Mergers, acquisitions, partnerships in September 2022

First reseller for Central Europe

The partnership with Digitall expands Zuora's service portfolio in Central Europe. The goal: to support customers locally.

The focus of the offering is turnkey end-to-end solutions for monetizing customer relationships through digital services, which Digitall will distribute mainly in Austria. "Through our partnership with Digitall, we plan to bring the benefits of the Subscription Economy to an even broader range of businesses in the region"says Veit Brücker, Vice President Central Europe at Zuora. Target customers for agile subscription-based offerings can be found in almost all Central European B2B and B2C companies. Some of the most mature market clusters are the commercial and industrial software and IT markets, as well as the digital media, entertainment and gaming industries. Traditional businesses with recurring revenues that need to modernize can also benefit from offering true customer-centric, flexible subscriptions - namely publishers and all media offerings focused on a single purchase, traditional financial services and insurance, and static offerings in the utilities and telecommunications industries. But the trend toward the subscription economy will continue in other industries as well. Soon, subscription models will be part of everyday life in almost every area of life. Against this backdrop, the importance of the work of companies like Zuora and Digitall becomes apparent.

“Through our partnership, we plan to bring the benefits to a broader range of businesses.“

Veit Brücker, Vice President Central Europe, Zuora

For more cyber security

To improve the protection of connected cars, Trend Micro establishes a new subsidiary, VicOne.

Through its new subsidiary VicOne, Trend Micro provides end-to-end security solutions for the automotive ecosystem, including Security by Design, Risk Management, and Detection and Response. The combined power of Vehicle SOC, Security Over the Air (OTA), In-Vehicle Security, Penetration Testing as a Service, and In-Vehicle Vulnerability Management enables security analysts to detect and respond to even more incidents faster. "We are driven by the desire to secure an increasingly connected world"says Eva Chen, CEO and co-founder, Trend Micro. "VicOne is our response to the urgent need for cybersecurity solutions for the automotive industry. The solution is based on our technological innovations and offers important added value to the industry." 

“The solution is based on our technological innovations and offers important added value to the industry.“

Eva Chen, CEO and Co-Founder, Trend Micro

Transparency throughout

Leogistics and GateHouse Maritime, a provider of visibility and predictability services, announced their collaboration.

By enriching the Myleo/dsc logistics platform with GateHouse OceanIO's comprehensive data, Leogistics can now also offer its customers full transparency on maritime transports. Myleo/dsc solves multiple challenges of collaboration between actors in complex supply chain networks, while OceanIO provides the data foundation. Both partners jointly pursue the goal of providing their customers with an API as well as a backend including the preparation of data structures with integrated container data and data visualization before the end of the second quarter of 2022. "Digitization and changes in communication today offer a great opportunity for more integrated service and higher customer satisfaction. To achieve this, we need to rethink collaboration in the business and logistics world. By partnering with GateHouse Maritime, we can further extend the power of our solution.", says Michael Rölli, co-head of product and solution management Myleo/dsc. Under the agreement between the two companies, GateHouse Maritime will provide Leogistics with ocean visibility and prediction services, including container tracking and vessel tracking. OceanIO provides the basis for prediction services.

“In the wake of digitalization, we need to rethink collaboration in the business and logistics world.“

Michael Rölli, Co-Head of Product and Solution Management Myleo/dsc, Leogistics

Partnerships are in the foreground

ZetVisions is expanding its partner ecosystem. The focus is on consulting and technology partnerships.

The existing consulting partnerships with KMPG and KMPG Law as well as MSG Systems will be complemented in the future by partnerships with Pikon and with People Consolidated. "A vital and focused partner ecosystem is essential to our growth strategy"explains Christian Sohn, Managing Director of ZetVisions. "We should not and cannot do everything ourselves. That's why it makes sense to expand expertise in a targeted way through partnerships." Address validation is one of the software requirements frequently requested in master data and investment management. In this area, ZetVisions will collaborate with Byteplant, Melissa Data and GB Group Loqate in the future. "If nothing else, this should give our customers the opportunity to choose their desired solution"says Sohn. In the future, more partners would be added to other technical software requirements, such as business information on corporate structures and shareholdings.

“This should help our customers not least the opportunity to choose their preferred solution. "

Christian Sohn, Managing Director, ZetVisions

Promotion of innovative cybersecurity

CyberArk announces the formation of CyberArk Ventures. The $30 million global investment fund will support companies that address complex security challenges with innovative technologies. Also participating in CyberArk Ventures are four venture capital investors Venrock, YL Ventures, Team8 Capital and Merlin Ventures. As a first step, CyberArk Ventures has made investments in three cybersecurity startups: Dig Security, provider of real-time threat detection solutions for data assets hosted in public clouds; Enso Security, provider of a platform in the application security posture management space; Zero Networks, provider of identity-based micro-segmentation. In addition to funding, CyberArk Ventures supports the portfolio companies with time-to-market, access to CyberArk technology and -Labs research, collaboration with CyberArk leadership, and networking opportunities with potential partners and customers.

Solvares Group continues growth course

With the specialist for field service management and maintenance software MobileX, the Solvares Group expands its range of services.

MobileX, founded in 2000, develops and sells software for technical service and maintenance. Its applications support the optimization of various business processes, such as deployment planning and control in technical field service. Its solutions give field workers access to order data from the ERP system and transmit feedback and reports directly to the back office. With the integration of MobileX, the Solvares Group is responding to the increasing demand for mobile solutions and networked, end-to-end processes between office and field service. The customers of the Solvares Group will benefit in particular from synergies between MobileX and "FLS - Fast Lean Smart". By combining the complementary products, the companies will provide a powerful field service solution in the future.

This enables Solvares Group to offer a wide range of customers, from medium-sized businesses to large corporations, holistic field service management that optimizes all task areas from scheduling and route planning to order processing and documentation. The entire solution is based on a highly scalable SaaS (Software as a Service) platform that is state of the art and offers comprehensive integration options with SAP and Microsoft ecosystems. The Munich-based software manufacturer is the fifth company in the Solvares Group. As with the previous expansions, the group's entrepreneurial motto also applies to the acquisition of MobileX: Growing together under the umbrella of a champion, sustainably and without egalitarianism. The Solvares Group follows its organic product strategy and its inorganic M&A strategy to jointly achieve the ambitious goals and to develop new solutions.

At the same time, each company retains its individual culture and strengths and contributes them to the team and to the benefit of all involved. Hannes Heckner, CEO of MobileX, is all the more excited about the cooperation within the group: "As co-founder of MobileX, it is particularly important to me to continue to offer our customers the best solution in field service and maintenance. Together with FLS under the umbrella of the Solvares Group, we are creating a comprehensive portfolio of offerings for our customers in the growth market of Field Service Management. Therefore, I am sure that the step into this strong group is the right way for our company."

Exacerbated supply problems

Atos has announced plans to split into two companies. An analysis.

Atos intends to spin off its cloud, cybersecurity and data analytics service areas into a new listed company called Evidian. All other parts will remain under the existing Atos brand, which will continue IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing. Atos was very successful for many years, especially in the area of data centers. However, demand for data center outsourcing has recently declined sharply. For example, the company estimates that revenue from the old Atos will decline by 12 percent from 2021 to 2022. ISG believes that Atos' split adequately reflects the profound changes in the market. The company has invested heavily in its One Cloud platform and made a weighty acquisition with the acquisition of multi-cloud company CloudReach.

However, both occurred only after cloud migrations had already picked up speed in 2016. Added to this is the turbulence of the past two years, triggered by the change of CEO and the upcoming merger with DXC. Against this backdrop, Atos' delivery quality has slipped in some cases. And recent ISG measures of customer experience show that Atos' overall score is below the market average. This raises concerns that the company's split could exacerbate existing delivery problems. In addition, a potential subcontractor relationship between Atos and Evidian can be expected in the future, with a large portion of the top performers moving towards Evidian. ISG recommends existing and potential Atos customers to quickly get in touch with the contact persons in the new management teams. Systematic and intensive communication is a key to success in such situations.