5 Channel Partner Updates: Monday 08 July 2019

Here are five (actually, far more…) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Monday, July 8, 2019.

A. Our Daily Brew

B. Freshly Brewed News and Chatter

1. M&A - Global IP Networks: GTT Communications is acquiring KPN International for approximately €50 million in cash. KPN International operates a global IP network serving enterprise and carrier clients.

2. Private Equity & IT Management Software: Thoma Bravo, the private equity firm, may prepare Dynatrace for an IPO or company sale before the end of 2019. The Initial Public Offering could valued the company at roughly $4 billion, Bloomberg reports. Thoma Bravo also owns ConnectWise and Continuum, and has a stake in SolarWinds.

3. Private Equity - Upside: Shares of several U.S. private equity firms have jumped since they announced plans to convert themselves into corporations, making some of the world’s wealthiest people even richer, Bloomberg reports.

4. Private Equity - Interesting Math: Taking out a loan instead of taking money from investors increases a private equity fund’s internal rate of return by 6.1 percentage points — but that performance boost is just a “distortion,” according to a new paper from professors at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, Institutional Investor reports.

5. Funding - Coding Education: Ironhack, a Miami, Florida-based coding bootcamp company, has raised $4 million in funding.

6. Angel Tax Credits: Potential good news for entrepreneurs and their angel investors...

7. Small Business Disaster Recovery Loans: The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced disaster recovery loans following flooding and storms in such areas as Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee.  Details are here.

8. Talent - Lawsuit: Orange, the massive IT service provider, risks losing CEO Stephane Richard this week decade-old allegations of fraud that have clouded his leadership of France’s biggest phone company, Bloomberg reports.  A Paris court will decide on July 9 whether Richard helped businessman Bernard Tapie cheat the government out of about 403 million euros ($455 million) in 2008, when he was chief of staff to then Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. He faces as much as 18 months in prison, the report says.

9. Talent: GitLab has added Cisco veteran Sue Bostrom and August Capital General Partner David Hornik to its board of directors.

10. Talent - LGBTQ Rights: IT distributor Tech Data is one of 206 companies asking the U.S. Supreme Court to protect employment rights for LGBTQ workers, Catalyst reports.

11. Talent - Distribution: Wayside Technology Group has promoted Dale Foster to president of Lifeboat Distribution. Wayside is an IT channel company that operates Lifeboat, a value-added distributor.

C. Channel Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances: MSPs, CSPs, ISVs, VARs

1. Microsoft Killing Partner Use Rights: Some partners aren't happy about this...

2. Apple - IT Outsourcing: Larsen & Toubro Infotech shares fell 3.7 percent intraday on July 4 after a media report suggested that Apple ramped down its IT outsourcing work with the company, MoneyControl reports.

3. Pentagon Cloud Project: The Pentagon plans to award a long-awaited cloud-computing contract in August 2019, but the huge program—expected to cost up to $10 billion—faces mounting complications from congressional scrutiny and a court challenge, The Wall Street Journal reports.

4. All Partner Programs: Search the comprehensive ChannelE2E Partner Program Database here. Also, submit your company information here and your partner program can be listed in the database.

D. Next Five Technology Conferences

Got news to share for our morning update? Email me: [email protected].