The networking, infrastructure and telecom spaces have been consolidating like crazy in recent years, and CRN has checked in on a few occasions over the last 18 months looking at key mergers and acquisitions in the networking industry of interest to channel partners.

Our last roundup of these particular acquisitions was in early April, and since then, some of the most eye-opening M&A moves of the year have been proposed or completed. Here's a look at 12 recent networking acquisitions every channel partner with an interest in the market should keep an eye on.

Money Involved: $8.5 billion

Why It Matters: All kinds of curiosity here, from what Microsoft plans to do with the Skype platform to how Microsoft's legions of channel partners will benefit from a Microsoft-owned VoIP service embraced by not only consumers but also plenty of business workers not interested in expensive video and IP telephony systems. Microsoft's channel tightrope with Skype might be a tricky walk -- Skype couldn't exactly drum up much action it is loosely organized Skype for Business channel program -- or it might be a game-changer.

Money Involved: $3.2 billion

Why It Matters: There's a land grab going on right now among service providers, carriers and telcos looking to build cloud computing practices, and much of that grab is happening via M&A. CenturyLink, which last year pulled the trigger on a mammoth acquisition of Qwest, scooped up cloud provider and hosting operator Savvis.

Cloud-focused companies are M&A targets, period, it seems -- not just for larger service providers. Another recent grab was Intermedia, which May was acquired by venture capital firm Oak Hill Capital Partners.

Money Involved: $89 million

Why It Matters: HP had looked to position itself as a video player with its Halo telepresence and a new line of Visual Collaboration video products it built in a OEM relationship with Vidyo. But Polycom, which has become particularly aggressive following Cisco's 2009 acquisition of archrival Tandberg, struck a deal in June to acquire HP's Visual Collaboration unit, provide software and video applications for use with HP's WebOS platform, and make Polycom HP's exclusive reseller partner in its services arm. It's a move that further bolsters Polycom -- which allies with everyone from Microsoft to Avaya as well -- against the Cisco juggernaut.

Money Involved: About $1.58 million in shares

Why It Matters: Cloud managed video services specialist Glowpoint has been on the move lately, adding to its management team with Cisco and HP veterans and looking to broaden its managed services capabilities specific to the video channel. In July, it completed an acquisition of assets from Avaya covering Avaya's former video managed services offering, issuing more than 769,000 common shares to Avaya (worth about $1.58 million) in return. Glowpoint and Avaya had previously announced they'd entered into a Master Services Agreement to develop cloud managed video services.

Money Involved: Undisclosed

Why It Matters: Only the latest example of a carrier, service provider or master agency buying a VAR or systems integrator as the IT VAR and telecom agent worlds converge. MicroCorp, based in Atlanta, plucked New Smyrna Beach, Fla.-based Five Star, a top Qwest partner in the southeast, gives MicroCorp an expanded Florida footprint and brings in house some of the services capabilities it provides other VARs as a master agent. Certainly not the first deal of its kind, and definitely not the last.

Money Involved: Undisclosed

Why It Matters: What, oh what, is distributor Arrow up to in the Avaya channel? Following on its August 2010 acquisition of Shared Technologies -- at the time the country's largest national Nortel solution provider, and one of the top Avaya partners following Avaya's completed acquisition of Nortel's former enterprise unit -- Arrow in May pulled the trigger on Cross Telecom, Avaya's biggest national VAR.

Arrow has been pretty tight-lipped on why it made both moves, especially considering Arrow for years marketed itself as the only enterprise distributor that didn't sell to end users. Cross is managed via Shared, which after its acquisition became a subsidiary of Arrow.

Money Involved: Undisclosed

Why It Matters: Given its pumped-up emphasis on networking products lately, it was only a matter of time before Dell make an acquisition in the networking space, and most everyone assumed it'd be Brocade. Instead, Dell in mid-July confirmed it would acquire Force10, a pickup that gives Dell a broader converged networking and data center footprint to compete with the HPs and Ciscos of the world, and also an in-house option that goes beyond the OEM relationships it has for networking with Brocade, Juniper and Aruba Networks. Time to describe Dell as a full-fledged networking player.

Money Involved: Undisclosed

Why It Matters: It's a small acquisition, but one that speaks volumes about LifeSize's mobility plans. LifeSize parent Logitech picked up Mirial, a Milan, Italy-based mobile video specialist, in mid-July, announcing the acquisition the same day LifeSize debuted a cloud-based HD videoconferencing service. With video conferencing headed to the cloud -- and video management becoming a lucrative service-option for networking VARs and managed services players -- LifeSize appears to be adapting its strategy to reflect those trends. Given LifeSize's favor among channel partners, it's not surprisingly been a well-received move.

Money Involved: $17 million

Why It Matters:: More consolidation among service providers, and in this case, a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC), Warwick, snapping up a hosted VoIP specialist, Alteva. Alteva has been an up-and-comer in the channel for some years, thanks to how it interconnects its hosted UC services with Microsoft's UC platform and makes those options available to VARs, agents and wholesalers as wholesale and/or white label products.

Money Involved: $2.3 billion (stock plus debt assumption)

Why It Matters: The hunter became the hunted: service provider Paetec, which has been active in acquiring VARs over the past two years, agreed in early August to be acquired by Windstream for $2.3 billion. It's one of the biggest deals yet in the rapidly consolidating service provider arena, and will expand Windstream's national footprint to 46 states, as well as add fiber network assets and headcount.

Money Involved: Undisclosed

Why It Matters: Adtran wasn't a stranger to the wireless LAN space before it bought Bluesocket, but Bluesocket's virtualized control plane technology for wireless infrastructure gives Adtran a much bigger -- not to mention, more cutting-edge -- presence in WLAN. Adtran and Bluesocket partners told CRN they're in favor of the move: sexier technology for Adtran, and strength and channel muscle behind Bluesocket.

Money Involved: $12.5 billion

Why It Matters: No shortage of sexy plotlines here: Did Google do it for the patents? Will Google's burgeoning channel community benefit from a mobility perspective? Has Google effectively marginalized all of the other device makers in Android's thrall, even though Google's promised Android will remain an open, license-able platform?

There are plenty of networking companies that bear watching for M&A activity, but three major channel players might look considerably different by the end of the year, if market speculation is to be believed. First is Alcatel-Lucent, which in July stopped just short of saying its enterprise networking business unit was definitely for sale. Second is Siemens Enterprise Communications, which several months ago was said to be a frontrunner in a potential Alcatel-Lucent unit buy and has made smaller acquisitions in the past year, but has also been an occasional subject of acquisition rumors itself.

Third is Brocade, which despite being spurned by Dell may yet find an acquirer. It's no big secret that Brocade has been enlisting the services of Qatalyst Partners for the past two years to help it find a buyer. There's lots of potential, noted ThinkEquity LLC analyst Rajesh Ghai, who in an interview with Bloomberg this month named Oracle as a potential suitor.