworks
Cloudera and Hortonworks are merging to become a "next-generation data platform provider."
Hortonworks delivers open source global data-management platforms and services, while Cloudera delivers a modern platform for machine learning and analytics optimized for the cloud. Both companies' products are built on open source, Hadoop distribution.
The value of the combined companies is estimated at $5.2 billion.
Lynn Haber covered the transaction.
Palo Alto
The cybersecurity giant will spend $173 million to buy RedLock, a cloud threat defense company that sells 100 percent through the channel.
RedLock provides threat defense across public-cloud environments. Palo Alto will combine Redlock's portfolio with Evident.io, which Palo Alto acquired in March. The end result will offer customers cloud security analytics, advanced threat detection, continuous security and compliance monitoring.
Learn why Palo Alto found RedLock to be a good fit.
AMP
The Australia-headquartered global investment manager officially purchased network service provider Everstream Solutions.
Everstream, which offers fiber-based Ethernet, internet and data-center services to businesses throughout the Midwest, will become "AMP’s platform for the consolidation of telecom assets in North America." Everstream said new funds from AMP will allow it to pursue acquisitions, new networks and organic network growth.
Read about the implications of the acquisition.
Flexera
The software asset management company acquired RightScale, a provider of multicloud management and cost optimization.
Flexera said gaining RightScale’s portfolio would help it take "a big leap forward in helping solve the critical problem of cloud services overspend and control.” RightScale services are built as vendor-agnostic solutions that support public and private clouds.
Get details on the purchase.
TetraVX
The unified communications and collaboration company bought Co-Mergent, a provider of Microsoft intelligent communications management and monitoring services.
TetraVX adds Co-Mergent’s monitoring and analytics platform to its product suite. Co-Mergent will work with TetraVX's cloud-based Microsoft offerings. The companies did not disclose financial details of the deal.
Get details on the acquisition.
TetraVX
The unified communications and collaboration company bought Co-Mergent, a provider of Microsoft intelligent communications management and monitoring services.
TetraVX adds Co-Mergent’s monitoring and analytics platform to its product suite. Co-Mergent will work with TetraVX's cloud-based Microsoft offerings. The companies did not disclose financial details of the deal.
Get details on the acquisition.
It’s M&A central in the cybersecurity market.
The months of September and October saw a variety of data protectors join forces with each other to improve their chances. Some of the biggest vendors, including Palo Alto and Fortinet, gobbled up new assets via acquisition. Even Facebook might be weighing the options of buying a security vendor.
It’s not surprising that a few of the companies in our latest M&A recap aren’t household names. Many small companies view consolidation as necessary to remain competitive in quickly crowding markets like UCaaS and SD-WAN.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t some big names going to town. T-Mobile and Sprint made their way into headlines for their merger as a union lobbied for the deal’s demise. And Vonage is going to spend $350 million on an acquisition that will boost its communications portfolio. Most have potential channel implications.
Scroll through the gallery below to see M&A of September and October.
Missed the previous M&A gallery? Find it here.
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