Five Companies That Came To Win This Week

Samsung Knocks It Out Of The Park In Q1

Samsung turned in preliminary first-quarter financial results that left folks with that same dizzy, incredulous (and for some, nauseous) feeling they've been getting after Apple earnings reports.

In Samsung's first quarter, sales came in at $46 billion (nope, not a typo), a 15 percent jump from last year's first quarter. Profit rose 53 percent year-over-year to $7.7 billion (also not a typo). That figure exceeded Wall Street's expectations, but the revenue was slightly below what analysts were expecting. So, looks like there's some room for improvement here.

Cisco Buys Mobile Startup Ubiquisys For $310 Million

Cisco added to its mobile technology portfolio by ponying up $310 million to acquire Ubiquisys, a privately held and U.K.-based maker of 3G and 4G small-cell technologies for cellular networks.

Cisco says the deal will help expand its mobility practice. Small-cells, essentially mini cellular base stations, are becoming increasingly popular with carriers for their ability to handle ever-increasing amounts of traffic fueled by the mobile device boom.

Big Data Startup SiSense Nabs $10 Million VC Funding Round

Big data startup SiSense scored $10 million in its second round of financing led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Opus Capital and Genesis Partners.

SiSense is looking to displace traditional business intelligence software, and its flagship SiSense Prism product brings sophisticated, data scientist-class capabilities to everyday information workers.

"The company really is on fire right now," CEO Amit Bendov told CRN. "It's confirmation that [SiSense is offering] a disruptive technology."

Solera Networks Brings Big Data To Security Channel

Solera Networks took the wraps off its 20:20 Partner Program and says it's recruiting VARs and service providers with the skills to handle the security side of big data analytics.

Solera wants partners to work with its DeepSee platform, which collects network packets and flows and can integrate with SIEM and IDS/IPS appliances, next-generation firewalls and antimalware platforms.

The vendor is also prepping its DeepSee "black box" recorder, which incident responders can use to gather forensic data after a security breach. The vendor says this could be a free add-on partners can use to sweeten deals for the DeepSee platform.

SAP Letting Partners Handle Deals Of Less Than $1 Billion

SAP is loosening the reins on the channel and says it will let partners handle deals of up to $1 billion without any interference.

"A billion [dollars] and below is the purview of the channel. We've opened up this space to be pure channel," said Kevin Gilroy, SAP senior vice president of global indirect channels, in a conference call.

It's the latest example of SAP's ongoing awakening to the benefits of channel friendliness. The vendor is now conducting one-third of its business through partners and aims to boost that to 40 percent by 2015. SAP estimates the addressable market for partners at $220 billion.