Category Archives: M&A Activity

Customer Relationship Management, M&A Activity, Mobile, Technical support, Xerox

Xerox Acquires UK-based WDS for Wireless Customer Experience Management

Xerox  has signed a definitive agreement to acquire WDS, a firm that provides technical support, knowledge management and related consulting to the world’s largest wireless telecommunication brands.

WDS uses a proprietary cloud-based platform called GlobalMineTM to capture, analyze and manage millions of technical support interactions across thousands of different mobile device types. WDS uses this data to help clients adjust, in real-time, any systemic issues and/or customer experience problems that their end-users may be experiencing with their devices or service.

Based in the United Kingdom, WDS has over 2,000 employees in the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

“WDS’s expertise in the telecommunications industry strengthens Xerox’s already broad portfolio of customer care solutions – differentiating us as a trusted partner for a rapidly evolving industry that requires reliable, accessible and scalable ways to support the complexity of their consumers’ needs,” said Chris Tranquill, president of the Xerox Telecommunications and Technology group.

Through its more than 48,000 call center employees who support clients in 150 locations, Xerox is a leading provider of customer care solutions, handling more than a million consumer interactions every day via the phone and Web.

Founded in 1995, WDS is led by CEO David Ffoulkes-Jones, who will continue with the company after the acquisition closes. “By focusing on the customer experience, wireless brands can drive greater loyalty and differentiation,” said Ffoulkes-Jones. “With Xerox, we now have the ability to accelerate our global expansion, add more value to our customers and deliver greater opportunities to our employees.”


Customer Relationship Management, Customer service, M&A Activity, Mobile, Technical support, Telecommunication, Xerox

Xerox Acquires UK-based WDS for Wireless Customer Experience Management

Xerox  has signed a definitive agreement to acquire WDS, a firm that provides technical support, knowledge management and related consulting to the world’s largest wireless telecommunication brands.

WDS uses a proprietary cloud-based platform called GlobalMineTM to capture, analyze and manage millions of technical support interactions across thousands of different mobile device types. WDS uses this data to help clients adjust, in real-time, any systemic issues and/or customer experience problems that their end-users may be experiencing with their devices or service.

Based in the United Kingdom, WDS has over 2,000 employees in the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

“WDS’s expertise in the telecommunications industry strengthens Xerox’s already broad portfolio of customer care solutions – differentiating us as a trusted partner for a rapidly evolving industry that requires reliable, accessible and scalable ways to support the complexity of their consumers’ needs,” said Chris Tranquill, president of the Xerox Telecommunications and Technology group.

Through its more than 48,000 call center employees who support clients in 150 locations, Xerox is a leading provider of customer care solutions, handling more than a million consumer interactions every day via the phone and Web.

Founded in 1995, WDS is led by CEO David Ffoulkes-Jones, who will continue with the company after the acquisition closes. “By focusing on the customer experience, wireless brands can drive greater loyalty and differentiation,” said Ffoulkes-Jones. “With Xerox, we now have the ability to accelerate our global expansion, add more value to our customers and deliver greater opportunities to our employees.”


Internet security, M&A Activity, Total Defense

Total Defense Acquires iSheriff

Image representing isheriff as depicted in Cru...

Total Defense, Inc., provider of solutions to combat the growing threat of cybercrime, today announced the company has acquired iSheriff. Together, the companies will offer “one of the most robust cloud security solutions on the market.”

“The days of employees safely accessing the internet from behind a corporate firewall are increasingly history for modern businesses. Today’s workforce is increasingly mobile, connecting through a broad array of devices and adopting cloud services at an accelerating pace. This reality requires a new approach to security,” said Paul Lipman, CEO at Total Defense. “A truly effective security solution requires a multi-layered approach. The cloud enables companies to very easily scale and deploy a powerful additional layer of security that is specifically tailored to today’s ‘de-perimeterized’ environments. As the security industry transitions, our acquisition of iSheriff puts us at the forefront of Internet security firms, by providing customers solid, best of breed, integrated security that’s managed through the cloud. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to truly make an impact and change the dynamic of the security market,” added Lipman.

Recently, Total Defense announced its first cloud product, Total Defense Cloud Security, an integrated cloud based SaaS (Security as a Service) solution for Web and email protection. The new offering provides a powerful and versatile Web and email security platform that protects users anytime and anywhere. This game changing solution provides a comprehensive additional layer of security that enhances the company’s existing endpoint solutions, giving Total Defense the advantage of a global cloud for real time malware protection across multiple platforms.

Oscar Marquez, CEO & Director of the Board of iSheriff, commented, “I have shared a vision for transforming the way businesses consume internet security with Paul Lipman for some time. Becoming part of Total Defense creates an ideal synergy. Total Defense’s large base of customers and extensive network of global partners will quickly accelerate the growth of our cloud offerings giving Total Defense a multi-tenant solution to provision and manage their customers, partners and OEM providers. This coupled with our global cloud infrastructure and cloud security expertise and Total Defense’s complete line of internet security solutions make a formidable company even stronger.”

For more information about Total Defense and its products, please visit: www.totaldefense.com.


Data center, Equinix, Hosting, M&A Activity

Equinix Adds Networks with ancotel Acquisition

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Equinix, Inc., a provider of global data center services, today announced it has completed its acquisition of ancotel GmbH, a  provider of carrier-neutral colocation and interconnection services in Europe.

The acquisition adds more than 400 network, cloud and content customers to Equinix. This includes 200 new networks and an additional 6,000 cross connects. In addition, Equinix adds one data center to its Frankfurt campus and now operates 21,000 square meters (223,000 square feet) of data center capacity across five data centers in the Frankfurt market. As part of the acquisition, Equinix also gains edge nodes in Hong Kong, London and Miami, providing additional points of presence in these markets. One of the world’s busiest data hubs, Equinix’s Frankfurt campus offers a broad mix of networks from Western and Eastern Europe, and significant growth opportunities for customers looking to expand their data center footprint globally.

“As a leading interconnection hub for networks throughout Europe, ancotel brings highly complementary capabilities to our European business that increases our network density in the region and offers a strong interconnection infrastructure that will provide our customers with a platform for growth in Europe and beyond,” said Eric Schwartz, president, Equinix EMEA.


Gaikai, M&A Activity, PlayStation, SCE, Sony Computer Entertainment, Video game

Sony Computer Entertainment Acquiring Interactive Cloud Gaming Company

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Sony Computer Entertainment today announced that it entered into an agreement to acquire Gaikai Inc.,  an interactive cloud-based gaming company, for approximately USD 380 million. Through the acquisition, SCE will establish a new cloud service, ensuring that it continues to provide users with truly innovative and immersive interactive entertainment experiences.

“By combining Gaikai’s resources including its technological strength and engineering talent with SCE’s extensive game platform knowledge and experience, SCE will provide users with unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences,” said Andrew House, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices.”

“SCE has built an incredible brand with PlayStation and has earned the respect of countless millions of gamers worldwide,” said David Perry, CEO of Gaikai Inc., “We’re honored to be able to help SCE rapidly harness the power of the interactive cloud and to continue to grow their ecosystem, to empower developers with new capabilities, to dramatically improve the reach of exciting content and to bring breathtaking new experiences to users worldwide.”

Established in 2008 and headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California, Gaikai has developed the highest quality, fastest interactive cloud-streaming platform in the world that enables the streaming of quality games to a wide variety of devices via the internet. With this acquisition, SCE will establish a cloud service and expand its network business by taking full advantage of Gaikai’s revolutionary technology and infrastructure including data centers servicing dozens of countries and key partners around the world.
The transaction is subject to certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
SCE will continue to aggressively expand a new world of entertainment through the introduction of innovative technologies and the delivery of amazing experiences.


Avnet, Avnet Technology Solutions, EMEA, M&A Activity, Magirus, Middle East

Avnet Aquiring Magirus Group

Avnet, Inc. announced today that it has agreed to acquire the Magirus Group (Magirus), a leading pan-European distributor of data center solutions and services. Magirus is a leading value-add distributor of software, systems and related services encompassing virtualization, storage management, cloud computing, security, intelligent networks and information life-cycle management services. Through its professional services portfolio and knowledge of the IT sector, Magirus enables business partners to take new technologies to market in eleven markets throughout Europe and the Middle East. The transaction, which is subject to normal regulatory approvals, is expected to close in October 2012.

Phil Gallagher, president of Avnet Technology Solutions, Global, commented, “The acquisition of Magirus will significantly enhance our competitive position in Europe and the Middle East by expanding our suite of solutions in high-growth technologies. Magirus increased its revenue 20 percent in calendar 2011, delivering powerful, flexible and cost-effective data center solutions from a breadth of suppliers, including Cisco, VMware and EMC. We welcome the knowledge and expertise of their talented management team and staff, who will allow us to further enhance the value we provide to our customers and suppliers.”

Founded in 1981, Magirus has 400 business and technical professionals that help over 4,500 resellers, system integrators and IT service providers develop and deploy IT infrastructure solutions that bring together traditional server, storage and network operations so that constantly changing business requirements can be supported more efficiently. Its services span demand generation, pre-sales, consultancy, training, certification, implementation as well as support from its pan-European, multi-lingual support center. Magirus generated revenue of approximately US$530 million in the 2011 calendar year, and will be integrated into Avnet Technology Solutions’ EMEA business.

Graeme Watt, president, Avnet Technology Solutions EMEA added, “Magirus is a high quality focused business and represents an excellent expansion to our current operations as it adds complementary product lines across the region while meaningfully increasing our scale in important markets including Germany and France. Magirus’ position with market-leading suppliers in high growth technologies will bolster our solutions practices and create significant cross-selling opportunities in the combined customer base. Its business model is a strong fit with our strategy to provide more value-add services, and the combined expertise of both organizations will enable us to accelerate the success of our customers and suppliers.”


CollabRx, M&A Activity, Medical, Tegal

Tegal Corporation Acquiring CollabRx, Inc.

Tegal Corporation today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire CollabRx, Inc., a privately held technology company in the rapidly growing market of interpretive content and data analytics for genomics-based medicine.

CollabRx offers cloud-based expert systems that provide clinically relevant interpretive knowledge to institutions, physicians, researchers and patients for genomics-based medicine in cancer and other diseases to inform health care decision making. With access to approximately 50 clinical and scientific advisors at leading academic institutions and a suite of tools and processes that combine artificial intelligence-based analytics with proprietary interpretive content, the company is well positioned to participate in the $300 billion value-added “big data” opportunity in the US health care market (as reported by McKinsey Global Institute), over half of which specifically targets areas in cancer and cancer genomics.1

The Chief Executive Officers of the two constituent companies, Thomas Mika of Tegal and James Karis of CollabRx, plan to serve as co-CEOs of the combined, publicly traded company, with headquarters in San Francisco, CA. Tegal entered into an employment agreement with Mr. Karis that will become effective at the closing, and Mr. Karis will also be appointed to Tegal’s Board of Directors. Tegal will continue to operate under its current name and ticker symbol for the time being, but plans to seek stockholder approval at its upcoming annual meeting in September 2012 for an amendment to its Certificate of Incorporation, changing its corporate name to CollabRx, Inc.

Originally founded in 2008 by Silicon Valley Internet pioneer Jay (Marty) Tenenbaum, CollabRx has developed clinical advisory networks, expert systems, proprietary tools and processes, and a pipeline of commercial data products and applications (“apps”) for cancer. CollabRx Therapy Finders™, its first commercial product, provides sophisticated, credible, personalized, and actionable information to physicians and patients for rapidly determining which medical tests, therapies, and clinical trials may be considered in cancer treatment planning with a specific emphasis on the tumor genetic profile.

CollabRx Therapy Finders™ are web-based apps that serve as one type of user interface to access proprietary CollabRx content. CollabRx content is dynamically updated and organized in a knowledgebase that includes information on molecular diagnostics, medical tests, clinical trials, drugs, biologics and other information relevant for cancer treatment planning. Capturing how highly respected practicing physicians use this information in the clinical setting further refines the knowledgebase.

Upon the acquisition’s closing, Tegal will issue an aggregate of 236,433 shares of common stock, representing 14% of Tegal’s total shares outstanding prior to the closing, to former CollabRx stockholders in exchange for 100% of the capital stock of CollabRx, Inc. Tegal and certain former CollabRx stockholders will enter into a Stockholders Agreement providing for, among other things, registration rights, transfer restrictions and voting and standstill agreements. Tegal also will assume $500,000 of existing CollabRx indebtedness through the issuance of 5-year promissory notes in substitution for outstanding notes previously issued by CollabRx. In addition, Tegal will grant a total of 368,417 RSUs and options as “inducement grants” to newly hired management and employees, all subject to four-year vesting and other restrictions.

“Medicine is entering a new era of low cost genome sequencing and the proliferation of personalized treatments based on specific genetic mutations,” said James Karis, CEO of CollabRx. “With the technology platform and expert system leadership position that CollabRx has developed over the past few years, we believe that the new company is in a position to lead the market for accurate, credible and current genomic information in the cancer space. We are excited to be joining the Tegal management team in a well-resourced, publicly-traded entity.”

“This acquisition marks both the successful conclusion of a transition process and the beginning of a new chapter for Tegal Corporation,” said Thomas Mika, Tegal’s Chairman, President and CEO. “We are excited to help drive the rapid growth of this market while we meet a critical and consequential human need. This is a mission Tegal’s board has embraced wholeheartedly. I am very pleased to be working with James Karis as Co-CEO and fellow director, and look forward, along with the entire team at CollabRx and Tegal, to building a dynamic company in a new era of genomic medicine.”


Dell, M&A Activity, Quest, SonicWALL

Dell Acquiring Quest Software

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Dell and Quest Software today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for Dell to acquire Quest, an IT management software provider offering a broad selection of solutions that solve the most common and most challenging IT problems.

Dell recently announced the formation of its Software Group to build upon its existing software expertise. The Dell Software Group will add to Dell’s enterprise solutions capability, accelerate strategic growth and further differentiate the company from competitors by increasing its solutions portfolio with Dell-owned intellectual property.

Quest’s family of software solutions and key technologies are strongly aligned with Dell’s software strategy. The acquisition provides critical components to expand Dell’s software capabilities in systems management, security, data protection and workspace management. In addition, Quest’s software portfolio is highly complementary to Dell’s scalable design approach to develop solutions that scale with customer needs. Some examples include:

  • The Quest One Identity and Access Management solution family adds to
    Dell’s very strong set of security assets with SonicWALL and
    Secureworks, creating a comprehensive set of security solutions to
    address important customer needs.
  • Quest’s Performance Monitoring solutions for applications, networks
    and databases address a rapidly growing need for our customers.
    Industry analysts have consistently ranked Quest Foglight as a leading
    application performance monitoring solution. Businesses of all sizes
    are looking to reduce their IT complexity and automate workloads for
    their IT departments. Customers worldwide leverage Foglight to
    continually monitor their IT environments, proactively identifying and
    remedying performance issues before they become bigger problems.
  • Quest’s Windows Server Management solutions complement Dell Services’
    rapidly growing application modernization practice with recently
    acquired Clerity Solutions and Make Technologies.
  • Effective database management is critical to the successful operation
    of most organizations. Quest’s Database Management capabilities offer
    a strong complement to Dell’s enterprise offering. Today, millions of
    DBAs, developers, and analysts around the world rely on Quest’s
    database management tools to simplify their work.

Quest has a diversified software portfolio and generated $857 million in global revenue based on its fiscal year 2011 results at gross margins of 86 percent and operating margins of 11 percent. Quest supports heterogeneous and next-generation virtualized environments across leading platform vendors. The addition of Quest, including its 1,500 software sales experts and 1,300 software developers, to Dell’s existing software expertise in systems management, security and cloud integration, is the foundation of a $1.2 billion software business, based on annual revenue.

Quest, established in 1987, is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, Calif. and serves more than 100,000 customers worldwide, including 87 percent of the Fortune 500. The company has approximately 3,850 employees and operates 60 offices in 23 countries.


Application performance management, AppNeta, IT Management, M&A Activity, Network performance, Performance management, Tracelytics

AppNeta Acquires Tracelytics

AppNeta, provider of end-user-centric performance management solutions for business critical applications, today announced the acquisition of Tracelytics, an  provider of full-stack, SaaS-delivered Application Performance Management (APM) solutions. With the addition of Tracelytics, AppNeta will deliver a SaaS portfolio that includes a broad suite of End-User Experience monitoring capabilities, innovative APM services built on full-stack application tracing technology, and unprecedented application-aware network performance insight.

“Tracelytics’ APM technology brings the next critical piece of the puzzle to our cloud SaaS environment and is setting a new standard for application performance management,” said Jim Melvin, CEO of AppNeta. “Their technology is a perfect companion to our network performance management solutions. Together we are providing unmatched insight to application and network operations teams that they do not have today. By coupling Tracelytics’ technology with our existing cloud services platform, we are accelerating time to value for our ever-increasing customer base.”

The acquisition of Tracelytics strengthens AppNeta’s breakthrough approach to application and network performance management as it is the only solution to offer a 360o view into the network and the key applications running on it. AppNeta’s award-winning, cloud-delivered PathView Cloud service offers integrated insight from every element of the network performance stack: path, packet, flow and device. This complete, integrated suite delivered from the cloud offers thousands of global customers the fastest time to resolution in the industry and superior End- User Experience monitoring.

“With the steadily increasing use of highly distributed Web-based applications, network performance insight is critical to assuring successful application delivery and a quality end-user experience,” said Jim Frey, managing research director at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). “Few APM solutions today offer the depth of visibility from the network perspective that is required for this level of end-user experience monitoring.”

Founded in 2010, Tracelytics has developed the next generation of APM technology. The innovative SaaS solution provides deep, detailed visibility into Web applications, identifying where issues and bottlenecks are occurring and providing actionable data for quick problem resolution. Tracelytics delivers a unique combination of immediate time-to-value with full-stack application tracing, providing real time visibility and management into Web applications with any level of complexity.

“We are excited to bring our customers full-stack performance insight to both the core application performance and the end-user’s experience for today’s distributed application architectures.” said John Vigeant, CEO of Tracelytics. “But without the corresponding deep network performance visibility, they can’t fully understand and solve problems in the complete application delivery chain. Together with AppNeta, we can now answer these questions.”


M&A Activity, Pricing, Retail, Retail Optimization, Return on investment, Revionics

Revionics Acquires Retail Optimization, Inc. to Offer End-to-End Merchandise Optimization Solutions

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Revionics, Inc. and Retail Optimization, Inc., a provider of cloud-based assortment and micro and macro space optimization solutions, today announced that Revionics has acquired Retail Optimization’s business and related assets. This acquisition extends Revionics’ Life Cycle Price Optimization Solutions with the addition of Retail Optimization’s cloud-based Assortment and Micro and Macro Space Optimization Solutions.

The combination of these two solutions brings all the merchandise planning levers – price, promotion, assortment, space – together to deliver the most powerful End-to-End Merchandise Optimization Solution available in today’s market. Together these solutions help retailers breakdown merchandising organizational siloes and improve demand forecasting to better meet shopper needs and ensure retailers have the RIGHT product, price, promotion, placement and space allocation for optimal financial results and improved customer satisfaction and loyalty. Offered on a highly scalable, high performance cloud-based platform, the solutions future-proof retailers from Big Data/Fast Data challenges, while providing speed-to-ROI.

“The key to becoming demand driven lies in the ability to effectively manage the intersection of demand, supply and product,” said Kevin Sterneckert, a Gartner Research Vice President. “Demand-driven retailers gather information at each customer moment of truth, and utilize five interrelated strategies to translate demand insight into effective response and shaping activities, delivering higher return on assets, more inventory turns and greater revenue growth than their peers.”*

The new Revionics products that are now immediately available from the acquisition include:

  • Revionics® Assortment Optimization
  • Revionics® Macro Space Optimization
  • Revionics® Micro Space Optimization

For more information about these new offerings, please visit: www.revionics.com/merchandise-optimization

Retailers are battling intense competition and price-conscious, informed shoppers that rapidly shift their buying behavior. To compete effectively, retailers need to be more responsive to their shoppers’ product needs ensuring their assortments are tailored to the individual store and space, and are on-shelf available. Doubling in the last decade, out-of-stocks have been one of retailers’ largest headaches and profit loss areas, estimated to be a $107B problem in 2012. Studies show that a typical retailer loses 40% of intended purchases when a shopper encounters an out-of-stock, resulting in a 4% yearly revenue loss.**

According to a 2011 RSR Research study, retailers indicated that out-of-stocks remain a top retail challenge. Assortment and space optimization technologies that can effectively provide simultaneous top down/bottom up recommendations are required to enable a shopper-centric merchandising strategy that protects against out-of-stocks while reducing excess inventory and carryings costs. Improving shelf-availability at a lower cost helps to maximize return on inventory and store real estate while improving customer satisfaction.

“This acquisition underscores our commitment to continually innovate with cloud-based solutions focused on addressing retailers’ most critical business challenges,” said Marc Hafner, Revionics’ President and CEO. “Retail Optimization has the same approach we do, which is to incorporate next-generation predictive analytics and demand-based science into our offerings to ensure our customers have best-of-breed solutions that drive a competitive advantage.”

Leveraged and proven by tier one retailers and manufacturers throughout North America, Retail Optimization’s solutions deliver advanced predictive analytics and demand-based science that incorporates macro and micro spatial constraints and tradeoffs into assortment planning and optimization to determine the right product, placement and space allocation at the store/aisle/category/SKU level.

The solutions bring together otherwise separate but critical information in determining an optimal merchandising execution program – shopper demand information, loyalty data, market data, market basket data, store layouts, planograms, business rules and strategy, and financial objectives. Real-time ‘what-if’ scenario planning capabilities allow retailers to compare and contrast the optimized results of different strategies before selecting one for implementation. Using a proprietary simultaneous ‘top down/bottom up’ optimization approach, retailers can now boost productivity of existing shelf space by determining the highest benefit product mix while simultaneously reducing both the out-of-stocks of that product mix and cutting its inventory requirements.

This acquisition is part of Revionics’ master product roadmap and vision to be the first and only vendor that can offer retailers a next-generation, fully integrated end-to-end merchandise optimization solution, which eliminates the remaining siloes in the merchandising organization by infusing price and promotions into the assortment and space decisions. Bringing assortment, space, and pricing together requires two critical integrations – Space-aware Pricing and Price-aware Assortment. Combined with the existing integration available today, Revionics’ integrated end-to-end merchandise optimization will be able to deliver a Coordinated Master Demand Plan.