Boss Insights – News – September 2018
Upland Software Announces Acquisition - Pays $65 Million for Rant & Rave
Austin, Texas – 3rd October 2018 - Upland Software, Inc. a cloud-based Enterprise Work Management software company, has announced it has acquired Rant & Rave, a provider of cloud-based customer engagement solutions. Rant & Rave's voice of customer (VoC) and voice of employee (VoE) applications enable users to capture, analyze, and act on real-time customer and employee feedback across multiple channels including Short Message Service (SMS), mobile, email, web, and social media. Rant & Rave is used by over 100 leading European and international brands to proactively communicate with and gather fast feedback from their customers. The acquisition, Upland's largest to date, adds approximately $21.0 million in annualized revenues and will be immediately accretive to Upland's Adjusted EBITDA per share. "Rant & Rave broadens our product portfolio, adds an established sales channel for Upland messaging solutions in Europe and enables Upland to drive sales of Rant & Rave solutions in the United States," said Jack McDonald, Chairman and CEO of Upland Software. "As this transaction demonstrates, our acquisition pipeline is robust, and we are actively pursuing additional opportunities."
https://investor.uplandsoftware.com/2018-10-03-Upland-Software-Announces-Largest-Acquisition-to-Dafte-Raises-Guidance?_ga=2.169733345.1928029842.1538756606-95960052.1538756606
Ensono completes acquisition of Wipro’s Managed Hosting Business for c$400 million
Chicago- headquartered Ensono has completed the previously announced acquisition of Wipro’s data centre operations for around $400m, including data centres in the US, the UK, Germany, India and Singapore. Ensono has also acquired the hosted data services business that came with them. As part of the transaction Wipro has made a strategic investment of $55m in Ensono and joined the company’s board of directors. It will still have access to the facilities as required. As a result of the deal, Ensono has nearly doubled in size, expanded its client portfolio and increased its annual revenue to more than $550m. Ensono says it will expand its presence in the US and the UK, establish an operational presence in India, and extend into Germany. Raj Bagga, Vice President of Global Infrastructure Services at Wipro, previously stated: “Our combined company will bring solutions to clients across industries more quickly and at a larger scale than ever before.” A spokesperson for Ensono said the deal would “expand our global presence to offer clients more options that will help drive faster transformation and innovation for our clients”.
https://www.ensono.com/about-us/press-room/aws-msp-partner-status
Prometheus Group Acquires Solufy Information Technologies & DataSplice
Raleigh, N.C.- 2nd October - Prometheus Group, a provider of easy-to-use purpose-built software to heavy asset operators for optimizing plant maintenance operations, has announced the acquisitions of Solufy Information Technologies, Inc. and DataSplice, LLC, in separate transactions. Solufy is an Ottawa-based provider of a comprehensive suite of planning and scheduling applications for IBM’s Maximo EAM system. DataSplice is a Fort Collins, Colorado-based specialist in mobile applications for EAM systems, primarily for Maximo. “Solufy and DataSplice each combine deep domain expertise – Solufy in maintenance planning and scheduling and DataSplice in mobile work execution – with an established presence in the Maximo ecosystem,” said Eric Huang, founder and CEO of Prometheus Group. “These acquisitions continue to build on our strategy of providing a completely unified planning, scheduling and work execution platform for plant maintenance operations across any technology environment.” Jeff Kinard, Prometheus Group’s VP of Professional Services, added, “Customers will be able to utilize the Prometheus platform to drive operational excellence across all aspects of their plant maintenance operations from routine maintenance through complex shutdowns and turnarounds”
https://www.prometheusgroup.com/
Kaseya Strengthens Backup and Recovery for SaaS Applications with Acquisition of Spanning Cloud Apps, the Industry Leader in SaaS Data Protection
Amsterdam - Kaseya Connect Europe – 1st October 2018 - Kaseya®, a provider of complete IT infrastructure management solutions for managed service providers (MSPs) and internal IT organizations, has announced the acquisition of Spanning Cloud Apps, a provider of SaaS data protection. Founded in 2010, Spanning has more than 10,000 active MSP and enterprise customers worldwide, 50 percent year-over-year growth, and in 2017, the company’s solutions backed up more than 110 billion items. Spanning will retain its headquarters in Austin, Texas and will operate as a stand-alone, independent business-unit under Kaseya. With the announcement of this acquisition, Kaseya introduces a new, fully integrated solution, Kaseya Office 365 Backup powered by Spanning. The offering allows Kaseya users to provide a full and comprehensive backup and disaster recovery solution for Microsoft Office 365. Now part of the Kaseya Unified Backup Suite, Kaseya Office 365 Backup fully integrates with the Kaseya IT Complete platform and is available as an integrated module within VSA by Kaseya. The offering provides a single, unified solution designed from the ground up to empower Kaseya users to fulfill their Office 365 backup needs. https://www.kaseya.com/press-release/kaseya-strengthens-backup-and-recovery-for-saas-applications-with-acquisition-of-spanning-cloud-apps-the-industry-leader-in-saas-data-protection/
Slack makes its third acquisition in three months
San Francisco, California - 24th September 2018 - In a press release, Andy Pflaum CEO at Astro said that they have now been acquired by Slack. The acquisition is part of Slack's mission to make workplace communication interoperable. Astro, founded out of Palo Alto in 2015, is the maker of an AI-powered app that allows email and calendar information to be viewed directly from Slack's messaging interface, allowing users to view all their messages in one place without the need to navigate between apps. With the acquisition, Astro's app will be integrated with Slack's platform. Since its inception in 2009, Slack has made 5 acquisitions, three during summer 2018. The acquisition comes after Slack raised $427 million in a fundraising round, where the company was valued at $7.1 billion. This sees Slack ranked as one of the most successful US VC-backed companies in the US. The deal also secures an exit for Astro’s current shareholders, Aspect Ventures and Redpoint Ventures.
https://www.astro.ai/
Adobe to Acquire Marketo for $4.75 Billion
San Jose, California – 20th September 2018 - Adobe has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Marketo, the market-leading cloud platform for B2B marketing engagement, for $4.75 billion, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. With nearly 5,000 customers, Marketo brings together planning, engagement and measurement capabilities into an integrated B2B marketing platform. Adding Marketo’s engagement platform to Adobe Experience Cloud will enable Adobe to offer a set of solutions for delivering transformative customer experiences across industries and companies of all sizes. This acquisition brings together the richness of Adobe Experience Cloud analytics, content, personalization, advertising and commerce capabilities with Marketo’s lead management and account-based marketing technology to provide B2B companies with the ability to create, manage and execute marketing engagement at scale. “The imperative for marketers across all industries is a laser focus on providing relevant, personalized and engaging experiences,” said Brad Rencher, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Digital Experience, Adobe. “The acquisition of Marketo widens Adobe’s lead in customer experience across B2C and B2B and puts Adobe Experience Cloud at the heart of all marketing.”
https://news.adobe.com/press-release/corporate/adobe-acquire-marketo
Konica Minolta Expands ECM Portfolio With VeBridge Holdings Acquisition
Ramsey, NJ – 18th September 2018 – Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. has announced the acquisition of VeBridge Holdings, Inc., a Lexington, Kentucky-based document management business that specializes in enterprise content management (ECM), business process automation and outsourcing, and document conversion services. VeBridge, founded in 1998, has a lengthy history of turning business challenges into profitable competitive advantages for their customers by converting paper to digital information that enables automating manual processes while providing secure yet easy access to information. “What sets us apart is the ability to build workable bridges between people, process and technology in the manufacturing, healthcare, education and insurance spaces,” said Paul Engel, CEO and founder of VeBridge. “Understanding how to best meet our customers’ business needs, a process we refer to as relentless discovery, is the very foundation for the work we perform that ultimately benefits the end-users of our products and services.”
https://kmbs.konicaminolta.us/kmbs/about/news-releases/news/konica-minolta-acquires-vebridge-holdings
Rocket Software Acquires Perth-Based CICS and IMS Software Leader Fundi
Perth, Australia – 18th September 2018 - Rocket Software, Inc. a global technology provider that helps Fortune 500 companies and government agencies modernize and develop applications, has announced the acquisition of Perth-based Fundi Software and its US-based affiliate, Circle Software. Fundi was established in 1982 and is a provider of software solutions for IBM IMS and IBM CICS systems. Rocket will maintain development operations in Perth. This acquisition comes on the heels of the launch of Zowe, the first open source project for z/OS under the Linux Foundation’s Open Mainframe Project. Rocket is a founding member and a primary contributor to the Zowe project. The company has plans to Zowe-enable the Fundi products. “We are delighted to welcome Fundi and Circle to the Rocket family,” said Joe Devlin, Chief Technology Officer at Rocket Software. “Fundi’s robust products will expand our technology reach and enable us to accelerate innovation for mainframe customers everywhere. I am excited to have Fundi join the Rocket family at the same time we are launching Zowe.”
https://www.rocketsoftware.com/news/rocket-software-acquires-perth-based-cics-and-ims-software-leader-fundi
SAP Becomes First European Tech Company to Create Ethics Advisory Panel for Artificial Intelligence
Walldorf - 18th September 2018 - SAP SE has announced its guiding principles for artificial intelligence (AI) and its creation of an external AI ethics advisory panel – the first European technology company to do so. The panel, comprised of experts from academia, politics and industry, will ensure the adoption of the principles and further develop them in collaboration with the AI steering committee at SAP, a group of SAP executives from development, strategy and human resources. The new guidelines, the external panel and the internal committee aim to ensure that the AI capabilities supported by SAP Leonardo Machine Learning capabilities are used to maintain integrity and trust in all solutions. “SAP considers the ethical use of data a core value,” said Luka Mucic, Chief Financial Officer and member of the Executive Board of SAP Se. “We want to create software that enables the intelligent enterprise and actually improves people’s lives. Such principles will serve as the basis to make AI a technology that augments human talent.”
https://news.sap.com/2018/09/sap-first-european-tech-company-ai-ethics-advisory-panel/
Infosys to Acquire Fluido, the Largest Salesforce Consulting Partner in Nordics
Bengaluru, India and Espoo, Finland – 14th September 2018: Infosys, a global consulting, technology and next-generation services company, has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Fluido, the leading Salesforce advisor and consulting partner in Nordics and a recognized leader cloud consulting, implementation and training services organisation. This acquisition enhances Infosys’ ability to provide clients an unparalleled cloud-first transformation. With offices in Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Slovakia, Fluido elevates Infosys’ presence across the Nordics region with developed assets and deep client relationships, a great team and an effective local culture. Ravi Kumar, President and Deputy COO, Infosys, said, “This acquisition demonstrates Infosys’ commitment to the Salesforce ecosystem to address our client’s digital priorities. Fluido will be an important addition to the Infosys family, bringing a unique combination of market presence, deep salesforce expertise, agile delivery and training, that combined with our existing capabilities will help companies reimagine and transform their businesses. This acquisition also aligns to our efforts to invest in local capabilities in the regions in which we operate.”
https://www.fluidogroup.com/infosys-acquire-fluido-largest-salesforce-consulting-partner-nordics/
Infosys and Temasek Announce Joint Venture in Singapore
Singapore - September 7, 2018: Infosys, a consulting, technology and next-generation services, has announced the formation of a joint venture with Temasek, the global investment company, headquartered in Singapore. The joint venture will integrate teams from Infosys and the operations of Temasek’s wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore, Trusted Source Pte Ltd, which currently delivers IT services to Temasek and a number of other clients. As part of the transaction, Infosys will acquire a 60% stake in the joint venture and Temasek will hold 40%. The agreement was signed by the parties last night and is effective immediately. Infosys and Temasek see important synergy and strategic alignment in the joint venture. Infosys gains significant capacity in terms of workforce as it focuses on strengthening its footprint in Southeast Asia, while Temasek will see a rapid enhancement of its IT services through the augmented capabilities of the joint venture entity. Trusted Source will provide Temasek and its other clients in the region solutions and technologies across Cloud, Data & Analytics, Cybersecurity, Digital Experiences and AI & automation, and more.
https://www.temasek.com.sg/en/news-and-views/news-room/news/2018/InfosysXTemasek.html
Atlassian acquires OpsGenie
4th September 2018 – Atlassian has announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire OpsGenie, an incident alert company. Over 3,000 customers, including Air Canada, The Washington Post, and Overstock, trust OpsGenie to manage their on-call schedule and notify the right people as soon as an incident occurs. They’re also launching a new product – called Jira Ops – to serve as an incident command center, giving response teams a central place to coordinate their work during any major incident. Prompt and reliable alerting is the critical first step in incident response. And because today’s applications are more complex than ever, incidents often require complex coordination between operations and software development teams.
https://www.atlassian.com/blog/announcements/introducing-jira-ops-incident-management-platform
Thoma Bravo to Acquire Majority Interest in Apttus
San Franciso and San Mateo, CA – September 4, 2018 – Thoma Bravo, a private equity investment firm, has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority interest in Apttus, a global Middle Office solutions provider. The transaction is expected to close in early October, subject to usual and customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Apttus’ solutions automate, optimize and apply artificial intelligence (AI) to the most important set of business processes for any enterprise – generating revenue and managing key commercial relationships. “Apttus was founded to help enterprises manage revenue and commercial relationships, and passionately delivering that value to our customers has made us the de facto selection and industry gold standard for large enterprises,” said Neehar Giri, Apttus Co-Founder, President and Chief Solutions Architect. “Apttus’ innovation is directly responsible for the creation and advancement of the Middle Office, holistically addressing the space between CRM and ERP for hundreds of customers. Our partnership with Thoma Bravo will allow Apttus to accelerate growth, scale to new heights, and capitalize on an enormous market opportunity.”
https://apttus.com/press_room/thoma-bravo-to-acquire-majority-interest-in-apttus/
Coupa Acquires Contingent Workforce Management and Services Procurement Company DCR Workforce
San Mateo, California - 4th September 2018 – Coupa Software, a business spend management (BSM) organisation, has announced that it has acquired the technology assets of DCR Workforce, a provider of contingent workforce management and services procurement software. The acquisition further solidifies Coupa’s vision of enabling businesses to manage all their organization’s business spend, including contingent workforce spend, within a comprehensive BSM platform. “Effective visibility and control of contingent labor spend continues to be a growing priority for best-in-class organizations. When effectively managed, it delivers a material impact to the bottom line. Building upon Coupa’s Services Maestro simple requisitioning, procurement, and tracking of SOW-based services offering, DCR Workforce will provide an advanced solution for the full lifecycle of the sourcing and management of contingent workers at scale,” said Rob Bernshteyn, Chief Executive Officer at Coupa.
https://www.coupa.com/newsworthy/press-releases/coupa-acquires-contingent-workforce-management-and-services-procurement-company-dcr-workforce/
Access Healthcare acquires revenue cycle services provider Pacific BPO
Dallas TX – 31st August 2018. Access Healthcare, a provider of healthcare business process outsourcing services, has announced that it has acquired Pacific BPO, a premier provider of revenue cycle management services. Pacific BPO's 2,100 employees will become a part of Access Healthcare, making the organization one of the largest healthcare outsourcing companies, with a resulting employee base of over 11,000 employees and over 1,000 automated agents (bots), operating from 19 delivery centers across United States, India, and the Philippines. Headquartered in Noida, India, Pacific BPO was founded in 2010. Pacific BPO has a client base that includes hospitals, physician practices, and revenue cycle intermediaries. "This acquisition is about achieving scale and leveraging shared values,” said Anurag Jain, Chairman of Access Healthcare. “With the addition of hospital inpatient revenue cycle management capabilities that Pacific BPO brings, we have significantly increased the breadth of healthcare customers in our portfolio. We now have one of the most diversified set of customers in the revenue cycle space. More than that, Pacific BPO shares the same values and purpose as Access Healthcare."
https://www.accesshealthcare.com/news/2018/31/access-healthcare-acquires-revenue-cycle-services-provider-pacific-bpo
