5 Channel Partner Updates: Monday 23 March 2020 -

Here are five (actually a bit more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Monday, March 23, 2020. Sip up.

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A. What’s Hot Today

1. How to Manage HR Right Now: Here are some tips for current times, from Harvard Business Review. Separately, 88% of organizations have encouraged or required employees to work from home, regardless of whether or not they showed coronavirus-related symptoms. Nearly all organizations (97%) have canceled work-related travel, a more than an 80% increase, a Gartner survey indicates.

2. Help Wanted - Support.com Is Hiring: Support.com is hiring an "unlimited number of remote support agent roles to meet the growing demand from businesses of all sizes that need customer, technical and call center support for their own operations or for their customers," the business says.

3. M&A - Exit Delayed?: Private equity firm Thoma Bravo has halted a process to potentially sell Imprivata for a target $2 billion or so, PE Hub reports. Thoma Bravo apparently applied the brakes amid coronavirus-related market volatility. Thoma Bravo also owns or has stakes in Barracuda Networks, ConnectWise, SolarWinds and Sophos, among others.

4. M&A - IT Services: Nemko Group of Oslo, Norway has acquired System Sikkerhet, a provider of cybersecurity assessment and technology consultancy services.

5. The Most Profitable Partners Do This: Cisco's most profitable partners embrace these best practices.

6. Apple Supply Chain: Apple has dropped a two-device limit for online iPhone purchases, a check of its web stores showed on Monday, just days after changing the checkout procedure amid a coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reports.

7. Venture Capital: SoftBank plans to raise as much as $41 billion to buy back shares and reduce debt in an unprecedented move to restore investor confidence as a financial market rout pummels its shares and its portfolio companies, Reuters reports.

8. Coronavirus - Vendor Initiatives:

Amazon Web Services has announced a $20 million program to support organizations that are working on new, better ways of diagnosing the coronavirus, SiliconAngle reports.
Datto CEO Tim Weller offered this update to MSP Partners.
Cisco Systems has committed $225 million in cash, in-kind, and planned-giving to support both the global and local response to COVID-19, CEO Chuck Robbins wrote in a blog.
D&H Distributing has developed multiple strategies to support its partners amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, D&H has dedicated an email address, [email protected], to escalate any urgent partner inquiries.