5 Channel Partner and MSP Updates: Tuesday 01 September 2020

Here are five (actually more) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, September 1, 2020. Sip up.

Our Daily Brew

A. What’s Happening Today

1. Private Equity Funds: Thoma Bravo appears to have amassed a $21 billion war chest for more software acquisitions. Thoma Bravo already owns Barracuda, ConnectWise and SolarWinds. Recent speculation suggests Thoma Bravo may give Kaseya a look. Kaseya is currently owned by private equity firms Insight Partners and TPG. We emphasize the word "speculation" -- though the speculation has been pretty loud lately. Kaseya itself has been exploring a potential IPO...

2. Rackspace Earnings: The multi-cloud MSP's revenue was $657 million in Q2 2020, up 9 percent from Q2 2019, Rackspace says. The financial results beat Wall Street's expectations, and Rackspace stock (RXT) rose roughly 4 percent in pre-market trading this morning.

3. Ingram Micro Earnings, Buyout Rumors: Worldwide Q2 sales at the distributor were $10.49 billion, down from $11.54 billion in Q2 2019. Net income was $142.1 million -- up from $96.6 million in Q2 2019. The results surface amid rumors that private equity firm Platinum Equity may acquire Ingram Micro from HNA Group for $7 billion.

4. ScanSource Earnings, Cuts: The distributor's net sales were $636.5 million in Q4 of fiscal 2020, down 22 percent from Q4 of fiscal 2019. Also, net income was a loss of $108.9 million, compared to a net income profit of $16 million in Q4 of fiscal 2019. The earnings fell short of Wall Street's expectations. ScanSource's stock fell about 9 percent in pre-market trading, and are down 33 percent so far this year. The weak earnings come one month after ScanSource announced some layoffs and plans to close a Salesforce-focused consulting practice.

5. Zoom Earnings: Zoom Video Communications revenues were $663.5 million in Q2 of 2020, up 355 percent compared to Q2 of 2019 -- and $163 million above Wall Street's expectations. Zoom's stock ($ZM) surged 30 percent on the news, and shares are up 254 percent so far in 2020.

6. Funding - Network Security Policy Management: FireMon has secured a debt financing of $40 million from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

7. Field Service Management: A major Salesforce Field Service platform push is under way. Key partners include ServiceMax -- which today unveiled ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce. The new ServiceMax product, built on Salesforce Field Service, bringing "ServiceMax’s asset-centric approach and decade-plus of experience to more customers across a broader set of industries to help them keep critical assets running," the company says.

8. Data Protection - Microsoft Azure: Zerto in the first half of 2020 doubled the number of Azure virtual machines it protects. Moreover, Zerto tripled its global IT Resilience footprint across the federal government and public sectors with new customer acquisitions, the data protection provider says.

9. 5G Wireless and WANs: Emerging trends and customer perspectives surface in Cradlepoint's latest State of Wireless WAN Report, compiled by IDG.

10. Apple 5G iPhones: Apple is preparing 75 million 5G iPhones for later this year, Bloomberg reports.

B. Channel Partner Programs and Strategic Alliances

1. Talent - MSP Security Solutions: Blokworx, a provider of  advanced cybersecurity services to the channel, has hired ID Agent veteran Dana Liedholm as VP of sales and and marketing.

2. Talent - Veritas Channel Chief: The data protection provider has hired Jay McGloin as VP of channel sales for the Americas. McGloin previously was president and CEO at Coquina Systems, a professional services start-up. Before that, he spent 17 years at Hitachi (Data Systems and Vantara) in a variety of executive roles.

3. Distribution - Unified Communications: Synnex has agreed to distribute Mitel's Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) solutions.

4. AWS Certified Consultants: CloudCheckr employees now collectively hold more than 150 AWS Certifications after completing an "80 in 80" professional development program. CloudCheckr staff across all functions earned a total of 86 Amazon Web Services (AWS) certifications within an 80-day testing window, the company says.

5. Hosted Private Clouds: OVHcloud has launched Hosted Private Cloud Premier -- the first offering in a new suite to help large organizations optimize the performance, security and isolation and location of their data, while at the same time offering competitive pricing, the European cloud company says. Also, OVHcloud's partner program has grown to 800 certified partners.

C. Technology Conferences & Virtual Partner Events