Boss Insights – News Items:
SAP to Acquire Customer Identity and Access Management Company, Gigya for $350 Million
Walldorf - SAP SE has announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Gigya, a company offering customer identity and access management solutions. Major independent analyst firms, most recently Forrester Research,* have positioned Gigya as a top vendor in this field. Gigya’s customer identity and access management platform helps companies build digital relationships with their customers, manage customer profiles, preferences, opt-in and consent settings, with customers maintaining control of their data at all times. Customers opt in and register via Gigya’s registration-as-a-service, which addresses changing geographical privacy issues and manages compliance requirements such as the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Gigya currently manages 1.3 billion customer identities in order to build identity-driven relationships for its enterprise clients. https://news.sap.com/sap-to-acquire-gigya-market-leader-in-customer-identity-and-access-management/
Wunderman’s Acquires Pierry to Focus on Technology, Data and Digital Content
Redwood City - 20th September 2017 - Pierry Inc. has announced that Wunderman, a WPP company and global, digital agency, has acquired a majority stake in their company. “Pierry is one of the very best companies at helping clients use Salesforce Marketing Cloud to manage their customer relationships,” said Mark Read, Global CEO of Wunderman. Pierry, which began as a team of two back in 2008, has grown rapidly to employ nearly one hundred strategy, creative, technology and digital specialists, with offices in Redwood City, CA, Boulder, CO, New York City, NY, Ruston, LA and Kyoto, Japan. Through our proprietary MaaS™ (Marketing as a Service) approach, our mission has always been to assist companies in optimizing their digital marketing initiatives, improve efficiency, impact and increase ROI. Pierry’s revenues were $14.5 million USD for the 2016 year-end. https://pierryinc.com/blog/
Switch’s Planned $500M Offering Would Be Year’s Third-Largest Tech IPO
Las Vegas - Rapidly growing data center provider, Switch, has priced its planned initial public offering. DCK reported the Las Vegas-based company’s IPO plans earlier this month. Sold at the top end of its targeted price range -- $14 to $16 per share – the 3.25 million shares Switch plans to offer to the public would yield $500 million, according to documents the company filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Sold at midpoint of the range, the deal would value the company at $3.7 billion, Renaissance Capital estimated. The offering on the New York Stock Exchange would be the year’s third-largest tech IPO, following Snap’s $3.9 billion float and Altice USA’s $2.2 billion offering, according to Bloomberg. If successful, Switch’s IPO will be the seventh publicly traded US-based data center provider, joining Equinx, Digital Realty Trust, CoreSite, CyrusOne, QTS, and Iron Mountain. https://www.switch.com/
Customer Experience and BPO company, Webhelp, Announces Acquisition of GreenPoint
September 2017 - GreenPoint is a pioneer in digital and mobile management of Know Your Customer (KYC), digital processing of customers’ records and customer on-boarding. The company is experiencing rapid growth as demand for compliant digital and mobile solutions for customer on-boarding and identification increases in parallel with strengthening regulatory requirements which are being enforced to protect consumers upon subscription to a company or service. This acquisition further strengthens Webhelp’s ability to service regulated clients and solidifies its regtech BPO offering by creating Webhelp KYC Services (WKS). Since 2014, Webhelp’s acquisition strategy has been to grow the business both geographically and by sector expertise. GreenPoint follows the recent opening of a new location in Riga, Latvia and acquisition of Dutch voice and speech technology business, Telecats. This growth demonstrates Webhelp’s commitment to becoming the first choice BPO partner across all areas of customer experience. http://www.webhelp.com/en-gb/news-insights/news/webhelp-becomes-key-player-in-regtech-with-acquisition-of-greenpoint/
Hivelocity Acquires Los Angeles Solutions Provider, RackAlley
18th September 2017 – California-based, dedicated server, cloud hosting and colocation service provider, Hivelocity, continues its impressive growth with the acquisition of IaaS provider Rackalley.com. The addition of RackAlley’s assets and data centers provide Hivelocity with a significant data center presence in Los Angeles, California. This announcement comes on the heels of Hivelocity launching its second data center in Tampa in response to increasing demand in that market. Since 2002, Hivelocity has earned a reputation as a premier cloud hosting, infrastructure services and dedicated server provider, helping it amass customers in over 130 countries. “We surveyed our customer base earlier this year and LA was high on their list of places they wanted us to expand to” explained Rick Nicholas, VP of Colocation at Hivelocity. “In addition to Los Angeles, New York City was right there at the top of the list. As part of our national expansion strategy we intend to seek opportunities in New York City with the hopes of an announcement there before the end of this year.” https://www.hivelocity.net/blog/RackAlley-acquisition/
Konica Minolta Expands Enterprise Content Management Capacity with the Acquisition of DSSI
Ramsey, NJ – September 15, 2017 – Building on its strong imaging heritage and extensive experience in document and content management, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. has announced the acquisition of Document Scanning Systems and Imaging, Inc. (DSSI). The move will enhance the company’s current document management capabilities and increase its customer base in the west, further fueling its fast-growing ECM business. “This acquisition supports Konica Minolta’s growing ECM practice with a specialty in scanning, enabling us to better serve our customers who are looking to digitize and ultimately manage content for greater efficiency as well as a smarter work environment,” said Kevin Kern, Senior Vice President, Business Intelligence Services and Product Planning, Konica Minolta. http://kmbs.konicaminolta.us/kmbs/about/news-releases/news/konica-minolta-expands-enterprise-content-management-capacity-with-the-acquisition-of-dssi
Digital Realty Completes Merger With DuPont Fabros for $7.8 Billion
SAN FRANCISCO and WASHINGTON, 14th September 2017 - Digital Realty, a global provider of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, and DuPont Fabros, an owner, developer, operator and manager of enterprise-class, carrier-neutral, multi-tenant data centers, has announced they have completed their previously announced merger in an all-stock transaction with an enterprise value of approximately $7.8 billion. The addition of DuPont Fabros' high-quality, purpose-built data center portfolio to Digital Realty's existing footprint enhances the combined company's ability to serve its customers in the top U.S. data center metro areas. William Stein, Digital Realty's Chief Executive Officer, stated, "This deal is consistent with our investment criteria, and is likewise consistent with our strategy of offering our customers the most comprehensive set of data center solutions, from single-cabinet colocation and interconnection, all the way up to multi-megawatt hyper-scale deployments." http://investor.digitalrealty.com/investor-relations/news-and-events/news/news-details/2017/Digital-Realty-Completes-Merger-With-DuPont-Fabros/default.aspx?_ga=2.251681408.843298327.1506515131-1425794084.1506515131
Rackspace Announces Agreement to Acquire Datapipe
San Antonio – 11th Sepember 2017 – Rackspace® has announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Datapipe, a provider of managed services across public and private clouds, managed hosting and colocation. This acquisition, the largest in Rackspace history, brings important new capabilities to Rackspace and will enable the company to better serve customers of all kinds, globally and at scale. “Our customers are looking for help as they spread their applications across public and private clouds, managed hosting and colocation, depending on the blend of performance, agility, control, security and cost-efficiency they’re seeking,” said Joe Eazor, CEO of Rackspace. “With the acquisition of Datapipe, we’re very pleased to expand the multi-cloud managed services we provide our customers, while also opening doors to new opportunities across the globe.” https://www.datapipe.com/news/press-releases-2017/rackspace-announces-agreement-to-acquire-datapipe/
EFALIA acquires C-LOG INTERNATIONAL and strengthens its position in the GED market with a BPM solution
Noisy-le-Grand, France - 15th September 2017 - This acquisition comes at the end of a year, during which EFALIA grew by more than 15% in a market in transformation. The acquisition of C-LOG INTERNATIONAL strengthens the EFALIA Group's offering, design and architecture capacity and creativity. C-Log Goup (after the acquisition of APPIC in January) aspires to be the French leader in the management of documents and business processes. "We are delighted to welcome the talents of C-LOG INTERNATIONAL and I am convinced that the strong synergies that exist between our activities will very quickly express themselves in the service of our customers," said Pascal CHARRIER, EFALIA. "The combination of EFALIA and C-LOG INTERNATIONAL is a tremendous operation for both teams and customers, and to establish our leading position in the BPM market," concludes Christophe BASTARD of C-LOG INTERNATIONAL. http://www.c-log.com/c-log-rejoint-le-groupe-efalia/
Restore Plc acquires Lombard Recycling Limited and Data Shred Limited
Greenwich, London - 11th September 2017 - Restore plc, the UK office services provider, has announced the acquisition of Lombard Recycling Limited and Data Shred Limited (together "Lombard"), two related secure shredding businesses based in Greenwich, London. For the 12 months ended 30 September 2016, Lombard's secure shredding activities generated revenues of £1.6 million. The acquisition was funded from Restore's existing bank facilities. Charles Skinner, Chief Executive of Restore, commented: "Lombard is the fifth secure shredding acquisition we have made since we acquired the Datashred business as part of our acquisition of PHS Data Solutions a year ago. It provides us with further economies of scale and extends our position as the UK's second largest provider of secure shredding services." http://www.restoreplc.com/press_releases.aspx
IBM acquires Tel Aviv start up, Cloudigo
September 2017 - IBM General Manager, Cloud Infrastructure Svs, IBM Watson and Cloud Platform, John Considine, announced in a brief blog post that IBM has acquired Cloudigo, a high-performance team, focused on advanced networking technology that moves the networking function from the server to the edge, increasing data center efficiency. Considine explains, the Cloudigo team brings talent and technology that closely aligns with IBM investments in advanced network processing, as part of its cloud platform. The Israeli team will work in the Cloud Innovation Lab, which is part of the IBM Cloud Infrastructure group. https://www.ibm.com/blogs/cloud-computing/2017/09/advanced-networking-ibm-cloud/
Business Archives of Tampa joins the 2-20 Family
1st September 2017 - Business Archives of Tampa has been acquired by Certified Records Management (CRM), located at 4745 Oak Fair Blvd, in Tampa, Florida. CRM is part of the 2-20 Records Management Family of Companies. Business Archives of Tampa was founded more than 20 years ago with a vision to offer an unparalleled level of customer service. Said Doug Updike, President, Business Archives of Tampa, “Now is the time to begin creating a new vision, one that will provide greater opportunities for our employees, suppliers and most importantly, our customers.” Doug Mann, CEO, 2-20 Records Management added, “2-20 will provide Business Archives of Tampa’s customers with additional services and technologies which include local document imaging and hosting, scan-on-demand, indexing, vault storage and a Smart Web® online customer service and inventory management web portal.” http://2-20rm.com/news/business-archives-of-tampa-joins-the-2-20-family/
Micro Focus Completes Merger with HPE Software Business in Deal Calculated at $8.8 Billion
1st September 2017 - Micro Focus has announced the completion of its merger with Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) software business to create the seventh largest pure-play enterprise software company in the world with revenues of $4.4 billion. The merger creates a new company, uniquely positioned to help customers maximize existing software investments and embrace innovation in a world of Hybrid IT. Chris Hsu, formerly COO of HPE and Executive Vice President and General Manager of HPE Software, now CEO of Micro Focus, stated, “Today marks a significant milestone for Micro Focus, and I am honored to be leading this team. We are bringing together a powerful combination of technology and talent, uniquely positioned to drive customer-centered innovation at enterprise scale – enabling organizations to maximize the ROI of existing software investments while embracing the new hybrid model for enterprise IT.” https://www.microfocus.com/about/press-room/article/2017/micro-focus-completes-merger-with-hpe-software/
Lithium to Acquire External Online Community Business from Jive
San Francisco – 29th August 2017 – Lithium Technologies, Inc., a provider of Social Media management and online community products, has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Jive Software’s external community business from Jive Software, an Aurea company. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. “Lithium and Jive have both been forward thinking in the digital customer experience market for many years. Bringing Jive-x customers into the Lithium portfolio will give these customers access to our cumulative knowledge and the best innovation of both products, delivering significant business value for all,” said Rob Tarkoff, President and CEO of Lithium. This move combines two of the industry’s most innovative technologies and customer bases, and will enable Lithium to deliver a broader set of Community features and leading capabilities for all customers. https://www.lithium.com/company/news-room/press-releases/2017/lithium-to-acquire-external-online-community-business-from-jive
Syncsort and ASG Technologies Partner to Integrate Market-Leading Data Quality into Data Governance Initiatives
Syncsort, a company which specialises in data liberation, integrity and integration solutions for next-generation analytics, and ASG Technologies, a provider of solutions for information access, management and control, have announced a partnership focused on combining their solutions and expertise in data quality and data governance. The partnership focuses on the highest levels of confidence in data to meet regulatory requirements and support data-driven business decisions.
“Most organizations, especially in industries such as financial services and healthcare, need to have confidence in the quality of their data assets for regulatory compliance and making important business decisions,” said David Hodgson, Chief Product Officer, Syncsort. “We are pleased to be partnering with ASG to provide enterprises with an integrated solution for their data governance initiatives that leverages data quality and data lineage to give them the highest level of trust in their data.” https://www.asg.com/en/Company/Press/Press-Releases/2017/Syncsort-and-ASG-Technologies-Partner-to-Integrate.aspx
Nuxeo and Simflofy Partner
21st September 2017 - Nuxeo, maker of the cloud-native content services platform, has announced a strategic partnership with Simflofy, provider of Content Integration Services. The partnership enables Nuxeo’s customers to intelligently meet their ECM objectives by connecting to content where it lives, whether in legacy Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems or business applications, and removes the cost, pain, and risk of content migrations typically associated with ECM implementations. Nuxeo is a complete, cloud-native content services platform that streamlines content-intensive processes by presenting information in context. Simflofy provides connectivity to a broad range of siloed content repositories, including legacy ECM systems, business and productivity applications, cloud storage and Electronic File Sync and Share (EFSS) solutions. https://www.nuxeo.com/media-center/#all
