Photo by Chris Hall on Unsplash
Microsoft has been performing very well in the cloud space, beating expectations and increasing profits. Other companies like IBM… not so much. In fact IBM’s performance (while growing) is causing some analysts to call Big Blue a “zombie company”.
The drama between the Pentagon, Amazon, and Oracle may not be over. The suppliers that were down-selected (Oracle and IBM) likely complained directly to President Trump (he is friendly with Safra Catz) and he has vowed to “look into it”.
And it looks like Broadcom isn’t so interested in buying Symantec. That deal is said to be dead.
Acquisitions/Investments
- VMware acquires ML acceleration startup Bitfusion
VMware today announced that it has acquired Bitfusion, a former participant in our Startup Battlefield competition. Bitfusion was one of the earliest companies to help businesses accelerate their complex computing workloads on GPUs, FPGAs and ASICs. In its earliest iteration, over four years ago, the company’s focus was less on AI and machine learning and more on other areas of high-performance computing, but, unsurprisingly, that shifted as the interested in AI and ML increased in recent years.
VMware will use Bitfusion’s technology, which is vendor- and hardware-agnostic, to bring similar capabilities to its customers. Specifically, it plans to integrate Bitfusion into its vSphere platform.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/18/vmware-acquires-ml-acceleration-startup-bitfusion/
- Symantec and Broadcom cease deal negotiations: Sources
People familiar with the matter added that Broadcom indicated in early conversations that it would be willing to pay $28.25 per share for Symantec, but that following due diligence knocked that figure down below $28.
Symantec had surged earlier this month after it was revealed that Broadcom was in advanced talks to acquire the security software vendor. Faber had reported the two sides were negotiating a price and had seen possible synergies of $1.5 billion.
Symantec shares dropped 12.8% to $22.30 on Monday.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/15/symantec-and-broadcom-cease-deal-negotiations-sources.html
Cloud
- Microsoft’s Cloud Business Drives Record Sales
Revenue rose 12% to $33.72 billion from the year-earlier period, the company said Thursday, beating Wall Street estimates. Profit also topped expectations.
The results for Microsoft’s fiscal fourth quarter ended in June reflected continued strength in corporate spending on the cloud services that have revolutionized business computing over the past decade. Companies increasingly are paying subscriptions for software and renting computer power, rather than buying applications that run on their own servers.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsofts-cloud-business-drives-record-sales-11563481232
- IBM Revenue Lags as Cloud Pivot Remains a Challenge
Revenue fell 4.2% from a year earlier to $19.16 billion. Profit rose 3.9% to $2.5 billion, as the company worked to scale back its exposure to businesses with smaller profit margins.
IBM has trailed Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. as customers race to do more of their computing in the cloud—online services that free companies from the need to buy and maintain their own systems. As competitors report consistently strong revenue growth, buoyed by sales of their cloud services, IBM has absorbed a string of declines.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-revenue-lags-as-cloud-pivot-remains-a-challenge-11563395020
- Trump says he’s looking into a Pentagon cloud contract for Amazon or Microsoft because ‘we’re getting tremendous complaints’
“We’re getting tremendous complaints from other companies,” Trump said in a press pool at the White House during a meeting with the prime minister of The Netherlands. “Some of the greatest companies in the world are complaining about it.” He named Microsoft, Oracle and IBM.
Since April, Microsoft and Amazon have been the only remaining competitors for the contract after IBM and Oracle were ruled out by the Defense Department. The contract, known as JEDI, is viewed as a marquee deal for the company that ultimately wins it, particularly as Microsoft and Amazon are aggressively pursuing government work for their expanding cloud units.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/18/trump-says-seriously-looking-into-amazons-pentagon-contract.html
House Republicans to Trump: Stay Out of Pentagon Cloud Acquisition“We believe that it is essential for our national security to move forward as quickly as possible with the award and implementation of this contract,” said the Republican lawmakers, who sit on one of the two Congressional committees with Pentagon oversight responsibilities. “It meets only a portion of DOD’s needs for cloud, but it is an important first step. Moving to the cloud will help DOD operate faster, more efficiently and compete with adversaries, like China.
“Our committee has conducted oversight of this contract from the beginning. As you know, the courts have upheld DOD’s handling of this competition. While it is understandable that some of the companies competing for the contract are disappointed at not being selected as one of the finalists, further unnecessary delays will only damage our security and increase the costs of the contract.”
- Google officially closes ‘Dragonfly,’ its controversial Chinese search project
Google’s controversial Project Dragonfly has officially been shelved. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week, Google’s vice president of public policy, Karan Bhatia, said that work on its censored Chinese search engine had been “terminated.” A spokesperson later confirmed that Google has no plans to launch Search in China, and that there is no work being undertaken on such a project.
https://www.engadget.com/2019/07/17/google-officially-closes-dragonfly-chinese-search/
Security/Privacy
- Equifax to Pay Around $700 Million to Resolve Data-Breach Probes
Under the agreement, the credit-reporting firm would pay around $700 million to settle with the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and most state attorneys general, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal would also resolve a nationwide consumer class-action lawsuit, they said.
The settlement could be announced as soon as Monday, the people said. The amount Equifax ultimately pays could shift based on the number of consumer claims that are eventually filed, they added.
- Hackers breach 62 US colleges by exploiting ERP vulnerability
The vulnerability is in Ellucian Banner Web Tailor, a module of the Ellucian Banner ERP that lets universities customize their front-facing web applications. The vulnerability also impacts Ellucian Banner Enterprise Identity Services, a module for managing user accounts.
Earlier this year, a security researcher named Joshua Mulliken discovered a vulnerability in the authentication mechanism used by the two modules that can allow remote attackers to hijack victims’ web sessions and gain access to their accounts.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/hackers-breach-62-us-colleges-by-exploiting-erp-vulnerability/
- Florida DMV sells your personal information to private companies, marketing firms
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles told the I-Team under the law, it must provide driver information but said federal privacy laws and its own rules limit how outside companies can access Floridian’s personal information.
One of the data brokers accessing Florida DMV information is Arkansas-based marketing firm Acxiom, which has an agreement with the state to buy driver and ID cardholder data for a penny a record.
On its website, Acxiom claims it has collected information from almost every adult in the United States.
Software/SaaS
- IBM is a ‘zombie company’: Analyst
Yes, IBM’s cloud business is growing, but it pales in comparison to the competition. Its second-quarter cloud revenue climbed 5%. Microsoft’s Azure enjoyed revenue growth of 64% in the company’s fourth quarter of its fiscal year, while AWS jumped more than 41% in its first quarter.
Just this week AT&T inked a reported $2 billion deal with Microsoft to move most of its internal business applications used by its largest unit to Microsoft’s Azure cloud. As part of the agreement, AT&T’s (T) employees will use Azure’s productivity tools and services.
The deal came one day after IBM said that AT&T would move internal applications used by its business services unit to IBM’s Cloud. The exact terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but an IBM spokesperson describes it as a “multi-billion dollar deal.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ibm-is-a-zombie-company-analyst-122944734.html
Other
- EU opens Amazon antitrust investigation
The EU’s Competition Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation into Amazon to investigate whether the company is using sales data to gain an unfair advantage over smaller sellers on the Marketplace platform. The Commission says it will look into Amazon’s agreements with marketplace sellers, as well as how Amazon uses data to choose which retailer to link to using the “Buy Box” on its site. The announcement comes on the same day that Amazon announced changes to its third-party seller service agreement in response to a separate antitrust investigation by German regulators.