Here are some interesting stories.
The US presidential election is finally over.
GTT is buying Hibernia Networks for $590 million (mostly cash). Hibernia adds sub-sea assets to GTT's Tier 1 global network. This move also adds IRUs across Europe to GTT's network. It also adds "about $185M in revenue and $65M in EBITDA." What is that 9x EBITDA and less than 3x revenue. This feels strategic as opposed to other M&A that feels defensive. (EarthLink-Windstream was both!)
More M&A: Lumos Networks, a fiber player in the mid-Atlantic region signed an LOI to "acquire Clarity Communications Group, which operates a 730 mile fiber network with 75 on-net locations located across four states in the south-eastern United States. The vast majority of Clarity's operations and fiber mileage is in the state of North Carolina." [PR} This is a strategic fill-in move. Lumos has been growing the fiber biz for about 5 years. It has a wireline business that was formed in 2011 as a spin-off of nTelos. LUMOS is trying to figure out what to do with its RLEC business.
Zendesk re-branded to pivot beyond just help desk ticketing. They added some analytics and business intelligience (BI) to improve customer experiences. It is about UX/CX now more than ever - especially if one company KPI is LVC (lifetime value of the customer).
In a similar vein, Why the goal should be unified experiences - not just unified communications.
BIG STATISTIC (for Agents especially): "40-75% of audio calls in the enterprise are conference calls - and its growing! [source]
75% of users communicate at work with 3 or more devices! [source]
"All are chasing the UCaaS growth opportunity. UCaaS is expected to grow from USD 17.35 Billion in 2016 to USD 28.69 Billion by 2021. The market is transitioning from the "early adopter phase" to the "early mainstream phase" for enterprise delivery." [source]
Google parent, Alphabet, is pulling back on projects - from Google Fiber (aka Alphabet Access) to Project Wing (drone delivery) - as it strains to build profitable business lines beyond Google and search.
