VMware completes acquisition of Pivotal, connects infrastructure and application owners to boost software delivery, business outcomes

VMware announced Monday that it has completed the acquisition of Pivotal Software. With the completion of the acquisition, Pivotal’s Class A common stock was removed from listing on the New York Stock Exchange with trading suspended prior to the open of the market today, and Pivotal will now operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of VMware. The transaction represented an enterprise value for Pivotal of approximately $2.7 billion.

Under the terms of the transaction, Pivotal’s Class A common stockholders are entitled to receive $15.00 per share cash for each share held (without interest and less applicable tax withholdings), and Pivotal’s Class B common stockholder, Dell Technologies, received approximately 7.2 million shares of VMware Class B common stock, at an exchange ratio of 0.0550 shares of VMware Class B common stock for each share of Pivotal Class B common stock.

Pivotal’s offerings will be core to the VMware Tanzu portfolio of products and services designed to help customers transform the way they build, run and manage their most important applications, with Kubernetes as the common infrastructure substrate. 

The combination of Pivotal’s developer-centric offerings with VMware’s upstream Kubernetes run-time infrastructure and management tools will deliver a comprehensive enterprise solution that enables dramatic improvements in developer productivity in the creation of modern applications. VMware is able to offer product building blocks and integrated solutions that are tested and proven with technical expertise that customers need to accelerate software delivery across data center, cloud and edge environments.

“It's my pleasure to announce Ray O'Farrell as the leader of VMware’s new Modern Applications Platform business unit—uniting the Pivotal and VMware Cloud Native Applications teams,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO, VMware. “And as Pivotal is now part of VMware, I want to thank the Pivotal leadership team for building a great company. Together, we’re poised to be the leading enabler of Kubernetes with a deep understanding of both operators and developers.”

“Digital transformation and the applications that drive it should not be restricted only to cloud and software giants,” said Ray O’Farrell, executive vice president and general manager, Modern Applications Platform Business Unit, VMware. “We believe that modern application development solutions and practices need to be easily accessible to everyday enterprises across the globe. With Pivotal’s developer capabilities as the foundation, we’ll focus on delivering consumable, enterprise-ready cloud native offerings to customers to help them achieve better business outcomes.”  

“Pivotal has fundamentally changed how the world’s biggest brands build and manage software with a focus on developer productivity through platform abstractions and development techniques as well as connecting the business with the developer,” said Edward Hieatt, senior vice president, customer success, Pivotal. “The combination of Pivotal and VMware offers the most comprehensive application platform in the industry and is a win for our customers, a win for Pivotal, and a win for VMware. We’re excited to team up with VMware to help more enterprises become like modern software companies by adopting DevOps and Lean techniques developed by internet giants and the startup community.”

Numerous mutual customers including Raytheon have reacted positively to the news of the acquisition. “By working with both Pivotal and VMware, we’ve been able to completely transform how we write software for our military and government customers,” said Todd Probert, vice president for C2, Space and Intelligence at Raytheon. “Combining these companies under a single umbrella is going to make it possible for my team to get code to our customers even faster and easier.”

Agero supports nearly half of passenger vehicles on the road with Oracle SD-WAN

Agero is using Oracle enterprise communications technologies to safeguard drivers in more than 115 million vehicles in the U.S. When a driver is stranded roadside, time is of the essence. With Oracle, the company has achieved continuous contact center uptime, so customers can get the assistance they need and are back on the road as quickly as possible.

For 45 years, Agero has provided smart solutions for its clients and their drivers. Currently, Agero’s  roadside assistance, accident management and consumer affairs services are leveraged in the U.S. by drivers in two-thirds of new passenger vehicles, policyholders from nine of the top 15 auto insurance carriers and customers of a variety of other diversified clients. 

Oracle SD-WAN was created to solve the ongoing IT challenges network managers face every day—from expensive, sluggish, inflexible WANs to difficulties deploying new office WAN links and accessing cloud services. 

With Oracle SD-WAN, enterprises can benefit from internet economics, leverage high-bandwidth and inexpensive Internet connections, and safely migrate applications to the public cloud and SaaS at their own pace – without sacrificing the high availability and predictable application performance they expect from their MPLS-only WANs..

To maximize the quality of its customers’ experiences and to eliminate communication failures or downtime, Agero needed predictable enterprise communications performance and real-time application support. Agero selected Oracle for the failsafe reliability, security and interoperability.

“When drivers are stranded on the road in the winter, creating not only an uncomfortable situation but also a health and safety issue, it is crucial for our customers to get directly in contact with an agent,” said Robert Sullivan, vice president, technology and shared services, Agero. “Oracle has the best of breed technology in the Oracle SD-WAN and Enterprise Session Border Controllers, which have helped us to deliver high availability, reliability and quality of experience for our customers.”

Since working with Oracle and Presidio to implement the Oracle SD-WAN solution, Agero has reduced downtime and created special routing situations for sites without substantial circuit diversity. This advanced, “always-on performance” is invaluable to Agero as the company processes more than 12 million roadside and emergency support requests per year.

“Agero is reinventing how driver assistance is delivered, while elevating the consumer experience in often dire scenarios,” said Andrew Morawski, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Communications - Networks. “As enterprises demand flexible WAN solutions supporting shifting business requirements, Oracle is increasing and leveraging bandwidth for affordable and trusted WAN connectivity, anywhere and whenever it’s needed.”

In addition to the Oracle SD-WAN, Agero deployed Oracle 1100 Enterprise Session Border Controller (E-SBC) Oracle 3900 E-SBC and the Oracle Communications Converged Application Server (OCCAS) to protect its network and contact center from external threats.

LogMeIn enters into definitive agreement to be acquired by affiliates of Francisco Partners, Evergreen Coast Capital for $4.3 billion

LogMeIn Inc., vendor of cloud-based connectivity, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired in a transaction led by affiliates of Francisco Partners, a technology-focused global private equity firm, and including Evergreen Coast Capital, the private equity affiliate of Elliott Management, for US$86.05 per share in cash. The all-cash transaction values LogMeIn at an aggregate equity valuation of approximately $4.3 billion.

Under the terms of the agreement, LogMeIn shareholders will receive $86.05 in cash for each share of LogMeIn’s common stock they hold. This consideration represents a premium of approximately 25 percent to LogMeIn’s unaffected closing stock price on Sept. 18, 2019, the last trading day before a media report was published speculating about a potential sale process. The Board of Directors of LogMeIn approved the agreement and recommended that shareholders vote in favor of the transaction.

LogMeIn will have the right to terminate the definitive agreement to accept a superior proposal subject to the terms and conditions of the definitive agreement. There can be no assurance that this process will result in a superior proposal, and LogMeIn does not intend to disclose developments with respect to the solicitation process unless and until its Board of Directors makes a determination requiring further disclosure.

Qatalyst Partners and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC are acting as financial advisors to LogMeIn, and Latham & Watkins LLP is serving as the company’s legal advisor.

Mizuho Bank Ltd. is acting as lead financial advisor and Barclays, Deutsche Bank Securities, Jefferies LLC, and RBC Capital Markets are acting as co-financial advisors to Francisco Partners and Evergreen with Paul Hastings LLP, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP serving as legal advisors. Barclays, RBC Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities, Jefferies Finance LLC, and Mizuho Bank, have provided committed debt financing for the transaction.

“This transaction acknowledges the significant value of LogMeIn and provides our stockholders with a meaningful and certain cash offer at a compelling premium,” said Bill Wagner, president and chief executive officer of LogMeIn. “Together, Francisco Partners and Evergreen are committed to addressing the unique needs of both our core and growth assets. We believe our partnership with Francisco Partners and Evergreen will help put us in a position to deliver the operational benefits needed to achieve sustained growth over the long term.”

“LogMeIn has a compelling product portfolio and leadership in the Unified Communications and Collaboration, Identity, and Digital Engagement markets,” said Andrew Kowal, senior partner at Francisco Partners. “We look forward to working with Bill and the leadership team at LogMeIn to accelerate growth and product investment organically and inorganically.”

“This investment builds on the strength of our infrastructure and security software franchise and we are thrilled to partner with the company to achieve its long-term strategic vision,” added Dipanjan “DJ” Deb, co-founder and CEO of Francisco Partners.

“We have deep appreciation for the LogMeIn franchise and leadership team from our long-term involvement in the business,” said Elliott Partner Jesse Cohn and Portfolio Manager Jason Genrich. “We look forward to partnering with Bill and the entire executive leadership team alongside Francisco Partners on the next phase of growth and value creation for LogMeIn as a private company.”

Christine Wang, principal at Francisco Partners also commented, "We are excited to invest in LogMeIn and support its mission to deliver best-in-class software solutions to the modern workforce.”

The transaction is expected to close in mid-2020, subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of stockholder and regulatory approvals.

Ericsson and MediaTek embark upon 5G voice landmark, using a 3.5 GHz TDD band

Conducted at the Ericsson Lab in Kista in early December, the interoperability test involved the use of an end-to-end solution from Ericsson and Dimensity 1000 commercial chipset from MediaTek deployed on a 3.5GHz TDD band. 

The first commercial 5G smartphones on the market use dual-mode connectivity to make voice calls over 4G but uses 5G for data boost. The next step in the network evolution is to tap 5G to accommodate data traffic while using 4G for voice calls with EPS Fallback. The final step, however, will involve avoiding dependence on 4G altogether, with the exclusive use of 5G (NR standalone) for both voice and data services.

Ericsson enables every step of this network evolution through its 5G portfolio, which includes 5G radio access, IMS, and 5G Core with the dual-mode 5G cloud core capability.

With Standalone New Radio (SA NR), a 5G-enabled device does not need to rely on 4G technology to make 5G voice (VoNR) calls. SA NR networks will enable a range of new services and simplify network architecture.

With the arrival of standalone NR access, voice and other communication services will need to be provided, requiring the 5G network to support native voice calling services for 5G smartphones. Using VoNR on SA architecture, service providers will be able to offer voice services on 5G-voice-capable devices as well as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services to consumers and business users.

Commercial 5G networks are going live around the world - and Ericsson technology is leading the way. First movers can reshape the market and increase market share and revenue streams. Combining improved capacity with increased cost-efficiency 5G represents an opportunity for telecom operators to improve their consumer business. 5G also allows operators to explore new use cases and business models and capture new revenue streams through addressing industry digitalization. 

“Although 5G is closely associated with superior data-transfer capabilities, voice services remain essential for mobile users. So 5G phones are expected to provide all the capabilities of 4G phones in addition to new 5G features and services,” said Hannes Ekström, head of product line 5G RAN, Ericsson. “Ensuring continued voice services on 5G devices must therefore be addressed properly.

“With multivendor interoperability, we can help our customers provide voice support for 5G SA. This shows our readiness with a complete 5G network solution tested with 5G chipsets, paving the way for native voice services on commercial 5G devices.”

Ericsson has collaborated with MediaTek on performing interoperability tests spanning SA NR, 5G Core and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) to ensure that voice support is enabled as service providers evolve their 4G networks to 5G. The two partners have also successfully tested Evolved Packet System (EPS) Fallback for situations where SA is not available.

“As a 5G leader, MediaTek is committed to bringing unrivaled 5G experiences to consumers around the world,” said JS Pan, General Manager of Wireless System Design and Partnership, MediaTek. “This technology milestone will let device makers support native voice calling services on 5G networks, providing users with a seamless connectivity experience as SA 5G networks are rolled out in the coming year.”

Scale Computing debuts small HCI edge appliance for edge computing, IT infrastructure deployments

Scale Computing released its latest HC3 Edge appliance, which is powered by Intel technology, offers a low-cost edge solution that is built on a tiny form factor, making it ideal to deploy in small clusters where highly available computing was previously cost-prohibitive. The appliance also introduces HC3 Edge Fabric, which eliminates the need for a backplane network switch requirement, lowering the TCO and delivering simpler connectivity for edge networks.

The HE150 appliance is a small, all-flash, NVMe storage-based compute appliance that delivers simplicity, efficiency, and enterprise-ready virtualization associated with Scale Computing’s HC3 platform. 

Built specifically for sites that need highly available infrastructure, the HE150 can be deployed almost anywhere, without requiring a rack or server closet. Taking up only the space needed to stack three smartphones, it also includes disaster recovery, high availability clustering, rolling upgrades and integrated data protection.

The HE150 is based on the Intel NUC, offering excellent performance to handle a wide range of workloads. The cutting-edge construction and connectivity comes ready for industrial and IoT applications. The extremely small form factor consumes a small amount of power, offers ease of installation and an ability to rapidly add devices that scale up rapidly, along with the reliability needed for edge computing and IoT applications.

“The high-functionality, reliability and performance of HE150 represents a major breakthrough that will open up new markets for Scale Computing and its partners, including Infrastructure Technology Solutions,” said Joel Althoff, president at Infrastructure Technology Solutions. “With Scale Computing, HE150 opens up a new door to edge computing, delivering an affordable edge solution equipped with disaster recovery and resiliency, that is truly innovative in the marketplace.”

In addition to the new Scale Computing HE150 appliance, HC3 Edge software, which is available to large multi-site customers and partners, is also introducing general software support for Intel NUC based systems from other hardware suppliers. HC3 Edge software will be available soon for Lenovo’s new Smart Edge portfolio of fan-less, small form factor PCs. 

“With no IT staff on site, downtime is a constant concern at each of our locations. Downtime can cost us tens of thousands of dollars, and therefore is not an option for Jerry’s Foods,” explained Jeff Miller, director of IT at Jerry’s Foods. “I was blown away by the simplicity and functionality of Scale Computing’s edge solutions. It’s making a huge impact on my day-to-day IT operations. With the addition of the HE150, distributed enterprises now have the ability to scale up or down depending on their edge computing needs. It’s a win-win!”

“A growing number of distributed organizations require infrastructure at the edge of the network, specifically at sites where there are limited IT staff available. With edge computing on the rise, organizations are requiring solutions that can fit small footprint requirements with robust application performance, while still being affordable, efficient and simple to manage remotely,” said Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder, Scale Computing. “This is why we created our newest HE150 appliance, making edge computing a financially viable and practical option for more organizations. Our ability to deliver HCI technology in a smaller form factor and lower price point is making edge computing capabilities and resources more accessible to many organizations.”

IDC reveals that the global Ethernet switch and router sector made marginal gains in the third quarter this year

Research firm IDC released Friday data on the global Ethernet switch market (Layer 2/3) that recorded US$7.32 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2019, an increase of 0.1 percent year over year. Meanwhile, worldwide total enterprise and service provider (SP) router market revenues grew 0.8 percent year over year in the third quarter this year to $3.74 billion. These results were published Friday in the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker. 

The Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and the Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker provide total market size and vendor shares for the Ethernet switch and router technologies in an Excel pivot table format. The geographic coverage for both the Ethernet switch market and the router market includes eight major regions (USA, Canada, Latin America, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), Japan, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, and Middle East and Africa) and 60 countries. 

The Ethernet switch market is further segmented by speed (100Mb, 1000Mb, 10Gb, 25Gb, 40Gb, 50Gb, 100Gb), product (fixed managed, fixed unmanaged, modular), and layer (L2, L3, ADC). Measurement for the Ethernet switch market is provided in vendor revenue, value, and port shipments. The router market is further split by product (high-end, mid-range, low-end, SOHO), deployment (service provider, enterprise), connectivity (core, edge), and the measurements are in vendor revenue, value, and unit shipments.

From a geographic perspective, the third quarter of this year Ethernet switch market delivered mixed results across the globe. The Middle East and Africa region grew 9.3 percent with the region's largest market, the United Arab Emirates, growing 6.9 percent year over year while Israel's market grew 18.8 percent. Across Europe, growth was stagnant. 

The Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region lost 9.0 percent compared to a year earlier with Russia dropping 13.9 percent year over year. The Western Europe market fell 6.1 percent with Germany losing 5.6 percent year over year. Denmark was a bright spot in the region with 18.6 percent year-over-year growth. 

The Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (APeJ) region grew 1.3 percent year over year. In China, the market grew 4.6 percent year over year while the Philippines rose 25.9 percent. Japan was off 3.8 percent compared to its growth in the third quarter last year. In Latin America, the market dropped 4.4 percent year over year, while the U.S. market grew 2.6 percent annually and Canada declined 4.9 percent year over year. 

"The over-arching trend driving both the Ethernet switch and router markets continues to be enterprise, communications service provider, and cloud SP investments in agile cloud connectivity to meet the needs of their business and customers," said Rohit Mehra, vice president, Network Infrastructure at IDC. "The demand for higher speeds across a range of network connectivity options will spur growth in these markets in the coming years as bandwidth needs increase and mission-critical applications demand even lower latencies." 

Growth in the Ethernet switch market continues to be driven by the highest-speed switching platforms. For example, port shipments for 100Gb switches rose 57.2 percent year over year to 5.6 million. 100Gb revenues grew 32.8 percent year over year in the third quarter this year to $1.44 billion, making up 19.6 percent of total market revenue compared to 14.8 percent a year earlier. 

25Gb switches also saw growth with revenues increasing 69.3 percent to $463.4 million and port shipments growing 68.0 percent year over year. Lower-speed campus switches, a more mature part of the market, saw moderate growth in port shipments but declining revenue, pointing to a decrease in average selling prices (ASPs). 

10Gb port shipments rose 7.9 percent year over year, but revenue declined 8.7 percent to deliver 26.3 percent of total market revenue. 1Gb switches grew 3.9 percent year over year in port shipments but declined 7.4 percent in revenue. 1Gb now accounts for 39.2 percent of the total Ethernet switch market revenue. 

The worldwide enterprise and service provider router market increased 0.8 percent on a year-over-year basis in the third quarter this year with the major service provider segment, which accounts for 75.5 percent of revenues, decreasing 0.1 percent and the enterprise segment of the market growing 3.6 percent. 

From a regional perspective, the combined service provider and enterprise router market fell 1.5 percent in APeJ with the enterprise segment growing 1.5 percent and the service provider segment declining 2.2 percent year over year. Japan's total market grew 3.9 percent year over year. 

Revenues in Western Europe were off 7.3 percent year over year while CEE revenues for the combined enterprise and service provider market grew 3.5 percent year over year. The Middle East & Africa region was up 8.9 percent. In the U.S., the enterprise segment was up 7.3 percent while service provider revenues grew 1.8 percent, giving the combined markets 3.2 percent year-over-year growth. In Latin America, the market grew 11.7 percent. 

Cisco finished the thrid quarter this year with a 5.6 percent year-over-year decline in overall Ethernet switch revenues and market share of 51.3 percent. In the hotly contested 25Gb/100Gb segment, Cisco was the market leader with 38.2 percent revenue share. Cisco's combined service provider and enterprise router revenue declined 10.6 percent year over year with enterprise router revenue increasing 3.4 percent and SP revenues falling 18.1 percent. Cisco's combined SP and enterprise router market share increased to 37.9 percent, up from 36.8 percent in the second quarter of this year. 

Huawei's Ethernet switch revenue rose 4.4 percent on an annualized basis, giving the company market share of 8.9 percent. The company's combined SP and enterprise router revenue rose 20.6 percent year over year, giving the company a market share of 28.1 percent. 

Arista Networks saw Ethernet switch revenues increase 14.3 percent in the third quarter, bringing its share to 7.6 percent of the total market, up from 6.6 percent a year earlier. 100Gb revenues accounting for 68.8 percent of the company's total revenue, indicating the company's focus on hyperscale and cloud providers. 

HPE's Ethernet switch revenue declined 7.0 percent year over year, resulting in overall market share of 5.3 percent. 

Juniper's Ethernet switch revenue rose 4.5 percent year over year in the third quarter this year, bringing its market share to 3.2 percent. Juniper saw a 17.9 percent decline in combined enterprise and SP router sales, bringing its market share in the router market to 10.9 percent. 

"Dynamics in the Ethernet switch and routing markets continue to evolve," said Petr Jirovsky, research director, IDC Networking Trackers. "In Ethernet switching, the seemingly insatiable demand for higher-speed networking platforms continue to drive investments. Meanwhile, lower-speed campus switching continues to moderate as enterprises build out connectivity platforms to support mobile workers and the Internet of Things. In the routing segment, the enterprise continues to buoy the broader market as enterprises and service providers augment their networks to support improved cloud connectivity."