Comms Dealer

Atos, which is also trying to buy French integrator Steria, is to buy Bull in an all-French IT sector deal worth €620m to create the top Europe-based cloud computing company and a major player in cybersecurity.

The companies said a combined Atos and Bull, currently numbers 5 and 10 respectively in cloud computing in Western Europe, would leap to the fast-growing industry's number-two spot by revenue behind US-based Amazon and ahead of Microsoft.

At €4.90 a share, the agreed offer announced by both companies represents a 30 per cent premium to the three month weighted average share price of Bull and the combination is expected to deliver some €80n annually in cost savings within two years, equivalent to almost a third of Atos' net profit last year.

Atos, more than nine times larger than Bull by market value based on its offer price, said the deal would enhance its offerings in manufacturing, healthcare, and the public sector, and would reinforce its footprint, "mainly in France, but also in geographies such as Iberia, Poland, Africa and Brazil".

A presentation slide on the Atos website after the pair announced the deal showed the cloud services market growing at a compound annual rate of between 25% and 50% a year.

"Bull will bring critical and complementary capabilities in big data which, combined with Atos solutions, will create an offering in this high-growth segment," it said. Bull's main shareholders, Crescendo Industries and Pothar Investments, own some 24.2% of the company and have already committed to tender their shares, the companies said.

Atos is also in a battle to acquire French IT services group Steria. Steria has accepted a bid from rival Sopra and rejected Atos' €22 per share proposal.

Communications Minister Ed Vaizey has highlighted the role that superfast broadband is playing in the success of the Cornish economy as latest research estimated that the high-speed technology had already created or safeguarded at least 1,400 jobs and helped the county's businesses grow.

About 6,000 Cornish firms are now using fibre optic broadband - and the number is continuing to grow rapidly with more than 200 Cornish firms joining up every month.
The Superfast Cornwall partnership's latest evaluation report, based on a survey of more than 220 Cornish businesses which have been using fibre broadband for 12 months or longer, estimates that 611 jobs have already been created and 807 safeguarded.

More than half of businesses surveyed (52 per cent) reported that fibre broadband had enabled them to grow, whilst 79 per cent indicated that fibre broadband had saved them time or money and 55 per cent said that the technology had allowed them to work in new and different ways. About half (49 per cent) indicated that it had allowed employees to work more efficiently from home or remotely.

Mr Vaizey, who paid a fact finding visit to the Superfast Cornwall partnership, said he was impressed by the number of firms joining the 'superfast broadband revolution' and the innovative ways they were using the technology to find new customers, expand and boost competitiveness.

"Superfast broadband is a key part of the present and future success of Cornwall and the UK as a whole," he said. "This exciting technology is essential to modern business life whether you are a high-tech startup or an established family firm in an industry, such as tourism or manufacturing - and it will become even more essential in the increasingly 'connected world' of the future.

"It is heartening to see the way Cornish firms are embracing the new technology, finding ways to make it work effectively for them and creating jobs. They are sending the message loud and clear that Cornwall is very much open for new business."

Ranulf Scarbrough, Superfast Cornwall programme director for BT, said: "Cornwall has long been known for innovation and its forward-thinking approach is, once again, very apparent with the roll-out of fibre optic broadband. Superfast Cornwall has already put in place a fibre broadband network able to serve 90 per cent of homes and businesses - which is better coverage than most European cities - and Cornish businesses have been quick to take advantage.

"They are using the great benefits of superfast broadband to offer their products and services far and wide. Cornwall might be a county in the far South West of England, but it is very much at the forefront of the UK's superfast broadband revolution."

Volta, developer and operator of central London's purpose-designed carrier-neutral data centre, and Venus, a fibre network provider for the media and business community, have jointly announced enhanced hybrid colocation solutions via Amazon Web Services (AWS) at Volta Great Sutton Street (GSS).

Customers can now combine the convenience of collocating their IT infrastructure in the heart of London at Volta's facility with the flexibility and cost effectiveness of AWS Direct Connect, a dark fibre connection between Volta GSS and Amazon Web Services through Venus' almost unlimited network capacity.

AWS Elastic Cloud services provide overflow storage and processing capacity for data centre users.

Justin Keery, Director of Venus, said: "Venus saw the Volta GSS opportunity before the fit-out was complete, and we have been connected since day one. Venus and Volta both target Central London businesses with requirements for serious data capacity. Volta GSS' power and cooling combined with the capacity of the Venus dark fibre network deliver a powerful colocation and connectivity combination to the City and West End."

HP's Q2 saw business PCs as one of its few bright spots. It announced further job losses after releasing its core results early, as it came in under sales expectations with revenue of $27.3bn, down 1% yr/yr.

Having already cut thousands of jobs it says it is increasing the size of its job cuts by 11,000-16,000 positions. The company, which had 317,000 employees last year, saw gross margin rise 50 bps Y/Y to 24.2%. R&D spend was up +7% yr/yr to $873m.

Printing revenue fell 4% yr/yr after falling 2% in FQ1, enterprise hardware fell 2% after growing 1%, and enterprise services once more fell 7%. PCs were healthier (+7% vs. +4%, with 12% commercial growth offsetting a 2% consumer drop). As was software (flat vs. -4%, with 8% licence growth). Financial services -2% vs. -9%.

High-margin printing supplies revenue fell 7%, while printing hardware units rose 1%. In enterprise hardware, a 6% drop in storage and a 14% drop in business critical systems (mainly through Itanium weakness) offset a 6% increase in networking. x86 servers rose 1%.

Full-scale outsourcing by telecoms carriers is driving their managed services markets to new heights, says a researcher.

Infonetics Research released excerpts from its latest Service Provider Outsourcing to Vendors report, which tracks the revenue vendors derive from the services they provide to their carrier customers. The managed services portion of the outsourcing market, which includes network maintenance, operations, planning and design, grew 6% in 2013 to over $36 billion and is forecast by Infonetics to top $45 billion by 2018.

The report tracks both the overall network outsourcing market as well as the fast-growing managed services segment within it, also referred to as 'full-service outsourcing,' where an equipment vendor takes over an operator's entire infrastructure on an end-to-end basis over an extended period, including network maintenance, operations, planning and design tasks.

"At this point, it's hard to find new large outsourcing deals unless China comes on board, which may eventually happen due to the ongoing discussion about 4G network sharing," notes Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research.

Téral continues: "As a result, last year was marked by musical chairs: Huawei and ZTE picked up some deals, while Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia exited some unprofitable contracts. But overall, demand for managed services with a strong focus on user experience remains unabated."

In 2013, network equipment manufacturers outsourced by service providers to perform network services earned $68.1 billion worldwide, up 3.8% from the year prior. Ericsson held tight as the service provider outsourcing revenue leader in 2013, while HP leapfrogged IBM to take the second place.

Fourth placed Huawei continued its ascent, gaining 2.4 percentage points and chalking up the strongest year-over-year revenue growth of any vendor. Growth in the overall market moderated in 2013 due to a combination of forex for Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and Nokia, and major contract restructuring at Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia.

Europe's IT channels are much more in sync currently across the various countries says Wayne Gratton, distributor Avnet SolutionsPath business development director.

And it is the specialist channels that are growing, he says. The vendors themselves are also collaborating better. "As a distributor we set out to help partners with multiple accreditations," he says. And this is growing, supported by those vendors.

Wider channels are involved: "We've always had a good relationship with service providers, and have a growing cloud business."

While the UK stays in the lead on market focus, the channel vertical practices are the ones that are winning.

It means not just one-off wins, but using expertise to be confident and build strength in verticals.

While local differences with other countries remain, Avnet has been getting good attendances at events from France to Turkey, he says.

Turkey in particular has been very resonant to the messages, with energetic events and good numbers at events. The SolutionsPath University events will expand and be run in more countries.

Red Box Recorders has appointed a senior member of staff to strengthen its product development and delivery as the company expands further into global markets.

John Cunningham joins Red Box Recorders as Chief Technology Officer where he will be responsible for the full technology cycle from architectural design through to product delivery and post installation customer support. His remit will also include product research and development, quality assurance testing and professional services project management.

Cunningham will also be ultimately responsible for upholding technical quality management and ensuring the continuous improvement of Red Box Recorders' services. He will also provide support in an additional role as the Executive Escalation Manager for key customer accounts, ensuring complete customer satisfaction.

Prior to joining Red Box Recorders Cunningham developed hundreds of software solutions across several sectors including broadcasting and financial services. His previous role was Chief Technology Officer for Nomad Digital, where he managed research and development units across Europe.

Lee Jones, CEO at Red Box Recorders, said: "Our appointment of a new Chief Technology Officer will ensure not only that our technology products are of premium standard, but also that our customers receive knowledgeable support during and after product install. We believe that John will be a huge asset to our team and help strengthen future global growth of our company."

Green Fields has recruited Matt Tate as Head of Professional Services. He boasts a strong background in IT, previously heading up the European IT sector within a US Defence (Exelis) company, taking responsibility for all technical design, strategy, policies and procedures.

Prior to this, he worked as a technical design authority for client engagements for an Education based Managed Service Provider.

Tate said: "We are planning to implement a few new processes to quicken our reactions to customer issues even further and to be a lot more pro- active in the way we deal with recurring issues.

"As part of our work on developing client infrastructures moving forwards, Technical Roadmaps will become a focus and we will be working closely with our partners to ensure Green Fields is the single pane of glass for every client's IT requirement."

A 12-strong team from Bury St Edmunds based lifecycle management company Network 2 Supplies (N2S) raised more £20,000 from a 310-mile memorial bike ride.

On March 3rd 1974, 18 members of the Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club in Suffolk were killed in one of the world's worst ever plane crashes. In total 346 people died in the disaster when the Turkish DC-10 came down in Ermenonville in France.

To mark the 40th Anniversary of the tragic event a total of 95 people cycled the 310-miles over four days from the crash site to the Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club.

Company director, Mike Fennings, said: "The ride was very challenging at times but it was a wonderful experience and to raise £20,000 for such a good cause is the icing on the cake.

"At N2S we always try to support local good causes whenever we can and we have Rugby in our DNA as one of our directors is Andrew Gomarsall, a former Rugby World Cup winner.

"We have strong links with the Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club and this disaster was obviously a very dark day in its history; a day that will never be forgotten. We feel privileged to have been involved in the memorial event."

Proceeds from the memorial ride will go to the St Nicholas Hospice, based in Bury St Edmunds and to the Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club to set up permanent lighting for its youth team pitches.

Zen Internet has launched an Unlimited Fibre Office package as an addition to its recently launched Fibre packages portfolio and comes with 'up to 76Mbps' download speeds and unlimited usage.

All Zen's Fibre packages are available on a 12 month contract.

For Business users, Zen sees Fibre Optic Broadband as the key enabling technology for a whole range of business internet services such as e-commerce, Cloud Computing, video-conferencing, VoIP and remote working.

"For businesses wanting guaranteed performance, Unlimited Fibre Office is the premium business grade service that allows them to fully realise the potential of superfast broadband, safe in the knowledge that there are no limits and no additional charges," said Richard Tang, Managing Director.