Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, February 27, 2018.
Actually, there are 13 timely updates designed for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), telco master agents and telco agents to sip on. Take a look…
13. Conference: 4u2grow, a growth-minded conference for VARs, MSPs and CSPs, is confirmed for September in Clearwater Beach, Florida. Marketopia CEO Terry Hedden and other key leaders are scheduled to speak and lead sessions on sales, marketing, business development and more.
12. Artificial Intelligence Realty Check: Amid all the AI hype, Veritone's stock fell 13 percent after the AI startup badly missed Q4 financial expectations, Barron's notes. It's a timely reminder: The rising AI tide won't always lift all boats...
11. M&A - WiFi: Nokia has acquired Unium to bolster the company's home WiFi portfolio of products and services. Unium intelligent mesh technology delivers carrier-grade WiFi performance, coverage and resilience for gigabit home performance, Nokia claims. Unium's technology is on display at Nokia's Mobil World Congress 2018 booth. The deal is expected to be finalized sometime this quarter.
10. Xerox Showdown: Activist investor Darwin Deason on Monday sought to nominate a full slate of directors to Xerox's board at the company’s upcoming annual meeting, despite missing a deadline for putting forth directors, Reuters notes. Deason is fighting Xerox's proposed $6.1 billion sale to Fujifilm, calling for the U.S. printer giant to replace its executive leadership and find additional bidders for the company. Xerox intends to press forward with the Fujifilm deal.
9. iPhone Upsizing: Apple is preparing to release three new smartphones later this year, including the largest iPhone ever, a device that may have a bigger display than Samsung’s flagship phone, Bloomberg says.
8. EU and Tech Taxes: The European Commission wants to tax large digital companies’ revenues based on where their users are located rather than where they are headquartered at a common rate between 1 and 5 percent, Reuters says.
7. M&A - Cryptocurrency: Goldman Sachs-backed cryptocurrency startup Circle has acquired digital token exchange Poloniex, as it aims to cement its position as one of the leading players in the booming market, Reuters notes.
6. Talent - MSP Training: Visionary 360, a ConnectWise Manage consultancy, has hired Ryan Seymour as business consultant. Seymour previously was director of business process for a technology company in Michigan, and a senior solutions strategist at ConnectWise.
5. Training - DevOps: Quali, which offiers sandbox software for cloud and DevOps automation, is beta testing Quali University – a learning portal designed for customers and partners to gain knowledge of the complete CloudShell platform.
4. Azure Managed Services: DataStax has launched DataStax Managed Cloud on Microsoft Azure. The offering is a fully managed, white-glove service on Azure.
3. Leadership: ConnectWise COO Jason Magee has joined CompTIA's board of directors Magee has more than 19 years of technology sales, channel management and IT market experience. As COO at ConnectWise, he oversees day-to-day operational activities for the company, which develops business management, automation and monitoring software for technology solutions providers.
