Author Archives: Ron Miller

Pentagon asks court for time to reconsider JEDI award to Microsoft

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The JEDI contract award process might never be done. Following legal challenges from Amazon after the Pentagon’s massive, $10 billion cloud contract was awarded to Microsoft in October, the Pentagon indicated in court documents last night that it wishes to reconsider the award. It’s just the latest plot twist in an epic government procurement saga. […] Continue reading Pentagon asks court for time to reconsider JEDI award to Microsoft→

Dell spent $67B buying EMC — more than 3 years later, was it worth the debt?

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Dell’s 2015 decision to buy EMC for $67 billion remains the largest pure tech deal in history, but a transaction of such magnitude created a mountain of debt for the Texas-based company and its primary backer, Silver Lake. Dell would eventually take on close to $50 billion in debt. Years later, where are they in […] Continue reading Dell spent $67B buying EMC — more than 3 years later, was it worth the debt?→

BackboneAI scores $4.7M seed to bring order to intercompany data sharing

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BackboneAI, an early-stage startup that wants to help companies dealing with lots of data, particularly coming from a variety of external sources, announced a $4.7 million seed investment today. The round was led by Fika Ventures with participation from Boldstart Ventures, Dynamo Ventures, GGV Capital, MetaProp, Spider VC and several other unnamed investors. Company founder […] Continue reading BackboneAI scores $4.7M seed to bring order to intercompany data sharing→

What to consider when employees need to start working remotely

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Traditional ways of working may be faced with upheaval in coming months, so if you want your business to continue operating, start working on these issues now. Continue reading What to consider when employees need to start working remotely→

SaaStr postpones annual conference as county officials discourage large gatherings

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SaaStr, the venture firm that puts on the largest conference for SaaS companies, postponed its SaaStr Annual 2020 conference today amid concerns from local and national officials around large gatherings in light of the COVID-19 virus. The event was scheduled to take place next week. On March 5th, Santa Clara County issued updated guidelines that […] Continue reading SaaStr postpones annual conference as county officials discourage large gatherings→

Etsy’s 2-year migration to the cloud brought flexibility to the online marketplace

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Founded in 2005, Etsy was born before cloud infrastructure was even a thing. As the company expanded, it managed all of its operations in the same way startups did in those days — using private data centers. But a couple of years ago, the online marketplace for crafts and vintage items decided to modernize and […] Continue reading Etsy’s 2-year migration to the cloud brought flexibility to the online marketplace→

Zendesk’s latest tools designed to give fuller view of the customer

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Like many technology companies, Zendesk made the tough decision to cancel its Zendesk Relate customer conference this week in Miami amid Covid-19 health concerns. That doesn’t mean the announcements didn’t happen though, even if the conference didn’t, and today the company announced a major update to its Sunshine development platform. You may recall that the […] Continue reading Zendesk’s latest tools designed to give fuller view of the customer→

Netlify nabs $53M Series C as micro services approach to web development grows

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Netlify, the startup that wants to kill the web server and change the way developers build websites, announced a $53 million Series C today. EQT Ventures Fund led the round with contributions from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins and newcomer Preston-Werner Ventures. Under the terms of the deal Laura Yao, deal partner and […] Continue reading Netlify nabs $53M Series C as micro services approach to web development grows→

Ampere launches new chip built from ground up for cloud workloads

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Ampere, the chip startup run by former Intel President Renee James, announced a new chip today that she says is designed specifically to optimize for cloud workloads. Ampere VP of product Jeff Wittich says the new chip is called the Ampere Altra, and it’s been designed with some features that should make it attractive to […] Continue reading Ampere launches new chip built from ground up for cloud workloads→

Thoma Bravo completes $3.9B Sophos acquisition

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Thoma Bravo announced today that it has closed its hefty $3.9 billion acquisition of security firm Sophos, marking yet another private equity deal in the books. The deal was originally announced in October. Stockholders voted to approve the deal in December. They were paid $7.40 USD per share for their trouble, according to the company, […] Continue reading Thoma Bravo completes $3.9B Sophos acquisition→