5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending Jan. 4

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is Cloudera, which completed its merger with Hortonworks this week to create a big data industry behemoth.

Also making the list this week are NEC Corp. for a savvy acquisition of a European IT services company, Brookfield Infrastructure for its acquisition of AT&T's data center co-location operations and assets, Synnex for hiring a key executive from rival distributor Tech Data, and Cisco Systems for a report that predicts the company could benefit from increased security concerns about communications gear from rival Huawei.

Not everyone in the IT industry was making smart moves this week, of course. For a rundown of companies that were unfortunate, unsuccessful or just didn't make good decisions, check out this week's Five Companies That Had A Rough Week roundup.

Cloudera Becomes Big Data Platform Powerhouse Following Hortonworks Merger

Cloudera wrapped up its merger with rival Hortonworks this week, immediately becoming a major player in the market for enterprise big data management and data cloud software and services.

The new Cloudera will now have annual sales of $720 million and has a goal of becoming a $1 billion-plus company by the end of next year.

Cloudera faces numerous challenges, not least of which is combining and rationalizing the two companies' technology portfolios and creating an integrated product line for customers and partners.

But with the completion of this phase of the merger this week, Cloudera is well on its way to breaking out in the crowded big data software arena.

NEC Expands Technology Services Offering Through Acquisition Of Danish Company

NEC Corp. struck a deal this week to purchase KMD Holding ApS, Denmark's largest IT company, in a move that will allow NEC to grow its technology services business, particularly in the area of public safety operations.

The move comes on the heels of NEC's purchase of Northgate Public Services, a U.K.-based company that, like KMD, provides IT services to local governments and public safety departments.

The acquisitions are expected to help NEC expand its operations throughout Europe.

NEC expects to close the $1.21 billion acquisition of KMD by the end of February.

Synnex Hires Tech Data Exec To Run Its Worldwide Technology Solutions Distribution Operations

Synnex hired a key executive away from rival distributor Tech Data to manage a large part of Synnex's worldwide business.

Synnex this week said it had hired Michael Urban away from Tech Data to become its new president of worldwide technology solutions distribution. He starts in the new job in February and will report to Synnex president and CEO Dennis Polk.

Urban has worked at Tech Data for six and a half years, the last two serving as corporate senior vice president of strategy, transformation and global vendor management.

Brookfield Infrastructure Buys Data Center Co-Location Assets, Operations From AT&T

There’s a new player in the data center co-location market this week after Brookfield Infrastructure, a Canadian asset management investment firm, completed its acquisition of AT&T’s data center co-location operations and assets for $1.1 billion.

Brookfield launched a new, wholly-owned company called Evoque Data Center Solutions, which will own and operate the data center assets.

The acquisition includes 18 of AT&T’s data center facilities in the U.S. and 13 outside of the country. AT&T has also transferred all customer contracts, employees that support the co-location operations, fixed assets, leases and specified-owned facilities to Brookfield.

Cisco Could Benefit From Increased Scrutiny Of Huawei: Report

Cisco Systems could benefit in the new year from increased scrutiny of – and security fears about – network and telecommunications equipment competitor Huawei Technologies, according to a new financial analyst report.

Chinese equipment maker Huawei has struggled in the last couple years to overcome data privacy and security concerns, given the company's ties to the Chinese government, which are casting a shadow over its products.

As businesses, governments and other entities reduce their Huawei purchases, Cisco, with its competing routers, switches, servers and other products, could benefit, especially in international markets, concludes a note from JP Morgan senior analyst Samik Chatterjee that was issued Friday.

The U.S. has already moved to block use of Huawei equipment by domestic service providers for 5G network buildouts. Australia has done the same, the report notes, and other countries with similar concerns about Huawei, including Germany, France, Japan, Belgium and the U.K., are mulling similar steps.