Comms Dealer

Microsoft is to acquire professional social networking platform LinkedIn for $196 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $26.2bn, inclusive of LinkedIn's net cash.

Following the acquisition, which is thought to be one of the the biggest tech deals ever, LinkedIn will retain its brand, culture and independence. Jeff Weiner will remain CEO of LinkedIn, reporting to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.

Reid Hoffman, Chairman of the board, co-founder and controlling shareholder of LinkedIn, and Weiner both fully support this transaction.

LinkedIn has witnessed 19% growth year-over-year to more than 433 million members worldwide with over 105 million unique visiting members per month.

"The LinkedIn team has grown a fantastic business centered on connecting the world's professionals," said Nadella.

"Together we can accelerate the growth of LinkedIn, as well as Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics as we seek to empower every person and organisation on the planet."

Weiner added: "Just as we have changed the way the world connects to opportunity, this relationship with Microsoft, and the combination of its cloud and LinkedIn's network, now gives us a chance to also change the way the world works. 

"For the last 13 years we've been positioned to connect professionals to make them more productive and successful, and I'm looking forward to leading our team through the next chapter of our story."

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both LinkedIn and Microsoft.

The deal is expected to close this calendar year.

Vodafone estimates that the loss in potential revenue to a UK small business caused by not having access to their mobile phones for even one day could be as much as £12k.

The operator commissioned research to assess the extent of this problem prior to launching Vodafone Rapid, a new service that promises to get replacement phones into the hands of small businesses anywhere in the UK within four hours of an approved insurance claim being made.

In a poll conducted by YouGov surveying more than 1,000 small businesses with up to nine employees, their senior decision makers estimate on average they would miss out on almost four new business opportunities in a working day when their work mobile is out of action.

Phil Mottram, Enterprise Director at Vodafone UK, said: "When the potential loss of new business opportunities equates to billions of pounds for small businesses country-wide, and more importantly could mean that a small business misses out on that vital call, it's business critical to get replacement phones into the hands of business owners as quickly as possible when they find their mobile is lost, stolen or damaged.

"This is where Vodafone Rapid comes in - getting the country's small business population back up and running with a replacement phone within just four hours."

TalkTalk Business has launched its new World SIP and International Numbers service, providing next-generation voice solutions to businesses that want to increase their international presence or simplify their use of calls between offices in different countries.

The new International Numbers service will allow UK companies to take either a freephone or local landline number of over 110 countries, diverting it to any existing fixed line or mobile number.

The offering will provide a cost-efficient way for businesses to create an international reach by utilising the local numbers of a country.

With World SIP TalkTalk Business has launched additional features such as a full range of in-country numbers and local breakout, whereby businesses with offices in multiple markets can take advantage of free international calls between offices, as well as international local break out charged at local rates.

World SIP also provides international businesses with simplicity, with one international tariff for all countries, billed in one single currency.

International Numbers and World SIP are launched to the TalkTalk Business' partner network today, with International Numbers launching to direct customers later this month.

Alexandra Tempest, Head of Partner at TalkTalk Business, stated: "International business is becoming ever more important, and these days it's not just big businesses but also smaller and medium sized business which are scaling up globally.

"We want British businesses to benefit from a cost-efficient and reliable way to make and receive calls, whether they're aspiring to do more business overseas or seeking to provide better customer service to their existing customer or client base."

Tech Data UK is providing more than 4,000 of its customers with additional credit totalling in excess of £150m to help them drive sales growth.

The company is also providing extended payment terms to resellers targeting the education sector with audiovisual solutions, so they can take full advantage of opportunities that will emerge as schools upgrade their classrooms and infrastructure during the summer holidays.

The extra credit has been applied to the accounts of frequent customers automatically, giving them the flexibility to do more business and drive growth with both existing and new customers.

The additional credit lines will also ensure that resellers who are focused on the education market, which is now entering its peak summer buying phase, are able to make the most of their opportunities.

The extended invoice payment terms are designed to help education-focused partners, and in particular those selling audiovisual equipment, such as large format interactive displays, digital signage and collaboration solutions, to manage the longer payment cycles that are typical in the public sector.

During June and July, where 50 percent or more of verified orders from education are made up of products sold by Maverick, Tech Data's specialist audiovisual business, payment terms can be extended to September on application.

Andy Gass, MD Tech Data UK and Ireland,stated: "The extended payment terms will give public sector-focused resellers the chance to maximise their potential in the peak buying period for education over the summer."

Sennheiser Group's annual results for fiscal year 2015 show a turnover increase of 7.5% to a record 682.2m euros.

The company's turnover developed significantly across all global regions, particularly in the Americas and APAC. Profit before taxes in 2015 amounted to 30.3m euros.

All three of the Sennheiser Group's business regions showed successful turnover figures.

According to Dr. Andreas Sennheiser, co-CEO, this is the direct result of a well balanced strategy. "We tapped into new regions and markets, such as Korea and Latin America, while still retaining our focus on existing, large markets," he stated.

Growth was particularly robust in the Americas region (North, Central and South America), where the group generated turnover of 179.8m euros, which represents a 26.8m euros, or 17.5% increase on the previous year.

With turnover growth of 14.6m euros, an increase of 11% compared to fiscal year 2014, the APAC region (Asia and Australia) also saw a marked improvement. Overall, the Sennheiser Group reported turnover of 147.2m euros in this region.

EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) remains Sennheiser's strongest region economically, with a total revenue of 355.2m euros and modest growth of 1.7%.

Germany again saw double digit revenue growth. "We are particularly pleased that we were once again able to significantly expand our already strong position in our domestic market," co-CEO Daniel Sennheiser stated.

The company generated 84.5% of its revenue outside Germany in fiscal year 2015.

The Sennheiser Group currently has 19 sales subsidiaries and long-standing trading partners in more than 50 countries around the world, and will continue to pursue its strategic goal of expanding its global business in the future.

Both the Consumer Electronics Division and Professional Systems Division registered growth in 2015. Turnover improved by 10.9% to 347m euros in the Professional Systems Division and the Consumer Electronics Division registered a 4.1% increase to 335.2m euros.

Investments in research and development increased by 8.5% to 46.9m euros in fiscal year 2015.

Andreas Sennheiser added: "The audio sector is on the verge of experiencing a renaissance. For customers, new formats and new ways of producing and consuming music continue to emerge - technologies that we have been researching for many years already."

A key element of the research activities at Sennheiser is the further development of AMBEO. The 3D immersive audio technology programme offers a spatial sound experience.

"We are currently developing products in four core areas - recording, mixing, processing and reproduction," added says Daniel Sennheiser.

"Our virtual-reality microphone will be the first official AMBEO product. As soon as it is ready for mass production this year, it will have a considerable impact on the future of virtual-reality content."

IT infrastructure services provider Onyx has been pocketed by Pulsant.

The acquisition will add to Pulsant's capabilities as a provider of hybrid IT services - most notably in the areas of applications management, remote and on-site managed services, workplace recovery and security - and expand its reach in the UK to deliver more options for resiliency and a stronger portfolio of solutions to customers.

Backed by mid-market private equity firm Livingbridge, Onyx has five data centres in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Sheffield and Newcastle, and other business continuity centres and offices around the UK.

The company's staff, technology platforms and infrastructure will be integrated with Pulsant's over the coming months.

The combined business will have almost 400 staff, revenues of £75m and over 4,000 customers in a variety of industries.

Its operations are underpinned by a network of 15 owned and operated data centres across in the UK, and private, multi-tenanted and public cloud platforms.

"Bringing Onyx and its capabilities into Pulsant is the latest step in our targeted acquisition strategy," stated Pulsant CEO Mark Howling.

"The acquisition increases the scale of our business and the breadth of services we can offer, which is crucial as multi-cloud environments become more complex and more important."

Neil Stephenson, Onyx CEO, added: "We have known Pulsant for many years and always felt that combining Onyx and Pulsant would provide a strong UK-wide player.

"Both businesses have complementary capabilities and locations, and this acquisition enables the enlarged business to offer a stronger, broader range of services to our joint customers.

"The cultures of our two organisations are also similar, which was a big factor in selecting Pulsant as the acquirer."

This acquisition marks a significant milestone in the development of Pulsant, and is its first major acquisition since Oak Hill and Scottish Equity Partners became Pulsant's major shareholders in July 2014.

As the business moves into its next stage of development, the company has also announced that it has appointed Mike Tobin, OBE, as Chairman.

Tobin was previously CEO at Telecity for 13 years, overseeing its growth from a market cap of £6m to £1.6bn, and floating it on the London Stock Exchange in 2007.

Howling added: "Mike has a broad understanding of the data centre and cloud markets and experience of growing businesses in the UK and overseas.

"Becoming Chairman is a significant signal of Pulsant's quality and ambitions."

Pieter Knook, Pulsant's existing Chairman, will continue to serve on the board as Deputy Chairman.

Global research by Freeform Dynamics shows strong adoption of intelligent machines used for automating and optimising business and IT processes.

The research found that 92% of IT professionals surveyed recognise the technology is now central to the success of their business, but 68% acknowledge it raises new concerns about network security, access and controls.

According to the research, investment in intelligent business systems and automation is well underway across the globe. The top current application deployment areas cited by respondents include digital customer engagement systems (55%), process automation and workflow systems (52%), and automated risk monitoring and management solutions (50%).

Despite the speed of adoption, the study reveals that IT decision makers are finding it difficult to assess the full extent of the risks, challenges and threats posed by intelligent business systems.

Security concerns (33%), funding constraints (30%) and lack of knowledge (24%) were all identified as areas of worry and named as primary obstacles to adoption and use.

To give just one example, a fifth of respondents (20%) said increased 'noise' on the network is making it harder to detect malicious activity, with automated/bot access to APIs causing system/application issues and creating unexpected security exposures.

"Organisations are harnessing the transformative powers of intelligent systems to gain competitive advantage.

"But IT decision makers recognise that, while a force for good, these technologies also expose the enterprise to new internal and external risk vectors," said Tony Lock, Distinguished Analyst at Freeform Dynamics.

"As the pace of adoption increases, there will be no escaping the impact of intelligent systems on the enterprise - regardless of whether or not organisations directly invest in such technologies."

Michael Hack, SVP of EMEA Operations at Ipswitch, added: "IT professionals should approach intelligent machines with their eyes wide open. As network managers grow more confident with intelligent systems, they will become increasingly willing to tackle more complex applications.

"However, they need to ensure they have the right tools in place to enable intelligent systems and support the IT team to manage the impact of internal and external intelligent automation effectively."

Exclusive Group's Non-Executive Board Director Neil Ledger has been awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, recognising his efforts in raising more than £300,000 for over 40 local and national charities over the last 20 years.

Armed with a simple idea of combining his passion of golf with comedy and business, Ledger created an annual charity event that has become one of the highlights within the IT channel calendar attracting people from all corners of the UK, Europe and the US.

"I am deeply honoured and humbled to receive this award," he said. "It just seemed obvious to me that we could bring successful people from the IT industry and channel together, look after them for the day and encourage them to give a little back to those who need it most.

"It has been its own reward, and I've made great friends along the way.

"I've loved every minute, and this year's event will be particularly special. But this hasn't all been down to me alone and I'd like to dedicate this accolade to all the people who have helped organise the events over the years, all those who have donated auction prizes and finally all the people who have dug deep and donated to so many worthy causes."

A market worth up to £40m could be unlocked by the sale of two-way radios according to Nimans.

The distributor says today's two-way radio solutions offer full integration with telephone systems and can perform seamless functions not available via other devices.

"There's a perception in some quarters that two-way radios are yesterday's technology and limited to niche markets, but that's not the case," stated Radio Communications Category Manager, Gary Redshaw.

"From leisure centres and shopping malls to warehouses, car parks, building sites and schools, demand is on the rise."

Nimans supplies licenced and licence free equipment with both Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) and Private Mobile Radio (PMR) devices available. It works with brands such as Hytera, Icom and Motorola.

"We've sold two-way radios for many years but we are now able to offer resellers access to more powerful licenced equipment that can communicate over much longer distances," added Redshaw.

"Depending on the model, two-way radios have the ability to integrate with telephone systems and also Wi-Fi. They can link the whole of the communication chain together, offering more than one-to-one communication as they can connect many relevant parties across multiple sites, similar to a conference unit.

"DMR is gaining market traction and represents the next generation in two-way radio services. Some DMR devices can switch back to analogue too for maximum user flexibility and convenience. Two-way radios are the final piece of the comms puzzle."

Comms resellers have an advantage over traditional radio installers who often look upon telecoms as a 'black art', reckons Redshaw.

"There are no radio dealers treading on the toes of telecoms dealers," he explained. "There's less competition and margin erosion. Incremental business, attractive margins and maintenance contracts for recurring revenue can all be enjoyed.

"Industry experts highlight how there's £40m of untapped UK sales out there this year. The advent of digital is worth £20m alone with the upgrade from analogue."

 The strategic direction of Avaya's UK business is now in the hands of Steve Rafferty (pictured) following his appointment as MD of the region, reporting to Ronald Rubens, Vice President for Northern Europe.

Immediately prior to his appointment Rafferty was Vice President of Service Providers and Systems Integrators for Avaya in the EU region.

He brings 25-plus years experience in the telecoms and enterprise software space, having also worked in senior sales roles for BT and SCC.

Previous roles include stints at ArmourSoft and Software AG before joining Avaya in April 2015.

Rubens stated: "We have seen Steve transform his teams to deliver deeper engagement with customers, and we look forward to seeing his skills in action in the UK market."