5 Channel Partner Updates: Wednesday 29 May 2019 -

Here are technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, May 29, 2019.

A. Our Daily Brew

What We Serve: Content for managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), IT consulting firms, systems integrators, VARs, independent software vendors (ISVs), and any other partner acronym that further caffeinates our already stellar SEO.
Frequency: Every business morning.
Reaching the Barista: Send news, tips and rumors to [email protected].

B. Freshly Brewed News and Chatter

1. Funding - AWS MSP: Mission, a ChannelE2E Top 100 Public Cloud MSP and a key Amazon Web Services partner, has raised an additional $15 million in private equity funding. CEO Simon Anderson shares details with ChannelE2E.

2. M&A - IT Services: Fifosys has acquired Foration, a London-based IT service provider. Fifosys focuses on mid-market IT support, strategy and business solutions.

3. M&A Expert Advice: When it comes to M&A discussions a certain mood of urgency prevails, as dealmakers seek to close deals quickly, while conditions remain favorable, according to this article.

4. M&A - Private Equity Rollup: Craftsman Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Dallas, is rolling up Boxx Technologies (high-performance systems) with three data storage divisions consolidated under Pacific Alliance Capital (PAC): PAC Storage, WCT, and PAC Data.

5. M&A - Software Valuations: Upland Software has acquired Kapost, a content operations platform provider for sales and marketing. Upland gains approximately $15 million in annualized revenues. The acquisition is within Upland's target price range of 5x to 8x pro forma Adjusted EBITDA and will generate at least $7.0 million in Adjusted EBITDA annually once fully integrated, Upland asserts.

6. Cyber Insurance - MSP Audit Tool: RapidFire Tools Inc., a Kaseya company, has launched Audit Guru for Cyber Insurance. The tool claims to help MSPs to assist small businesses with cyber insurance audits.

7. SD-WAN Standard: Industry association MEF has released the draft of its SD-WAN service definition standard, which describes the requirements for an application-aware over-the-top WAN connectivity service. This standard will lay the groundwork for SD-WAN stakeholders to develop more robust and application-based SD-WAN services, SDX Central reports.

8. Financial Results - Workday: The SaaS application provider's Q1 fiscal 2020 results included:

Revenue of $825.1 million, up 33.4 percent from Q1 2019.
Net loss of $116.3 million, larger than the $74.4 million net loss in Q1 2019.

The results generally beat Wall Street's expectations.

9. Huawei Global Status: Huawei's effort to overturn a U.S. ban took a new step in court. The China-based company also opened its arms to South Korean politicians, but suffered a separate setback in Japan at the hands of Softbank. All the details are in our updated Huawei banned list, which tracks where the China company can (and can't) do business.

10. Talent - Oracle Cloud Layoffs: That's the rumor.

11. Digital Workspaces: Akumina and Microsoft partner Avanade have unveiled FLIGHT, a new offering that "makes it easy for large organizations to take the first steps in launching a branded digital workplace experience to advance their modern digital workplace transformation program."

C. Channel Partner Programs

1. M&A - Ingram Micro: The distributor acquired Abbakan, a French cybersecurity VAD (value-added distributor). The deal expands Ingram's network of system integrators and telecommunications companies across France, and reinforces Ingram's cyber push across EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). Financial terms were not disclosed.

2. Talent - Ingram Micro: The company has appointed Brian Verburg as the manager of its European Cyber Security Center of Excellence. Verburg previously was senior manager for managed security services at Verizon Enterprise Solutions.

3. MSP Integration - ConnectWise & ThreatLocker: ThreatLocker has integrated its endpoint security services with the ConnectWise platform. ThreatLocker develops Application Whitelisting technology -- which allows MSPs to control exactly what software runs on customer devices. Unlike antivirus, ThreatLocker blocks everything that is not explicitly trusted by the customer and their MSP.

4. Partner Program: M-Files Corporation, has made "significant progress with the transition of its global partner network to a subscription and cloud-based business model," the company claims.

5. Partner Program: Ruckus Networks (now part of CommScope via acquisition) has added four new specializations to its Ruckus Ready Partner Program -- including Support, Managed Service Provider (MSP), Federal and CBRS.