Bret Hickenlooper

Bret Hickenlooper, president of Sumo Communications, also did not express much surprise.

“In the roll-ups happening, almost all partners have direct agreements of some sort. Assuming Upstack didn’t have any direct agreements before Lumen is crazy,” Hickenlooper told Channel Futures.

“In their acquisitions, they have acquired bases that have a high volume of transactional/organic revenue in nature without much effort from the partner even. We all have those – they just keep placing orders, upgrading, buying more seats, etc. In all of this, a TSB adds no value other than holding contracts.”