5 Channel Partner Updates: Tuesday 04 February 2020

Here are five (actually, a bit more…) technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Tuesday, February 4, 2020. Sip up.

Our Daily Brew

A. What’s Hot Today

1. M&A - UCaaS: Comcast has acquired Blueface for unified communications as a service.

2. M&A - MSP and Telecom: Lingo Communications, a cloud and managed service provider (MSP) focused on SMB unified communications, has acquired selected customers from Blue Casa Telephone.

3. M&A - Fiber Network Services: Everstream has acquired certain LightBound fiber and telecom assets from DataBank, a managed data center provider. DataBank retains LightBound's data center assets.

4. M&A - Configure-Price-Quote: Cognizant has acquired Code Zero Consulting, a privately-held provider of consulting and implementation services for cloud-based Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) and billing solutions.  The acquisition further strengthens Cognizant's cloud solutions portfolio and Salesforce CPQ and billing capabilities, the companies say. Financial details were not disclosed.

5. M&A - Storage Management: Quantum is acquiring the ActiveScale object storage business from Western Digital Technologies, a subsidiary of Western Digital Corp. Financial terms were not disclosed.

6. Talent - IT Services - CEO Change: TSR, an IT staffing and services provider, has named  Thomas Salerno as acting CEO. Effective as of January 27, 2020, Christopher Hughes, CEO and treasurer, began a temporary leave of absence, the company says. The announcement comes amid a recent battle for control of the company.

7. Potential IPOs - Business Software, Automation: Work management software startup Asana, launched by a Facebook co-founder, said it confidentially filed to register its shares for a public listing that would avoid a traditional initial public offering, Bloomberg reports. MSP-focused technology provider Datto is rumored to be considering a similar move.

8. eDiscovery - Upgrade: Mimecast has upgraded Mimecast Case Review with a new  user interface that's designed to simplify eDiscovery services.

9. eDiscovery Managed Services: Epiq has launched enhanced suite of eDiscovery managed services solutions.

B. Partnerships and Strategic Alliances

1. TPx Managed Network Services: TPx Communications has announced general availability of MSx Networks, a managed service offering for WiFi, security, software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) and switching systems.

2. SMB Loans: Goldman Sachs is in discussions with Amazon to offer small-business loans through Amazon's e-commerce platform, Bloomberg reports.

3. AI, Chatbots & Help Desks: CyberMAK Information Systems is leveraging Kore.ai to develop conversational AI chatbots for enterprise customers' IT service desks and more.

C. Next Five Cybersecurity Conferences