The Week's Top 6: T-Mobile CEO Leaving, Top CPaaS Providers, Ribbon Acquisition

Cato Networks launched a new partner program, and T-Mobile will say goodbye to its CEO.

Our weekly recap features an acquisition, a malware study and a massive CPaaS leaderboard. News isn’t quite as robust as we approach the holiday season and the end of conference season, but our editors still had their hands full with content. Read through the six stories below to see what’s hot in the world of channel.

6. T-Mobile CEO Plans Departure After Battling for Sprint Merger

John Legere’s time as T-Mobile‘s chief executive is coming to a close.

Legere said he will seek to ensure a “smooth leadership transition” after he leads the company through its $26 billion merger with Sprint. The transaction cleared the FCC and Justice Department but faces a coalition of states that have sued it.

The plan is for T-Mobile’s president and COO to replace Legere after April 30.

Edward Gately has the scoop.

5. Ribbon Communications to Enter Global 5G Market with ECI Telecom Acquisition

Ribbon Communications will buy the elastic network solutions provider ECI Telecom Group for more than $324 million.

Israel-based ECI will give Ribbon a “broader solutions portfolio,” according to Ribbon‘s chief marketing office. The companies have not disclosed how the they will integrate their partner ecosystems. The deal will close early next year.

Learn more about the acquisition.

4. FireEye, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks Among Top Players in Malware Analysis

MarketsandMarkets launched a new report that values the malware analysis market at $3 billion this year.

Business is looking up for the market, which is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31%, according to the study. Large enterprises seem to be generating the most demand, as businesses struggle to orchestrate all of the processes and solutions spread out over multiple locations.

Check out the study.

3. Cato Networks Launches New Partner Program, Targets SASE Market

The Tel Aviv, Israel-based company launched the new Cato Partner Program this week to target “accelerated return on investment.”

Cato, which provides cloud-based SD-WAN and a secure access service edge (SASE) platform, rolled out the two-tier program on Monday. The company revamped its partner portal, where partners can train, register deals and manage their pipelines.

“We believe in supporting our partners but at the same time giving them maximum independence,” Cato’s chief revenue officer said.

Read more about Cato’s strategy.

2. Infoblox Caps Off Biggest Year Ever for Partner-Generated Revenue

Infoblox launched its new professional services program at its second annual partner summit.

The program gives partners more tools, methodology and documentation to sell Infoblox services. The vendor grew partner bookings 30% in fiscal year 2019, according to Infoblox’s vice president of worldwide partner and alliance sales. The company is priming its partners to focus on security, cloud/SaaS and customer acquisition in the upcoming year.

Read our event recap.

1. The CP List: 20 CPaaS Providers You Should Know

Nextiva, IntelePeer and Tropo are just a few of the vendors that made Edward Gately’s master list of top companies that provide communication platform as a service (CPaaS).

The CPaaS market is hot — on its way from $2 billion in 2017 to about $11 billion in 2022, according to IDC. And it’s a popular M&A topic, with 451 Research recording 14 CPaaS deals in 2018. Our latest gallery describes 20 vendors in this burgeoning technology, which allows companies to build communication features into their applications.

Take a look at Gately’s behemoth gallery.