Partner Trends #029
Your weekly source for news in the world of channel partners, strategic alliances, and partnerships.
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Around the Industry
Cloudera announced that it would go private as private equity firms KKR, Clayton, and Dubilier & Rice intend to acquire the enterprise data cloud company in a deal valued at about $5.3 billion. Cloudera has struggled since its IPO in 2017 as Hadoop lost a significant amount of traction to cheaper, less complex cloud-based solutions. Industry experts believe the deal will give Cloudera the flexibility and opportunity to explore innovations geared towards making cloud infrastructure management easier for end-users.
Microsoft announced it would acquire firmware security startup ReFirm Labs to boost its security capabilities for protecting IoT and intelligent edge devices. ReFirm Labs is known for its open-source Binwalk firmware security analysis tool used by over 50,000 global organizations to identify firmware security issues in IoT and embedded devices. The acquisition will allow Microsoft to help to continue to build upon its strategy to secure customers from the chip to the cloud it sees attacks targeting sensitive information stored in memory on the rise.
DocuSign announced it would acquire the IP rights and team from Clause, a smart agreement platform provider. Clause’s platform enables and automates actions such as sending notifications, running compliance checks, and sending contract status updates through its smart agreement platform. The acquisition will allow DocuSign to expand its contract lifecycle management offerings and tap into Clause’s experience in the financial services, insurance, and healthcare industry. Both companies have been partners since DocuSign joined Clause’s Series A funding round in 2019.
Unisys, a global IT solutions provider, announced that it would acquire Unify Square, a leading experience management provider for secure collaboration and communications, for $152.5 million. Unisys plans to integrate Unify Square’s UCaaS digital workplace services capabilities to enhance its own digital workplace services solution set with the acquisition. Enterprise clients looking for a way to adapt to the new reality of a hybrid workforce will address their digital workplace needs by accessing a complete set of software and services that can enhance their productivity and employee satisfaction.
Partner Program Announcements
Martello Technologies, a leading developer of enterprise digital experience monitoring solutions, announced its channel partner program launch. The new partner program allows managed service providers (MSPs) and value-added resellers (VARs) the ability to offer Martello’s Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams digital experience monitoring platform to small and medium-sized enterprises. Partners in the program will receive training, automated SLA management, and co-marketing resources to help provide value-added services with complete visibility of Microsoft 365 and cloud/hybrid service delivery.
Trustifi, a SaaS-based email security provider, announced its channel partner program for MSPs and solution providers. The new partner program will offer partners sales training, access to MDFs, and sales and marketing support.
ActZero, a Managed Detection and Response startup, announced the launch of its partner program, Summit. The new partner program will give solution providers, MSPs, MSSPs, and VARs the flexibility to integrate its service with their existing offerings. Partners in the program can receive early access to ActZero security tools, enhancements to custom marketing, and lead generation support.
Partnership Announcements
Shutterstock, a leading global creative platform, and Wochit, an enterprise-grade solution for cloud-based video creation, announced a strategic partnership to help organizations produce compelling video content at scale. By combining Wochit’s advanced video technology and Shutterstock’s content, tools, and full-service solutions, both companies will allow users to unlock new opportunities using the tools they need to create digital content to amplify their brand.
Drop, a leading personalized rewards platform, and Branch, a leading cross-platform solution for linking and measurement, announced a strategic partnership to offer global brands the ability to measure attribution and performance for card-linked offers (CLOs). The new partnership addresses a recurring problem with CLOs. It will allow marketers to track offer activations and downstream results, making it easier to track offer performance and compare it with their more traditional performance marketing spend.
Recent Articles
Are your partnerships build on addressing the true needs of the customer? Customer experience is just as important in today’s digital world and having a partnership built on solving customers’ critical needs is essential. Read how to brainstorm and come up with ways to address these needs.
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