Boss Insights - Tech M&A Round Up - 23rd October 2020

Cognizant to Acquire Bright Wolf, Accelerating Growth in Industrial Internet of Things Services
Teaneck, NJ – 22nd October 2020 – Cognizant has announced it has agreed to acquire Bright Wolf, a privately-held technology services provider specializing in custom Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions for Fortune 1000 companies. Bright Wolf is certified by all major cloud providers and acknowledged as an expert in IoT. The company is a Microsoft Gold Partner and has been named an Amazon Web Services Advanced Technology Partner, IoT Competency. With the close of the acquisition, Cognizant will establish its newest IoT innovation lab in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., Research Triangle, with the Bright Wolf team as its core. "Combining Bright Wolf's experience in production-class IIoT deployments with Cognizant's expertise in foundational IIoT technologies will increase our clients' resiliency, operational efficiency, and competitive advantage," said Malcolm Frank, President, Digital Business, Cognizant. "Companies are increasingly embracing IIoT, and Bright Wolf's team of senior IIoT architects have delivered the business value others have struggled to achieve. We look forward to this talented team joining Cognizant."
https://news.cognizant.com/pressreleases

CloudMD to Acquire Medical Confidence Inc.
Vancouver, British Columbia – 22nd October 2020 - CloudMD Software & Services Inc, a telehealth company seeking to revolutionize the delivery of health care to patients, has announced that it is to acquire 100% of Medical Confidence Inc, a revolutionary health care navigation platform with proven results in wait time reduction and patient satisfaction. Karen Adams, Chief Health Innovation Officer of CloudMD, said: “The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious public health emergency and has further deepened the need to empower individuals to manage their own health and wellbeing by providing them with the right resources. The acquisition of Medical Confidence will strengthen our ability to provide whole-person, longitudinal health care to patients and family members, by providing better, more efficient access to care.” Employers are looking for innovation and improvement in group benefits to provide a solution that helps an employee or family member access the right care for the right issue. There is an industry wide demand for one platform that addresses multiple health issues across mental, physical and specialist care, and CloudMD’s platform will now address that demand resulting in access to better, more informed care, cost savings and significant return on investment monetarily and in the workforce.”
https://www.medicalconfidence.com/blog/cloudmd-to-acquire-medical-confidence-inc/

Accenture Completes Acquisition of B2B Sales Firm N3
Atlanta – 21st October 2020 – Accenture has completed its acquisition of N3, an Atlanta-based business-to-business (B2B) sales firm that combines specialized talent with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities to enable smarter, more efficient sales interactions. Now part of Accenture Operations, N3’s approximately 2,200 employees have specialized skills across complex areas like cloud, platforms and 5G networks. The combination of N3’s cloud-based AI/ML technology with Accenture’s SynOps platform will give Accenture the ability to aggregate millions of interaction points into actionable insights to help clients drive sales growth. “Bringing N3 into the Accenture family will better enable us to help companies influence purchasing decisions at critical stages,” said Manish Sharma, group chief executive of Accenture Operations. “Together, our real-time insights will augment decision-making, deepen sales interactions and help our clients achieve sustainable growth. We are excited about the potential of what Accenture and N3 can achieve together.”
https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/accenture-completes-acquisition-of-b2b-sales-firm-n3.htm

Splunk to Acquire Plumbr and Rigor - Expanding APM and DEM Capabilities
San Francisco – 20th October 2020– Splunk Inc, provider of the Data-to-Everything Platform, has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Plumbr, an application performance monitoring (APM) company, offering auto-instrumentation, Real User Monitoring and deep application performance insights for enterprise applications. Splunk also announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Rigor, a digital experience monitoring (DEM) company, offering advanced synthetic monitoring and optimization tools. Rigor’s solutions help customers optimize end-user experiences in digital channels. Chief Technology Officer, Splunk, Tim Tully, said: “The global acceleration to multi-cloud and hybrid cloud architectures has created an observability revolution. Development, operations and IT teams everywhere require real-time, full-fidelity and ML-driven solutions that can help them quickly and confidently modernize and build cloud-native applications. Together, Plumbr and Rigor accelerate Splunk’s vision to deliver a comprehensive Observability Suite with best-in-class DEM and APM for all applications. Splunk is the industry’s leading enterprise-grade Observability Suite providing customers with a complete, full-fidelity view into their data.”
https://www.splunk.com/en_us/newsroom/press-releases/2020/splunk-to-acquire-plumbr-and-rigor-expanding-the-worlds-most-comprehensive-observability-portfolio.html

Sandvik to acquire software company CGTech
Stockholm, Sweden - 19th October 2020 - Sandvik has signed an agreement to acquire US-based CGTech, a global market leader in software for numerical control (NC/CNC) simulation, verification and optimization. The product offering includes VERICUT®, a machining simulation and optimization software which is CAM, machine tool manufacturer and cutting tool neutral and works stand alone or in conjunction with all major CAM suppliers. The company will be reported in Sandvik Coromant, a division within Sandvik Machining Solutions. Stefan Widing, President and CEO of Sandvik, said: “This is in line with our strategic focus to grow organically and through acquisitions in the digital manufacturing space, with special focus on software solutions close to machining. The combined machining expertise of Sandvik Coromant and CGTech will enhance the Group’s capabilities in machining intelligence, strengthen the software offering and facilitate an improved presence in key areas of the customer value chain.”
https://www.home.sandvik/en/news-and-media/newslist/news/2020/10/sandvik-to-acquire-software-company-cgtech/

Prometheus Group Announces Acquisition of SAP Partner, Utopia Global, Inc.
Raleigh, NC – 16th October 2020 – Prometheus Group, a global provider of asset management operations and optimization software, has announced the acquisition of Utopia Global, Inc., a data solutions company, known for its end-to-end data quality, data migration and data governance solutions. Utopia Global, Inc was co-founded in 2003 by Arvind J. Singh (CEO) and Narinder J. Singh (COO). Today, Utopia is widely regarded as the thought leader for enterprise data management software solutions and services that enable organizations to analyze, correct, enrich and govern their data.  Many of Utopia’s software offerings are listed on the SAP price list and sold by SAP globally as Solution Extensions to their master data governance solutions, including the SAP Master Data Governance, EAM extension by Utopia, SAP Asset Information Workbench by Utopia, and SAP Master Data Governance, Retail and Fashion Management by Utopia. In addition, Utopia offers a wide array of software solutions to automate and accelerate data quality and data governance initiatives leveraging extensive machine-learning capabilities. Utopia is headquartered near Chicago in Mundelein, Illinois and has offices globally.
https://www.prometheusgroup.com/posts/prometheus-group-announces-acquisition-of-sap-partner-utopia-global

Stripe to Acquire Paystack to Accelerate Online Commerce Across Africa
San Francisco, CA & Lagos, Nigeria - 15th October 2020 – In what’s bing billed as ‘a landmark moment’ for the African tech ecosystem, global payments platform, Stripe, has acquired Nigerian fintech company, Paystack, in a deal reportedly worth over US$200 million.  Stripe’s business lead in EMEA, Matt Henderson, said: “In just five years, Paystack has done what many companies could not achieve in decades. Their tech-first approach, values and ambition greatly align with our own. This acquisition will give Paystack resources to develop new products, support more businesses and consolidate the hyper-fragmented African payments market. We can’t wait to see what they will build next and how their growth can turbocharge the African tech ecosystem.” CEO and co-founder of Paystack, Shola Akinlade, commented: “Paystack is a growth engine for modern businesses in Africa, and we couldn’t be more excited to join forces with Stripe, whose mission and values are so aligned with ours, to nurture transformative businesses on the continent. We believe deeply that with the right tools, African creators, developers and entrepreneurs can do incredible things. Leveraging Stripe’s resources and deep expertise, we’re excited to accelerate our geographic expansion and introduce more payment channels, more value-added services, and deeper integrations with global platforms.”
https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/paystack-joining-stripe

Fluence acquires Advanced Microgrid Solutions’ artificial intelligence-driven software and digital intelligence platform
Arlington, Va. – 15th October 2020 –  Fluence, a Siemens and AES company, has announced it has acquired the digital intelligence platform of AMS, provider of AI-enabled optimized bidding software for utility-scale storage and generation assets. The combination of the two companies’ technologies will help utilities, developers and commercial and industrial customers, optimize energy storage and flexible assets to deliver additional revenue, improve grid reliability and efficiency, and support the global transition to more sustainable and resilient power systems. AMS’ technology uses artificial intelligence, advanced price forecasting, portfolio optimization and market bidding to ensure energy storage and flexible generation assets are responding optimally to price signals sent by the market. Commenting, Chief Technology Officer at Fluence, Brett Galura, said: “AMS has developed one of the most powerful AI-enabled software engines available in the industry. This acquisition provides customers with data-driven insights that maximize the value and performance of generation and storage assets to make the entire grid smarter. These innovations will drive the transformation of global electric power systems to ensure a more sustainable future.”
https://blog.fluenceenergy.com/fluence-acquires-ams-advanced-microgrid-solutions

Persistent Acquires CAPIOT – Strengthens MuleSoft, TIBCO and API-led Integration Capabilities
Palo Alto, CA - 15th October 2020 - Persistent has announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Palo Alto, CA-based CAPIOT, including its subsidiaries in Australia, India and Singapore. Founded in 2014, CAPIOT specializes in enterprise integration with valuable expertise in MuleSoft, Red Hat and TIBCO. In addition, CAPIOT delivers enterprise modernization, leading with advanced proficiency in key partner platforms, frameworks and industry data models. Commenting on the deal, Sandeep Kalra, Executive Director and President of Persistent Systems, said: “For enterprise IT to succeed in advancing business goals and sales, it must have a central integration platform to work across disparate applications and data sources. CAPIOT’s singular focus in enterprise integration with key platform players like MuleSoft and TIBCO coupled with proprietary frameworks and common data models have accelerated implementations, with many successful rollouts. Their strong history in enterprise integration will provide many of our clients an immediate benefit and will help us solidify our Salesforce ecosystem capabilities. We look forward to welcoming CAPIOT employees, clients, and partners to our family”
https://www.persistent.com/media/press-releases/persistent-to-acquire-capiot/

Tech Soft 3D Completes Acquisition of Ceetron AS
Bend, OR - 15th October 2020 - Tech Soft 3D, a provider of engineering software development toolkits, today announces that it has acquired Ceetron AS, experts in developing 3D visualization technology for the computer aided engineering (CAE) community. This acquisition is in line with the company’s plans to fuel growth by investing in product development, scaling the company’s global reach and increasing its product offerings through acquisitions. Tech Soft 3D has long been a provider of data access and engineering graphics software development kits (SDKs) to the CAE market, working with partners such as ANSYS, EXA (Dassault Systemes), Altair, Numeca, MathWorks, MapleSoft and CD Adapco (Siemens). Ceetron’s market-leading SDKs that are purpose-built for visualization of simulation results expand Tech Soft 3D’s SDK portfolio to better support programmers building applications for simulation and analysis targeting both web and desktop environments.
https://www.techsoft3d.com/news/tech-soft-3d-completes-acquisition-of-ceetron-as/

BMC Acquires ComAround
Houston – 13th October 2020 – BMC has announced the acquisition of ComAround, a global software company that helps transform the customer experience with, self-service, and AI and NLP-based advanced knowledge management technology. Together, BMC and ComAround will build on their respective self-service, ITSM, and AI market leadership and expertise to provide NLP-based full-context-search knowledge management capabilities. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed. ComAround Knowledge™ is a cloud-based AI knowledge management software specifically designed to optimize self service and support flows, and create excellent agent and customer experiences through a variety of channels. Delivering the right information at the right time, the ComAround Knowledge solution feeds chatbots and virtual support assistants and organizes enterprise knowledge into a reliable resource for customers, employees, and support agents. Combined with the award-winning BMC Helix Chatbot and BMC Helix ITSM solutions, BMC can further increase service desk efficiencies and transform the human experience, providing companies with the agility, customer-centricity, and actionable-insights necessary to become an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.
https://www.comaround.com/en/news/bmc-acquires-comaround/

23 October 2020
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