Top 20 Stories in August: Layoffs Galore, VMware, AT&T, Verizon, Google Cloud
A lot of layoffs. Two well-known telecom execs moving on. VMware partner program changes. But which was No. 1?
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Google Cloud announced plans to bring its partners and channel sales team together into one organization. Also look for the third-largest public cloud provider to double the amount it spends on partners over the next few years.
The move is an attempt to differentiate itself from its competitors, notably AWS and Microsoft Azure. The company is touting a 400% increase in ecosystem partners and a 250% spike in partner revenue.
Get more information on what the future holds for Google Cloud partners.
A report from the team at Juniper Research identified Twilio, CM.com and Infobip as the three top contact-center-as-a-service providers in the market. Twilio took top honors for having a “flexible CCaaS product offering by supporting multiple OTT messaging applications and voice services.”
The industry as a whole has sunny skies in front of it. The same report predicts CCaaS market revenue to grow by a record 216% by 2027. Revenue will be $15.6 billion, up from $4.9 billion this year. Growth will be spurred by subscription model, advanced analytics capabilities, AI-enabled chatbots and personalized video solutions.
Learn more about these exciting trends here.
After a relatively quiet period in terms of tech layoffs, they are starting to rear their ugly head again as concerns over the potential for tougher economic times loom.
PwC released results of a survey that say 50% of businesses queried are planning layoffs in the coming months. Those include companies in technology and telecom.
PwC polled more than 700 U.S. executives, with nearly two-thirds of those from Fortune 1000 companies.
Executives cited a distinction between hiring people with the right skills and those without. Moreover, nearly one-half will drop of reduce signing bonuses. Another 44% are rescinding offers.
See what else they have planned.
Nobody likes bad news, but they tend to want to read about it.
Security provider OneTrust confirmed it’s letting go about one-quarter of its workforce, or 950 employees. The cuts come not because the company is doing poorly — it reports record quarters and increasing customer demand — but because “reducing our headcount and adapting to the capital markets sentiment is what is needed to keep us in our leadership position,” OneTrust’s CEO said.
Here’s reaction to the cuts.
Our story on POTS replacement “scare tactics,” published in May, remains in our top 20.
We told you how vendors, partners and customers were eyeballing an Aug. 2 deadline for decommissioning of plain old telephone service (POTS) lines, supposedly mandated three years ago by the FCC.
It turns out that was misinformation. An FCC rep confirmed to Channel Futures in May that the Commission did not issue an Aug. 2 deadline. The ruling merely applied to a very small subset of POTS lines that lie outside the bounds of what channel partners sell.
Find out what the future might hold.
A champion of the AT&T channel retired after a 32-year run at AT&T Business.
Anne Chow, the first woman to serve as CEO of AT&T Business, and first woman of color to be CEO of any of AT&T’s divisions, called it quits.
Chow joins AT&T in 1990 and steadily worked her way up the corporate ladder. At one point, as president of national business, her job involved developing strategy for indirect channel programs for tech services distributors and resellers.
As usual, the channel kept a close eye on merger and acquisition activity. Rarely did a day pass in August where there wasn’t a consolidation announcement of note.
Among the biggest: Ericsson completed its acquision of Vonage; Nitel bought Hypercore Networks; and N-able bought Spinpanel.
We break it all down here.
Channel cybersecurity guru Edward Gately had a sitdown with new SonicWall CEO Bob VanKirk, and you were curious to find out what he had to say about the company’s channel program six years after it divested from Dell Technologies.
It’s a promotion for VanKirk, who was previously chief revenue officer.
We asked him about the company’s next chapter, what partners can expect with him at the helm, changes to the company’s business and channel strategies, and more.
Despite debuting in June, our comprehensive list and ranking of the top managed service providers in the world is still top of mind.
You were still looking at the full list of winners and our collection of galleries highlighting the 501 best MSPs of 2022.
Another high-profile exit from a major carrier.
Sarah Marsh, who spent 16 years at the company, was a key figure in Verizon‘s partner strategy. Her most recent title was director of channel strategy and sales enablement.
Here’s the story we wrote on her decision to leave Verizon.
And in the breaking news category, Marsh just Tuesday revealed on LinkedIn that it’s her first day as director of partner channels at Workday, the enterprise management cloud provider.
ATSG, which bills itself as a tech-enabled managed services and solutions company, bought Vology in its latest acquisition of a managed service provider.
ATSG was attracted by the Florida-based company’s robust cloud practice.
Get the full scoop on this acquisition.
Big changes are coming to VMware Partner Connect, the company’s channel program.
The highlight?: A cloud-first framework that includes several fresh incentives and program restructures.
The overall aim is to enable partners of all kinds to build their VMware cloud businesses while “championing customer outcomes.”
Our Kelly Teal breaks it all down.
More layoffs at No. 8.
Announced the first week of the month, RingCentral said it was initiating layoffs that impacted about 50 employees at its headquarters in Belmont, California.
The company’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice read: “Changing business needs require us to reduce our workforce at the facility permanently.”
The cuts become effective on Sept. 18 and Sept. 25. They include more than a dozen senior roles, including a marketing operations role, a senior systems integration manager and several senior software engineers.
We break it all down here.
VMware lands in our top 20 countdown for the second time.
In this case, we learn that, on the cusp of finalizing its sale to Broadcom, the company is putting the brakes on the amount of time before closing internal sales.
Some customers apparently want to lock in long-term contracts before Broadcom takes over, considering the unknowns that come with an acquisition of this size.
Business Insider was first to reveal contents of a leaked memo that laid out the concerns.
Read the full story here.
I’m not sure how many times we’ve mentioned “layoffs” so far in this countdown of top stories, but I don’t like it.
In this case, it’s Nutanix, the cloud computing company, which acknowledged it’s cutting 4% of its workforce, or about 270 employees. The company’s SEC filing “is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to drive towards profitable growth.”
The layoffs come despite solid earnings from the company. Nutanix plans to pay the ex-employees severance and other termination benefit costs that land between $20 million and $25 million.
Frontier Communications workers in California were back on the job in late August after a few days on the picket lines.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) members were protesting how the company subcontracts some of its work. After negotiating, Frontier agreed to adhere to subcontracting limits set in a collective bargaining agreement.
Still, issues remain unsolved. The workers have been without a formal contract since April 16.
Get the nitty-gritty on the dispute.
An offshoot of our 2022 Channel Futures MSP 501 list, this list highlights those partner businesses that are growing the fastest.
Perhaps you can apply some tactics from these companies to make this list next year.
Normally, we would hate to be predictable. But it’s OK when it’s Channel People on the Move, which rarely ever falls out of the top five.
This edition feature new hires and promotions at Five9, Microsoft, Zoom, Lumen, AWS, Comcast Business and many more.
It probably comes as no surprise since layoffs have featured so prominently in this countdown, that our telecom-IT layoff tracker would land so high here.
The industry has its eyes on companies that are cutting positions. We featured those from the first half of the year.
Some Avaya execs last month expressed “substantial doubt” that the company can continue as a viable business. That prompted TalkingPointz’s Dave Michels to speculate that another bankruptcy is possible for Avaya, despite being just five years removed from chapter 11.
In its latest earnings report, Avaya cited a revenue drop of 20% year over year. The company also borrowed $600 million in June. Its stock fell as low as 87 cents per share but has since surpassed the $2 mark, up 24% Tuesday as news came down that it’s beginning its restructuring process, which includes layoffs.
New CEO Alan Masarek, formerly CEO of Vonage, took over the reins in July. He has acknowledged Avaya’s issues, but stated last month that the business is “taking aggressive actions to right-size Avaya’s cost structure to align with our contractual, recurring revenue business model.”
Avaya has been criticized for being slower to migrating to the cloud as some of its rivals. But now it’s all-in on cloud with its OneCloud portfolio.
Get more details on Avaya’s situation and channel impact here.
Some Avaya execs last month expressed “substantial doubt” that the company can continue as a viable business. That prompted TalkingPointz’s Dave Michels to speculate that another bankruptcy is possible for Avaya, despite being just five years removed from chapter 11.
In its latest earnings report, Avaya cited a revenue drop of 20% year over year. The company also borrowed $600 million in June. Its stock fell as low as 87 cents per share but has since surpassed the $2 mark, up 24% Tuesday as news came down that it’s beginning its restructuring process, which includes layoffs.
New CEO Alan Masarek, formerly CEO of Vonage, took over the reins in July. He has acknowledged Avaya’s issues, but stated last month that the business is “taking aggressive actions to right-size Avaya’s cost structure to align with our contractual, recurring revenue business model.”
Avaya has been criticized for being slower to migrating to the cloud as some of its rivals. But now it’s all-in on cloud with its OneCloud portfolio.
Get more details on Avaya’s situation and channel impact here.
There are reasons to celebrate and reasons for concern in our latest top stories countdown. The top channel stories from August feature VMware partner program changes and more investments from Google Cloud.
For celebration, we recognize two business leaders who are moving on: Verizon‘s Sarah Marsh and AT&T Business’ Anne Chow. We also put a spotlight on the fastest-growing companies in the 2022 Channel Futures MSP 501.
On the flip side, we reported on a lot of job cuts in August. Not surprising that such alarming news would land in our countdown several times.
But we aren’t the ones who select the top 20 — you do. We aggregate results of most-read stories from our website and our newsletters. You can sign up for those here.
In the meantime, see our top 20 countdown for August in the slideshow above. What was No. 1? And if you missed last month’s countdown, it’s here.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Craig Galbraith or connect with him on LinkedIn. |
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