Latest Channel M&A: OpenText, HPE, Microsoft, Dell, More
Our latest monthly M&A roundup features an array of diverse businesses and agreements impacting the channel.
February 9, 2023
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Mitel is in ongoing, exclusive negotiations with Atos to acquire Unify, the UCC services businesses of the Atos group. The company said Unify’s portfolio, partners and talent would significantly expand Mitel’s scale and offerings.
Mitel and Unify would also have a collective customer base of more than 75 million users in over 100 countries. Their channel community would exceed 5,500 global partners.
In addition, Mitel will acquire Unify’s voice platforms, collaboration and contact center products, device and endpoint portfolio and related intellectual property.
Discover more about how this deal will expand Mitel’s offerings.
Microsoft has acquired data processing unit (DPU) startup Fungible to boost the scalability and performance of high-performance workloads.
While neither company disclosed the terms of the deal, reports indicated that Microsoft had acquired Fungible for $190 million. Fungible has reportedly raised over $300 million in venture funding from SoftBank’s Vision Fund and Northwest Ventures.
See what the growth forecast is for the DPU market.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is acquiring Pachyderm, a startup that delivers software to automate reproducible machine learning (ML) pipelines that target large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
HPE will integrate Pachyderm software with its existing supercomputing and AI solutions.
By integrating Pachyderm’s ML pipeline capabilities with its existing AI offerings, HPE will enable faster development and deployment of more accurate and well-functioning large-scale AI applications.
Read more from the article here.
Dell bought Cloudify, an Israeli startup that has built a platform for cloud orchestration and infrastructure automation. Cloud architects and DevOps engineers use Cloudify’s tools to manage containers, workloads and more across hybrid environments.
The transaction allows Dell to continue to innovate its edge offerings. Dell did not say how much it paid for Cloudify, but estimates suggest it’s anywhere from $70 million to $100 million.
DigitalOcean, an independent cloud computing provider, has snapped up SnapShooter, a U.K.-based backup and recovery company.
DigitalOcean said the SnapShooter purchase will better enable startups and SMBs to protect their cloud data. That includes files, apps and databases, the company said. Users back up their data from DigitalOcean and other cloud providers, as well as platforms including Laravel, WordPress, MongoDB and MySQL.
In this interview, learn more about the deal from Jeff Seifert, vice president of partnerships at Digital Ocean.
There are three new partner deals in the agent channel to know.
AppSmart added StrataCore to its Invest program. Bridgepointe gave equity status to a record-setting partner. And in a peripherally related category, consulting and professional services provider Inflow CX deepened its portfolio with an acquisition.
For StrataCore, the deal on one hand gives new funding to the organization, which will retain its leaders’ ownership of the business. On the other hand, it makes AppSmart StrataCore’s exclusive distribution partner. That move has big implications for other technology services distributors, considering that StrataCore was an Intelisys platinum partner.
Bridgepointe Technologies handed equity partner status to one of its fastest growing agents. Scott Coleman, who joined Bridgepointe as an IT strategist in 2021, has earned the recognition. Bridgepointe co-founder and chief revenue officer Brian Miller said Coleman became a partner in “record time.” Bridgepointe has given partner status to more than a dozen of its strategists. Its funding from Charlesbank Capital Partners has enabled it to do so.
InflowCX announced the purchase of BPO Partners at the end of last year. BPO provides, as you might expect, business process outsourcing, but specifically for the contact center arena. That fits well with Inflow’s charter, which is dedicated to helping customers source, design, implement and manage customer experience (CX) solutions.
Pennsylvania-based Renovus Capital Partners bankrolled the deal.InflowCX says it has established itself as the go-to partner in the contact center technology ecosystem.
Read more here about these deals.
OpenText is in the process of laying off 8% of its workforce. The reduction in headcount is fueled by the cybersecurity firm’s $5.8 billion acquisition of Micro Focus. Micro Focus is an enterprise software provider that helps customers accelerate their digital transformations.
“Consistent with previously announced cost synergies of $400 million, expect to balance the combined company through an approximate 8% workforce reduction due to the acquisition of Micro Focus,” the company said in a press release.
Find out what an analyst had to say about the deal and the layoffs.
Network service providers PacketFabric and Unitas Global are merging, resulting in a larger PacketFabric, a new global leader in network as a service (NaaS).
Lead investor Digital Alpha Advisors brought together PacketFabric and Unitas Global based on customer and market feedback to create an industry leading platform.
Unitas Global claims to be a global leader in intelligent automation for business internet connectivity. It provides end-to-end network design, pricing, ordering and visibility across more than 1,000 first/middle/last mile networks.
The expanded capabilities of PacketFabric create an attractive offering for enterprises, global channels and technology partners, the company said. Enterprises and partners no longer have to own, manage and operate the communication foundation of their businesses. PacketFabric enables an enterprise to design and control their own communication architecture.
Learn how this is a “significant” investment in the future of the internet.
CompTIA has acquired online training provider TestOut. The two companies are combining forces to extend tech learning, industry-recognized certifications and career accelerators to students around the world.
Utah-based TestOut provides IT training and certifications. It offers interactive, hands-on lab exercises, video training, written lessons, custom quizzes and certification exams, all in one integrated training package that is delivered on its online learning platform, LabSim.
Momentum continues to build for digital literacy across all occupation categories as projections indicate demand for tech workers will grow at twice the rate of the overall labor force.
Learn more about how CompTIA will accelerate training certification offerings.
New England-based technology advisor Amplix has purchased Net7, bringing on a company and a team that will bolster private equity-backed Amplix’s account management services.
Net7 is a nine-year-old company that consists of two entities — Net7 Solutions and Net7 Total Care. Amplix didn’t say how much it’s paying for Net7. The deal pairs Net7 with an Amplix leadership team its owners know well, as well as funding to scale. For Amplix, the acquisition adds technical and sales talent as well as a sophisticated technology life cycle management practice called Net7 Total Care.
Find out here why these two companies fit well with one another.
Elliott Management, an activist investor well known in the technology sector, has made a “multibillion-dollar investment” in Salesforce. The hedge fund has earned a reputation for pushing its portfolio companies toward drastic changes to increase shareholder value.
“Salesforce is one of the preeminent software companies in the world, and having followed the company for nearly two decades, we have developed a deep respect for Marc Benioff and what he has built,” Elliot managing partner Jesse Cohn wrote on Twitter. “We look forward to working constructively with Salesforce to realize the value befitting a company of its stature.”
Find out who else is an activist investor.
Private equity investment firm Grain Management has wrapped its acquisition of Spectrotel in a deal that helps the network aggregator significantly scale its managed services.
Spectrotel will bring to market a mobile device management offering as a result of the acquisition. The new funding from Grain allows Spectrotel to more quickly expand MDM to all of its customers.
The Spectrotel acquisition marks one of Grain’s first deals outside of infrastructure. New Jersey-based Spectrotel, founded in 1996, serves midmarket and enterprise customers.
Read more from our interview with Spectrotel’s founder and CEO.
Private equity investment firm Grain Management has wrapped its acquisition of Spectrotel in a deal that helps the network aggregator significantly scale its managed services.
Spectrotel will bring to market a mobile device management offering as a result of the acquisition. The new funding from Grain allows Spectrotel to more quickly expand MDM to all of its customers.
The Spectrotel acquisition marks one of Grain’s first deals outside of infrastructure. New Jersey-based Spectrotel, founded in 1996, serves midmarket and enterprise customers.
Read more from our interview with Spectrotel’s founder and CEO.
Mitel bought a UCC services business. HPE purchase a startup focused on machine learning. Our latest monthly M&A roundup features an array of diverse businesses and agreements, including those by Microsoft and Dell.
For example, take OpenText. The company is acquiring Micro Focus for $5.8 billion, but laying off 8% of the OpenText workforce. This was the only company we feature this month (and forgive the expression) killing two birds with one stone. However, as one analyst said, “I expect that the process of reconciling the product portfolios [of the two companies] will be one of the more complex efforts we’ve seen in some time.”
That acquisition might seem drastic, but other organizations are in the running for even more dramatic moves. Elliott Management, an activist investor well known in the technology sector, has made a “multibillion-dollar investment” in Salesforce. The hedge fund pushes its portfolio companies to make powerful changes to increase shareholder value. We’ll be keen to watch what happens at Salesforce in the next few months.
As for Dell‘s acquisition of Israeli startup Cloudify, it seemed relatively drama-free. That said, the company was a little vague about how much it paid for the company. Estimates put the deal in a range from $70 million to $100 million.
See our roundup, featuring Microsoft, Dell, HPE, Mitel and more, in the slideshow above. Catch the previous edition here.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Claudia Adrien or connect with her on LinkedIn. |
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