5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

The Week Ending Feb. 5

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is Cisco for its $1.4 billion acquisition of an Internet of Things superstar.

Also making the list this week are Symantec for a $500 million investment from a leading private equity firm, FireEye's moves to regain its competitive momentum, Acronis' steps to expand its data protection channel program to the cloud, and Intuit's paying the bill for a Super Bowl advertisement for an SMB customer.

Not everyone in the IT industry was making smart moves this week, of course. For a rundown of companies that were unfortunate, unsuccessful or just didn't make good decisions, check out this week's 5 Companies That Had A Rough Week roundup.

Cisco Acquiring IoT Superstar Jasper In $1.4 Billion Acquisition

Cisco this week announced a deal to acquire Jasper Technologies, the developer of a cloud-based Internet of Things service platform, for an eye-popping $1.4 billion.

Businesses and service providers use Jasper's technology to launch, manage and monetize IoT services on a global scale. The Software-as-a-Service platform already manages connected devices and services for more than 3,500 businesses and 27 service provider groups globally.

Partners were jazzed about the move, saying it will help them drive sales of Internet of Things solutions and reap the recurring revenue they generate.

Symantec Wins $500 Million Private Equity Investment

Symantec, which has struggled in recent years to chart a new course, received a vote of confidence this week in the form of a $500 million strategic investment from private equity firm Silver Lake.

Coming less than a week after Symantec finally completed the sale of its Veritas storage technology business, the investment is another sign that Symantec's efforts to transform itself may finally be on the right track.

Symantec is expected to put some of the cash toward an accelerated share repurchase program.

FireEye Goes On Competitive Offensive With 'Essentials' Launch, Updated Partner Program

Security technology vendor FireEye has faced a number of challenges lately, including increased competition, slowing growth and falling stock prices. But at the company's sales kickoff event in Las Vegas this week, FireEye took some major steps to regain its momentum.

Topping the list was the launch of FireEye Essentials, a version of the vendor's threat management technology for midmarket customers intended to complement the enterprise edition of the platform. The midmarket product is expected to provide big opportunities for partners.

FireEye also stepped up its game on the channel front, updating its FireEye Fuel partner program with new incentives and new programs that give partners access to FireEye-as-a-Service offerings.

"We're fighters, and we're winners, and we're going to fight back," CEO Dave DeWalt (pictured) said in his keynote speech.

Acronis Expands Data Protection Channel Program To The Cloud

Acronis this week launched an extension of its channel partner program that makes it easier for cloud service providers to bring the vendor's data protection technology to a wider range of customers.

The new Acronis Partner Program for Cloud is targeted primarily at providers of hosted, managed and telecom services, while at the same time helping more traditional solution providers expand into cloud services.

The new program is available to partners who work with the Acronis cloud, have their own cloud services or work with customers' data centers. It covers the vendor's full portfolio of backup and recovery, disaster recovery, and file sync and share applications.

Intuit Sponsors 30-Second Super Bowl Ad For SMB Customer

With 30-second television advertisement spots costing $5 million during this weekend's Super Bowl, most small businesses can only dream of getting such an opportunity.

So kudos go to Intuit, the developer of business and financial management applications for SMBs, which is paying for a 30-second ad for the Death Wish Coffee Company, a Round Lake, N.Y. marketer of what some call the world's strongest coffee.

Death Wish, an Intuit customer with 11 employees, won this year's Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Big Game contest from among 15,000 applications. A panel of Intuit judges chose the top 10 with a public vote picking the grand winner.

The Death Wish ad, the only one for a small business during this year's Super Bowl, will be shown during the game's third quarter. Death Wish also receives free lifetime use of QuickBooks Enterprise.