5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending Feb. 11, CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.

The Week Ending Feb. 11

Topping this week’s Came to Win list is AMD, which cleared the final regulatory hurdle for its $35 billion deal to buy Xilinx and now expects to complete the acquisition as soon as next week.

Also making this week’s list are solution provider Converge Technology Solutions for its latest acquisition that expands its international footprint, data analytics platform developer Starburst for a very impressive round of funding that nearly tripled its valuation, and Cisco Systems and network deployment partner AmpThink for showcasing their technology at the SoFi Stadium that’s hosting this weekend’s Super Bowl LVI.

And HP Inc. makes the list for recognizing that sustainability has become a competitive advantage for solution providers and providing its channel partners with that opportunity through its Amplify Impact program.

AMD Set To Close $35B Xilinx Acquisition Deal

AMD’s $35 billion deal to buy FPGA maker Xilinx received its final necessary approval from regulators this week, setting the stage for AMD to complete the acquisition as soon as next Monday.

The blockbuster acquisition, which was announced in October 2020, is expected to provide AMD with a competitive boost in the data center systems market where its EPYC server CPU business has already grown substantially. The acquisition also will extend AMD’s presence in such market areas as telecommunications, edge computing, industrial systems and networking.

Wednesday marked the expiration of a waiting period for the company’s pre-merger notification with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.

AMD’s success in acquiring Xilinx contrasts sharply with Nvidia’s failed $40 billion deal to buy Arm, which collapsed this week in the face of opposition from regulators in the U.S. and U.K. over anticompetition concerns.

Channel M&A Titan Converge Technology Makes 27th Acquisition

Sticking with the topic of acquisitions, solution provider rising star Converge Technology Solutions this week bought Germany-based Visucom GmbH – Converge Technology’s 27th acquisition since its founding in late 2017.

The acquisition marks Converge Technology Solutions’ ninth acquisition just since the start of 2021. Just last month the company bought Paragon Development Systems, which specializes in managed services, digital workplace platforms and enterprise solutions.

Visucom provides professional screens, interactive blackboards, media controls and audio-visual systems for the education and public sector markets. The Visucom acquisition continues the Toronto-based company’s steady expansion outside of North America: In August Converge Technology Solutions acquired Germany-based Rednet AG.

Converge Technology Solutions was ranked No. 39 on CRN’s 2021 Solution Provider 500, up from No. 50 in 2020.

Starburst Valuation Climbs To $3.35B With Latest Funding Round

Data analytics platform developer Starburst raised $250 million in a Series D round of funding this week that nearly triples the Boston-based company’s valuation to $3.35 billion.

The funding news on Wednesday comes as the company, which held its Datanova conference this week, also unveiled new capabilities in its flagship Starburst Enterprise software, including “Data Products” functionality for curating and sharing data throughout an organization – even if the data resides in multiple sources.

The latest funding round brings Starburst’s total financing to $414 million, including a $100 million Series C round in January 2021. CEO Justin Borgman told CRN that the funding will go toward accelerated development of its software and for hiring additional engineering and sales staff – the company plans on nearly doubling its employee headcount in 2022 with about 300 hires planned.

Expansion into Asia-Pacific is also on the agenda for this year and some of the funding could be used for acquisitions to extend the company’s product portfolio.

Salt Security, an API security technology startup based in Palo Alto, Calif., also scored in funding this week when it secured $140 million in its own Series D round on a $1.4 billion valuation

Cisco And Integration Partner AmpThink On The Big Stage At Super Bowl LVI

This weekend’s Super Bowl LVI game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals will take place in SoFi Stadium, the next-generation sports and entertainment venue in Los Angeles that was built at a cost of $5.5 billion and opened in 2020.

And a chunk of that spending went to Cisco Systems and its IT integration and deployment partner AmpThink of Garland, Texas. SoFi Stadium is a “full-stack” Cisco building in that every bit of data running through the facility touches a piece of Cisco gear including video, audio, data center networking and Wi-Fi.

This week’s Super Bowl will provide the ultimate showcase for Cisco, which is now an official technology partner of the NFL. And AmpThink, which has already made a name for itself with large-scale IT and wireless projects in stadiums and arenas throughout the U.S., wins kudos for pulling off the massive IT and wireless deployment the SoFi Stadium project called for.

The stadium was built to be state-of-the-art and 100 percent digital. It features a massive Wi-Fi 6 deployment – the largest of any sports venue in the world – with more than 2,500 Cisco access points and 273 switches spread across the stadium. The facility has a single converged network, a modern data center (powered by Cisco HyperFlex HX Data Platform systems) and a “command center” broadcast room. And a 70,000-square-foot, 4K Infinity Screen (with 80 million pixels) by Samsung soars above the playing field.

HP Expands Sustainability With Focus On Partners

Solution providers say that sustainability practices are becoming increasingly important to winning deals from environmentally conscious customers.

HP Inc. wins kudos this week with its increased focus on Amplify Impact, the company’s sustainability program that generated $3.5 billion in new sales in fiscal 2021. That represents a three-fold increase from the previous year, HP said this week.

Amplify Impact falls under HP’s Amplify channel program. Today about 20 percent of HP’s partners have signed on to Amplify Impact – exceeding the initial 10 percent goal – and Kobi Elaz (pictured), HP’s new global channel chief, told CRN that he would like to see that number reach 50 percent.