ITBPM AUG 2017

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS AND M&A REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2017 www.invest.digital THE DEFINITIVE SOURCE FOR INVESTMENT PROMOTION EXECUTIVES it i SOFTWARE I eLECTRONICS i dIGITAL SECURITY i cLOUD SERVICES i tELECOM MAGAZINE INVEST.DIGITAL IT Airtel Payments Bank, announced Strategic Partnership with HPCL Airtel Payments Bank, India’s first payments bank, announced a strategic partnership with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), to give further boost to digital payments in the country and to add to customer convenience.  All 14,000 HPCL fuel stations will act as banking points for Airtel Payments Bank. All Airtel Payments Bank customers would be able to access a range of convenient banking services at these 14,000 fuel stations e.g., open new accounts, make cash deposits and withdrawals facility, and transfer money. This will add to the depth and reach of Airtel Payments Bank’s retail based network that leverages over 300,000 Airtel retail outlets as banking points.  Airtel Payments Bank customers will also be able to make secure and convenient digital payments for fuel purchases across 14,000 HPCL fuel stations by using their mobile phones. These cashless payments can be made via smartphones (MyAirtel App) as well as feature phones (USSD). The customer is not charged any transaction fee for these digital payments. This partnership will further expand Airtel’s nationwide digital payments ecosystem that has over 3 million merchant partners/outlet across India.  Shashi Arora, MD & CEO, Airtel Payments Bank said in a statement, “We are delighted to partner HPCL as part of our endeavor to build a robust and diverse merchant ecosystem that brings more digital payments avenues to our customers. We are, in particular, pleased to have these fuel outlets as our banking points. We are confident that this partnership will add to the growth of digital payments in the country and contribute to the Government’s Digital India vision.”   Mr. G S V Prasad, Executive Director – Retail at HPCL said in a statement, “We are pleased to join hands with Airtel Payments Bank to promote digital payments in the country and contribute to the government’s digital India endeavor. Customer visiting our outlets will now be able to pay seamlessly for fuel purchases and will also be able to enjoy the added convenience of banking with Airtel Payments Bank. We are confident our customers will benefit significantly with this unique association. Read more... IT Open Systems, Inc., a leading provider of business software, announced that Precise Software, Inc. has joined Open Systems. Based in Chaska, Minnesota, Precise Software is a leader in development and sales of solutions for the Apparel Decorating industry with their Business Management solution, Impress.  The merger positions Precise to access new markets by expanding their geographical presence, and leveraging a large development organization to extend the functionality of the software to remain at the forefront of technology. The Precise Software division will continue to serve their clients while also selling new business in this specialized industry.  "We are very excited about Precise Software joining the Open Systems team," said Dr. Michael Bertini, CEO of Open Systems, Inc. "Precise brings over 24 years of proven solutions and expertise in the Apparel Decorating industry. It's great to join forces with another Minnesota-based company with decades of technological innovation and success."  Open Systems has a history of success growing vertical solutions by leveraging the strengths of their core business, and looks forward to enabling that same growth through the partnership with the Precise Software division. "This partnership is a significant step and will enable the Precise division to increase the value delivered to our client base," stated Tom Pawlowski, Precise President. Read more... Open Systems, Inc. Acquires Precise Software, Inc. eBay Inc., a global commerce leader, and Flipkart, a leading eCommerce company in India, have agreed to jointly pursue eCommerce opportunities in the Indian market. In exchange for an equity stake in Flipkart, eBay will make a $500 million cash investment in and sell its eBay.in business to Flipkart. Flipkart will own and operate the eBay.in business upon the close of the transaction. eBay and Flipkart have also entered into an exclusive agreement in which they will jointly pursue cross-border trade opportunities to make eBay's global inventory accessible to more India consumers, while eBay's millions of active buyers globally will have access to more unique Indian inventory provided by Flipkart.  "The combination of eBay's position as a leading global eCommerce company and Flipkart's market stature will allow us to accelerate and maximize the opportunity for both companies in India," said Devin Wenig, President and CEO of eBay Inc. "eBay is committed to winning in India in partnership with Flipkart. Our exclusive global trade partnership will allow eBay and Flipkart to reach even more consumers around the world." Read more... Flipkart buys eBay India business & gets $500 million as an Investment IT IT CGI,announced the closing of its all-cash acquisition of Pittsburgh- based Summa Technologies, Inc., a high-end IT consultancy with expertise in digital experience and agile software development, strengthening CGI's position in the technology and growth market of Pittsburgh and the surrounding region. A seven-time Inc. 5000 "Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America" recipient, Summa brings skills and experience in high-growth, in-demand IT services, including mobility, agile transformation and user experience design to CGI's business in the United States. Summa brings commercial market expertise in banking and financial services, retail, manufacturing and healthcare. The transaction represents CGI's fourth strategic consulting acquisition in the U.S. in the 2017 fiscal year.  "Merging with Summa is another step toward fulfilling our strategic objective to double the size of our company through a balanced blend of organic and acquisition growth," said George D. Schindler, CGI President and Chief Executive Officer. "Summa adds capabilities, strength, and size to our U.S. business, allowing us to create additional focus in one of our target growth metros." Read more... CGI acquires Pittsburgh-based Summa IT Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire Springpath Cisco, announced its intent to acquire Springpath, Inc., a Sunnyvale-based leader in hyperconvergence software. Springpath has developed a distributed file system purpose-built for hyperconvergence that enables server-based storage systems. The acquisition will allow Cisco to continue to deliver next-generation data center innovation to its customers.  The acquisition is the culmination of a long-standing strategic relationship between Cisco and Springpath. The companies have worked together since early 2016 to launch HyperFlex, the industry's first fully integrated hyperconverged infrastructure system. Since then, they have fully aligned on product development and go-to-market strategies. This acquisition will allow Cisco to continue to grow its computing business, enabling more customers to realize the benefits of simple and economic software-defined infrastructure.  "This acquisition is a meaningful addition to our data center portfolio and aligns with our overall transition to providing more software-centric solutions," said Rob Salvagno, Cisco vice president, Corporate Business Development. "Springpath's file system technology was built specifically for hyperconvergence, which we believe will deliver sustainable differentiation in this fast-growing segment. I'm excited to be able to provide our customers and partners with the simplicity and agility they need in data center innovation." Read more... A new study from Juniper Research has found more than half (53%) of global transactions at POS (Point of Sale) will be contactless within 5 years, compared to just 15% this year.  The new research, POS & mPOS Terminals: Vendor Strategies, Positioning & Market Forecasts 2017-2022, found that adoption in the US would rise sharply over the period, with contactless rising from less than 2% of transactions this year to 34% by 2022. It argued that customer dissatisfaction at the slower speeds of chip card transactions, allied to burgeoning contactless infrastructure, would provide further impetus for smartphone-based payments currently dominated by Apple Pay.  For more insights, download Juniper’s free whitepaper: POS & mPOS Terminals: Our Vision for 2022  According to the research, in markets where contactless has been heavily promoted, such as Poland and the UK, adoption has soared, while mandates both from Visa and Mastercard mean that all POS terminals in many markets must be contactless-enabled by 2020.  US to Follow European Growth Curve As research author Dr Windsor Holden pointed out: “While US card issuers haven’t yet made contactless a priority, the extremely positive response across Europe, both from merchants and consumers, suggests the US would see very rapid migration at POS if and when contactless cards become mainstream.”  Read more... Contactless Transactions to account for more than 1 in 2 POS Transactions Globally By 2022 IT Rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Intelligent Automation (IA) brings a host of broad questions leaders must thoroughly consider as their organizations move into the automation age. A new KPMG LLP report explores these potentially massive issues and provides important insights to help drive decision making as robots and cognitive technology begins to outpace human intelligence.  “IA is changing what’s possible for business through redefining the work people can do and what they’re able to achieve,” said Todd Lohr, principal, Advisory at KPMG LLP. “While the cost savings and business model enhancements are potentially huge, without equal attention being paid to labor force impacts, compliance requirements, societal implications and alignment with an organization’s core values, IA-driven transformations can lead to significant risk.”  The report discusses how organizations should align their goals, culture and core values when considering IA implementations, emphasizing the importance of considering non-financial costs. It also provides nine ways organizations should monitor their ethical compass to guide their automation decisions, and offers several provocative questions for consideration when embarking on a digital transformation journey, such as: We can automate, but should we? What options will satisfy customers, employees, government regulators, shareholders and outsourcing vendors? Will the outcomes be friendly to humans, the communities in which we do business, the environment? Will our employees, customers, society continue to trust us?  In a recent report on the strength of IA service providers, KPMG LLP was named, a “High Performer” by HfS Research in the “HfS Blueprint Report: Intelligent Automation 2016,” for its “anticipation of and investment in the disruption of knowledge work and broad deployment of artificial intelligence tools.” Read more...   Broader Implications around Artificial Intelligence Must Drive Digital Transformation Strategy: KPMG IT IT GI Partners (“GI”) announced that its portfolio company, Peak 10, Inc. (“Peak 10) has completed the $1.675 billion acquisition of ViaWest, Inc. (“ViaWest”) from Shaw Communications Inc., creating a leading scale provider of colocation, connectivity, cloud, and managed solutions. GI Partners, a former investor in ViaWest, acquired Peak 10 in 2014 and will remain the majority shareholder of the combined company.  The combined company’s operations span 20 domestic and international markets. Peak 10 and ViaWest’s 4,200 customers will benefit from the expanded value proposition of the combined entity, including enhanced cloud and interconnection capabilities, highly redundant data centers, and back office and operational support systems automation.  GI Partners has a successful history of investing in the IT infrastructure sector. Since 2001, GI has invested in several IT infrastructure businesses, including Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR), The Telx Group, and SoftLayer Technologies. Read More..   GI Partners Portfolio Company Peak 10 Completes $1.6 Bn Acquisition Of ViaWest Mastercard and PayPal announced an extension of their partnership into Asia Pacific to enhance the consumer experience and make Mastercard a clear payment option within PayPal.  The deal will expand PayPal’s presence at the point of sale[i] and enable Mastercard for Braintree merchants in the region. Additionally, both companies will collaborate to create opportunities to leverage Mastercard’s new payment flow technologies, providing increased value to Mastercard cardholders, financial institutions, and PayPal customers. PayPal will also have the opportunity to give consumers and small businesses across Asia Pacific the ability to cash out funds held in their PayPal accounts to a Mastercard debit card.  “We’re excited to extend our long standing partnership with Mastercard into Asia Pacific,” said Rohan Mahadevan, Chief Executive Officer, PayPal Pte Ltd and Senior Vice President, APAC, PayPal Inc. “Our partnership will continue to drive innovation, accelerate the move to digital payments, and improve payment experiences for our mutual customers in the region, unlocking the potential to millions of customers to more freely spend and move their money.”  “Whether paying in the physical or digital world, consumers want to see the familiar Mastercard brand from their chosen issuer,” said Rama Sridhar, Executive Vice President, Digital and Emerging Partnerships, Asia Pacific, Mastercard. “This expansion of our partnership with PayPal reinforces our commitment to our cardholders in the region to deliver the simple, speedy and secure payment experience they’ve come to expect from Mastercard. Furthermore, the agreement provides a number of joint growth opportunities that will advance Mastercard and PayPal’s shared vision to offer consumers greater choice and flexibility to pay and move their money.” Read more...   Mastercard and PayPal Expands Partnership in Asia Pacific IT Foxit Software Announced the Acquisition of Software Company CVISION Foxit Software, a leading software provider of fast, affordable, and secure PDF solutions, announced the acquisition of New York-based CVISION Technologies, a PDF software company.   CVISION efficiently captures PDF documents and optimizes them through fast, accurate optical character recognition (OCR) processes powered by its patented technology. The company also utilizes advanced file compression technology to streamline PDF file size for more rapid file transmission, faster access to documents on mobile platforms, and cost-efficient document storage. The deal positions Foxit as best-suited to providing the broad range of PDF software solutions that businesses need to effectively manage their documents.  The acquisition of CVISION builds upon Foxit's 2015 acquisition of Luratech Software and enables Foxit to gain global leadership in the high volume, enterprise automation market for PDF compression, OCR solutions, and conversion.  CVISION has thousands of corporate clients in a wide variety of industry sectors including finance, banking, accounting, legal, education and federal, state and local government. Some of the company's notable PDF customers include Ford Motor Co., New York Stock Exchange, Chase, GE Power & Water, Bank of America, and Verizon.  The experience that Foxit Software has gained from prior acquisitions will ensure that the integration of CVISION's PDF intellectual property into the Foxit solution portfolio will be rapid and seamless for all customers, regardless of their size. Read more... IT Wireless VR, Generating An Additional 21,000 Petabytes Of Traffic By 2021 A new report from Juniper Research on Virtual Reality forecasts that wireless VR headsets (smartphone- based and standalone) data consumption will grow by over 650% over the next 4 years, from nearly 2,800PB (Petabytes) in 2017 to over 21,000PB in 2021.  The new research, Virtual Reality Markets: Hardware, Content & Accessories 2017-2022, found that data consumption will reach over 28,000PB when combined with traffic generated by VR headsets tethered to PCs and consoles, placing significant additional strain on both wired and wireless networks.  Data demand – a growing challenge VR requires fast data speeds to stream content effectively and, by 2021, the data demand of each VR device is expected to exceed that of 4K, according to Juniper. This will be driven by the need for higher image quality and frame rates, a developing problem as VR becomes more mainstream.  In order to make VR more accessible, the Juniper report recommends bringing network operators and broadband providers into the VR standards conversation now. Juniper argues that the future data demand needs to be taken into account when considering specifications like minimum frame rate and resolution. In addition, technologies which reduce the amount of data processing, like foveated rendering, need to be rolled out and become universal. Read more...   IT The Walt Disney Company, announced that it has agreed to acquire majority ownership of BAMTech, LLC and will launch its ESPN-branded multi-sport video streaming service in early 2018, followed by a new Disney-branded direct-to-consumer streaming service in 2019. Under terms of the transaction, Disney will pay $1.58 billion to acquire an additional 42% stake in BAMTech—a global leader in direct-to-consumer streaming technology and marketing services, data analytics, and commerce management—from MLBAM, the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball. Disney previously acquired a 33% stake in BAMTech under an agreement that included an option to acquire a majority stake over several years, and today’s announcement marks an acceleration of that timetable for controlling ownership.  “The media landscape is increasingly defined by direct relationships between content creators and consumers, and our control of BAMTech’s full array of innovative technology will give us the power to forge those connections, along with the flexibility to quickly adapt to shifts in the market,” said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company.  The ESPN-branded multi-sport service will offer a robust array of sports programming, featuring approximately 10,000 live regional, national, and international games and events a year, including Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, Grand Slam tennis, and college sports. Individual sport packages will also be available for purchase, including MLB.TV, NHL.TV and MLS Live. Read more... Walt Disney to acquire Majority Ownership Of BAMtech in $1.5 bn deal IT IT DigiCert to Acquire Symantec’s Website Security  Business for $950 million Symantec Corp., the world’s leading cyber security company, and DigiCert Inc., a leading provider of scalable identity and encryption solutions for the enterprise, announced an agreement under which DigiCert will acquire Symantec’s Website Security and related PKI solutions. Under the terms of the agreement, Symantec will receive approximately $950 million in upfront cash proceeds and approximately a 30 percent stake in the common stock equity of the DigiCert business at the closing of the transaction.  The addition of Symantec’s website security solutions to DigiCert’s offerings will bring together the industry’s top talent and provide customers with an enhanced technology platform, unparalleled customer support and market-leading innovations. DigiCert will gain capabilities to take advantage of growth opportunities in IoT and bring new approaches to the SSL market. DigiCert will continue to operate from its headquarters in Lehi, Utah and will employ over 1,000 professionals.  “Transitioning our Website Security and related PKI solutions to DigiCert allows us to sharpen our enterprise focus on delivering unparalleled protection for the cloud generation through Symantec’s Integrated Cyber Defense Platform. As our recently announced deals with Fireglass and Skycure demonstrate, we are accelerating the pace of innovation we bring to market through a combination of acquisitions as well as development from the ground up,” said Symantec CEO Greg Clark.  Clark added, “We carefully examined our options to ensure our customers would have a world-class experience with a company that offers a modern website PKI platform and is poised to lead the next generation of website security innovation. I’m thrilled that our customers will benefit from a seamless transition to DigiCert, a company that is solely focused on delivering leading identity and encryption solutions. Symantec is deeply committed to the success of this transition for our customers.” Read more... IT JMU Announces Strategic Partnership with Century Link and TANSH JMU Limited, a leading B2B online e-commerce platform that provides integrated services to suppliers and customers in the foodservice industry in China, announced that the Company's consolidated affiliated entity in China, Shanghai Zhongmin Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., reached a strategic partnership agreement with Hutchison Whampoa Properties (Shanghai) Lujiazui Ltd. and TANSH Global Food Group Co., Limited on the development of Project "Lane1192" (Cooperative Area), a nearly 3,000 square-meter space designed for commercial use in Century Link.  Under the partnership, JMU and TANSH will establish a joint venture to oversee the store leasing process in the Cooperative Area and provide operating guidance and advice to its tenant shops and restaurants. TANSH will utilize its operating experience and advantages to introduce restaurant and food material brands to the Cooperative Area, and JMU will provide the integrated services of a back-end restaurant ERP system and supply chain logistics.  Ms. Xiaoxia Zhu, JMU's Co-Chairperson and CEO commented: "We are very pleased to partner with Century Link and TANSH to build a new foodservice operating model that showcases our capabilities in commercial property management, premium restaurant and food material branding and supply chain standardization. Through the partnership, we will become the leading service provider that can satisfy different consumer demands in one modern venue, a one-stop shop in which consumers can dine in, take out or buy high quality semi-finished food. We believe this new operating model is one of the future directions of the restaurant and food catering industry and are optimistic about its success. We look forward to further expanding this operating model to the wider China market." Read more... IT Veracen, LP, announced a global co-development, co-marketing and collaboration agreement with Linedata Services, S.A. , a publicly held global software and services company based in Paris, France with 20 offices and 1,250 employees supporting 700+ clients worldwide. The Agreement between Veracen and Linedata provides for co-development of end-to-end financial technology solutions, co-marketing, and branding globally in Europe, Asia, and the United States with global support, client customization, wrap around services, installation, and training.  The Veracen technology solutions, powered by Linedata's financial application platform, are designed to be a complete and fully integrated set of applications for institutional investors worldwide. These include customized portfolio management tools and analytics, incorporating a unified data set from the investment decision through to performance and risk analytics, as well as the tracking of third party managed accounts in a single unified control environment, ensuring uniformity of data and client reporting. "Our collaboration with Veracen brings together a fully integrated solution set combining enterprise grade software with turnkey services, allowing investment firms to fully leverage the next generation operating paradigm," said Mr. Mike de Verteuil, Head of Business Development at Linedata.  "Our combined offering creates a complete front-to-back platform integrating all applications required by a large asset manager, at a significantly lower cost and in a package that can be deployed with complete agility and transparency. The utilization of a single data set is truly groundbreaking—historically, clients have been severely encumbered with numerous costly legacy systems that do not allow full data management or transparency of trading, portfolio management, client performance, risk management, and reporting."  The Veracen solution utilizes one unified dataset that can be archived historically, is designed to be multi-asset class, including alternative strategies, and allows each user full visibility into portfolio analytics, risk, and attribution, as well as many other features. Read more... Veracen Announces Global Collaboration Agreement With Linedata Grey Group Acquires Majority Stake in hug digital Grey Group has acquired a majority stake in hug digital, a leading independent regional digital marketing agency, based in the Middle East. Founded in 2009 by Oussama Jamal(Chairman) and Tim Baker (Chief Executive Officer), hug digital is one of the largest and fastest growing 360°digital agencies in the MENA region.  hug digital provides digital campaigns, social media, content, influencer and activation marketing, web and mobile app development, media planning and buying as well as digital research, analysis and social listening.  Headquartered in Dubai (UAE), with offices in Egypt and India, hug digital employs around 145 full-time staff. Their blue-chip client roster includes more than 70 international, regional and local brands such as Americana (Hardees, TGI Fridays, Krispy Kreme), Al-Futtaim (Al Futtaim automotive group, Toyota, Honda, Lexus), Majid Al Futtaim (Ski Dubai, Magic Planet, iFly, Little Explorer, LEGO), Commercial Bank of Dubai, Dubai Tourism, HMD Nokia, Shell, Festival City Group, Nestle's Maggi, Clorox, Sarai by MNHD and Emaar among others.  "We're very excited about our new partnership," stated Oussama Jamal. "We are eager to take our digital expertise and knowledge of the MENA region and scale this with WPP and Grey Group. This acquisition will enable us to access resources that will expand our capabilities and accelerate our growth." Read more... IT MAGAZINE Dugree KnowledgeWorks 13 F, Gopala Towers, 25 Rajendra Place New Delhi - 110008, India Website: www.globalfdi.net INVEST.DIGITAL FDI 2017 FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS AND MERGER & ACQUISITIONS AuGUST 2017 it i SOFTWARE I eLECTRONICS i dIGITAL SECURITY i cLOUD SERVICES i tELECOM www.invest.digital THE DEFINITIVE SOURCE FOR INVESTMENT PROMOTION EXECUTIVES