5 Companies That Came To Win This Week And A Bonus

For The Week Ending Sept. 19

This week's roundup of companies include a round of applause from partners as Rackspace says it will remain an independent company, a new release from Apple, a $2.5 billion acquisition by Microsoft, $40 million in new funding for Linux container technology, a solution provider acquisition to push forward in the health-care vertical, and a blockbuster acquisition by SAP.

Rackspace Says It Will Remain Independent

After months of speculation about a possible acquisition, Rackspace said that it had rejected all offers for a possible acquisition and would remain an independent company. In tandem with the news, Rackspace also named Taylor Rhodes as the company's new CEO, replacing Graham Weston, who will remain on the board as chairman.

Partners cheered the news as it set their uncertainty to rest. They also said that they feel Rackspace is getting on the right track when it comes to the channel.

Apple Rolls Out iOS8

Just a week after it unveiled the much-anticipated iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, selling a record 4 million phones in the first 24 hours, Apple made another move this week with the release of iOS 8. The new iOS became available to download Wednesday, bringing users a host of new features. One of the most popular features was Handoff, which allows for a seamless experience moving between Apple devices. Other features include HealthKit, HomeKit, programming language Swift, TouchID and more.

Microsoft To Acquire Mojang For $2.5B

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made his first big acquisition since taking the helm of the software giant with the planned $2.5 billion purchase of Mojang. The Sweden-based company is most known for its Minecraft game. While the acquisition seemed like a win for Microsoft's gaming side, partners said they thought there might be more behind this blockbuster deal. In particular, partners highlighted the 100 million users of Minecraft, its cross-platform abilities, and helping build STEM education initiatives for kids.

Docker Gets $40M in Funding

Docker has been making waves in the tech industry with its Linux containers for developers. This week, Docker continued its momentum as one of the hottest enterprise technologies on the market, closing a $40 million round of Series C funding. The funding was led by Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, Greylock Partners and Insight Ventures, and will be used to help develop support for apps that run across multiple Docker containers.

Cognizant To Snap Up TriZetto

To help the solution provider capitalize on a rapidly growing market for health-care technology, Cognizant said Monday that it would acquire TriZetto, an Englewood, Colo.-based company that helps health-care organizations with administrative, cost-cutting and care delivery services. In an interview later in the week, Malcolm Frank, Cognizant executive vice president of strategy and marketing, called the acquisition a "game-changer" to provide a full stack of capabilities for the health-care vertical.

SAP To Buy Concur For $8.3B

SAP closed out the week with a blockbuster acquisition, revealing its intent to acquire Concur for $8.3 billion. Concur brings a cloud-based SaaS product that manages travel and entertainment expenses, and also runs popular mobile travel organizer TripIt. SAP CEO Bill McDermott said in a statement that the move is yet another push by the company to establish itself as an "undisputed business network company."