The Hottest Channel M&A: UCaaS Providers, Verizon, Cisco, SolarWinds
UCaaS providers shored up gaps in their portfolios.
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Lifesize
The video conferencing provider bought a collaboration company.
Kaptivo has joined the vendor and helped Lifesize create a new digital whiteboard application as a result. Also, Kaptivo will exist as LifeSize's collaboration business, releasing standalone and integrated products and services.
Lifesize already acquired contact center solutions provider Serenova earlier this year.
Edward Gately has the scoop.
T-Mobile
The carrier unveiled its first formal partner program since its acquisition of Sprint.
T-Mobile in September announced its initiative to combine the "best of both T-Mobile and Sprint legacy channel programs." The company aims to improve relations between direct and indirect sales through compensation changes. It also hopes to use Sprint's established wireline business for cross-selling opportunities.
Read about the latest changes.
Verizon
The carrier is shelling out approximately $6 billion to boost its prepaid wireless business.
Verizon will buy TracFone from América Móvil and garner its 21 million customers. It's yet a another substantial acquisition for the company, which bought BlueJeans Network earlier this year.
Get details on what Verizon is gaining.
Dialpad
Dialpad upped its video game by buying Highfive.
Executives said Highfive will expand Dialpad's product portfolio and therefore increase cross-selling. For example, partners can give former Highfive-exclusive customers phone lines in addition to room conference systems.
Learn more about how the M&A bolsters Dialpad's UCaaS play.
CoreDial
The UCaaS provider announced M&A plans of its own.
The company said it would buy video collaboration and communications vendor eZuce. Executives said channel partners will benefit tremendously from the acquisition. eZuce owns a cloud-based video collaboration platform and a contact center offering.
“It will enable our channel to compete in a wide range of deals with SME seats and enterprise deals,” CoreDial's CEO said.
Read further about the transaction.
DataBank-Zayo
Zayo sold its colocation business to DataBank.
That makes Dallas-based DataBank the proud owner of 44 new data centers. On the other hand, Zayo gets back to its core competency: its fiber connectivity and network business.
The financially undisclosed transaction should close by the end of 2020.
Check out the implications of the deal.
Ingram Micro
Might another private equity firm buy the distributor?
Reports swirled that Platinum Equity is discussing the possibility of buying Ingram Micro. HNA Group, whose subsidiary acquired Ingram in 2016, has reportedly struggled to pay off debts.
In the meantime, Apollo Group acquired rival distributor Tech Data earlier this year.
Lynn Haber covered the story.
SolarWinds
Speculation also surrounded IT management solution provider SolarWinds.
In fact, the company publicly stated that it might spin off its MSP business into its own company. That would separate the unit from SolarWinds' core IT management business.
“By splitting the two businesses into separate companies, it may be that the business and related investment, spending and capital allocation policies of each company could be managed consistently with each business’ objectives," SolarWinds' CEO said.
Read about how the change might benefit partners.
Cisco
Cisco is bolstering its meeting audio quality via acquisition. The company is buying noise suppression technology provider BattleLabs. Cisco plans to initially use BattleLabs' solution in WebEx Meetings.
Read about the acquisition on Channel Futures.
Veritas
The data management provider expanded its digital compliance and governance portfolio by buying Globanet.
The companies were already partnering for some time. But now Veritas can strengthen its archiving and e-discovery offerings and "become the de facto standard" in content aggregation.
Learn more about Veritas.
HPE
SD-WAN provider Silver Peak officially joined HPE last month.
As a result of the $925 million acquisition, Silver Peak slotted into HPE's Aruba business unit. HPE executives say Silver Peak's SD-WAN technology will pair well with Aruba’s software-defined branch and remote worker solutions.
Get details on the integration.
Ericsson
I'll take wireless edge WAN solutions for $1.1 billion, Alex.
Ericsson announced the purchase of Cradlepoint, whose edge solutions will enhance Ericsson's 5G strategy. Cradlepoint earlier this year unveiled a 5G wireless edge solution portfolio, which will pair with Ericsson's networks and IoT platform. And Cradlepoint speeds up its global expansion plans as a result of the transaction.
Lynn Haber analyzed the deal on Channel Futures.
Ericsson
I'll take wireless edge WAN solutions for $1.1 billion, Alex.
Ericsson announced the purchase of Cradlepoint, whose edge solutions will enhance Ericsson's 5G strategy. Cradlepoint earlier this year unveiled a 5G wireless edge solution portfolio, which will pair with Ericsson's networks and IoT platform. And Cradlepoint speeds up its global expansion plans as a result of the transaction.
Lynn Haber analyzed the deal on Channel Futures.
The UCaaS market saw an uptick in M&A in the last two months.
In particular, providers that boast strong voice capabilities sought to acquire video conferencing platforms. CoreDial and Dialpad, in particular, spruced up their offerings by buying video conferencing companies.
The purchases come six months after Verizon announced its acquisition of video conferencing provider BlueJeans Network.
Speaking of Verizon, the carrier acquired a mobile virtual network operator for about $6 billion.
M&A activity ramped so much in the last two months that some acquisitions didn’t make our roundup.
Nvidia announced a $40 billion – yes, $40 billion – acquisition of system-on-a-chip processor provider Arm. IT management platform company Kaseya bought a phishing defense platform. And the U.S. Justice Department dinged CenturyLink for a violation of its Level 3 Communications acquisition agreement.
In addition to UCaaS, our editors covered M&A affecting SD-WAN, security and colocation. Scroll through the 12 images below to see what you missed in the last two months.
Also, check out the M&A recap from June and July.
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