5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending June 29

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is distributor Synnex, which made a bold move this week to expand its share of the call center service market with a $2.4-billion deal to acquire Convergys.

Also making the list this week are Arista Networks for a partial victory in its ongoing patent infringement battle with Cisco; Intel for expanding its security leadership roster by hiring its first chief software security officer; big data startup AtScale for hiring a prominent technology leader as its CEO; and regional telecom service company C Spire, which made a bid to become a hybrid IT services powerhouse with a major acquisition.

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.

Synnex To Acquire Convergys In A $2.4-Billion Deal

Powerhouse IT distributor Synnex made a bold move this week by striking a deal to buy call center leader Convergys for $2.4 billion in an acquisition that will greatly expand Synnex's call center service offerings.

The acquisition will be carried out by Synnex's Concentrix division with Concentrix and Convergys combined into one business unit.

Convergys is a global leader in call center operations, often called "customer experience outsourcing," and handles 8 billion contacts a year from more than 150 centers in 31 countries.

Synnex, an IT distributor and provider of business services and solutions, already operates its own call center business. The Convergys acquisition will take that business to the next level.

Arista Networks Notches Victory In Patent Battle With Cisco

Arista scored a victory this week in its long-running, contentious legal battle to prove that it did not infringe on Cisco Systems' patents.

On Wednesday the U.S. International Trade Commission concluded its so-called "945" investigation into Arista's alleged infringement on two Cisco patents. The ITC decision knocks down one of four claims Cisco has brought against Arista in a legal fight that has dragged on since late 2014.

The ITC also acknowledged that Arista had successfully developed new versions of its products that avoid potential infringement on Cisco patents. "Cisco has failed to show… that Arista's redesigned products infringe… or that Arista has directly infringed by contributing to or inducing infringement by its customers," the ITC said.

Intel Hires Apple Vet As Company's First Chief Software Security Officer

Intel this week made a significant move to expand its security leadership roster in the aftermath of the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities disclosures, naming Apple veteran Window Snyder (pictured) as the chipmaker's first chief software security officer.

Snyder, who starts in her new job July 9, worked for five years on security and privacy strategy for iOS and Mac OS X at Apple. Snyder will work within Intel's Software and Services Group as vice president and general manager of the Intel Platform Security Division.

That division is separate from the Intel Product Assurance and Security Group, led by Leslie Culbertson, that was established in January in response to the Spectre and Meltdown problems.

Big Data Startup AtScale Hires Star CEO

Speaking of savvy hires, AtScale scored a coup this week when it disclosed that it has hired Chris Lynch as its new CEO. Lynch (pictured) is a prominent technology leader, a former Hewlett-Packard executive who ran the vendor's database business unit, an experienced CEO and a venture capital investor in big data companies.

Previous CEO Dave Mariani, who founded AtScale in 2013, is moving over to focus on managing technology development at the San Mateo, Calif.-based company.

AtScale develops software that allows popular business analytics tools like Tableau and QlikView to access large volumes of data, wherever it resides.

AtScale wins bonus points for Lynch's plans to leverage the channel more extensively to accelerate AtScale's growth.

C Spire Acquires MSP Superpower TekLinks

Regional telecom service company C Spire this week made a bold bid to become a nationwide, end-to-end hybrid IT services powerhouse with the acquisition of TekLinks, a leading managed services provider.

The acquisition will give C Spire the ability to design, implement and deliver a full suite of IT services for enterprise customers in both on-premise and cloud environments.

C Spire, which already had a fast-growing enterprise IT services business, will expand that business five-fold with the acquisition and putting it in position to grab market share from the major telecom companies. The Ridgeland, Miss.-based company is now a force to be reckoned with in the Southeast and, soon, across the U.S.