The Business Solutions Network

In the wake of yesterday’s big payments/POS news, I sought reactions from a handful of retail IT VARs, ISVs, and vendors -- including Vantiv and Mercury. I don't want this article to imply that this deal is good or bad for the channel. The reality is that it's too soon to know for sure and details still need to shake out. That said, the following reactions are real and valid at this point in time.  “I think it can...  Continue Reading..

The Vantiv investor call on the topic of the Mercury acquisition just ended and I'm staring at a page full of notes. Before I head home for the day, I thought I'd share some of them, as well as my thoughts. On the call was Charles Drucker, President and CEO of Vantiv; Matt Taylor, CEO of Mercury; and Mark Heimbouch, CFO of Vantiv. Lots of talk about Mercury's technology and partner base, but nothing...  Continue Reading..

Vantiv, Inc. (NYSE: VNTV), a leading provider of payment processing services and related technology solutions for merchants and financial institutions of all sizes, announced today an agreement to acquire Mercury Payment Systems, LLC for an aggregate price of $1.65 billion. Mercury is a payment technology and service leader whose solutions are embedded into point-of-sale software applications and brought to market through their dealer and...  Continue Reading..

Earlier today, we reported on the big news of Zebra acquiring the Enterprise piece of Motorola Solutions for a cool $3.45 billion. I followed up shortly thereafter with responses from a handful of Motorola/Zebra partners. Now, I’ve got a response from Motorola Solutions’ Chris Lonnett, vice president, Global Channels & Sales Operations.  Continue Reading..

This morning, Motorola Solutions and Zebra dropped some big news. The gist is that Zebra is paying $3.45 billion to acquire Motorola Solutions’ enterprise mobility business. Zebra becomes an end-to-end mobility solutions provider. Motorola focuses on its government radio business. Unlike previous acquisition news in this industry, this deal brings together two companies that complement one another rather than simply gobble up a...  Continue Reading..

Last week I attended Motorola’s annual Partner Expo in Las Vegas. Over the three days at the event, I learned a lot about Motorola’s initiatives for 2014. One thing I found particularly interesting was Moto’s plans concerning mobile device operating systems (OS). In the past, Motorola devices have run various versions of Microsoft’s operating systems. As we all know, in recent years the mobile world has been overrun...  Continue Reading..

Greg Brown, chairman and CEO, of Motorola Solutions ($MSI) took the stage today to deliver a heart-felt speech to the 3,000 attendees of the Motorola Channel Partner Expo 2014 in Las Vegas. I found his candor to be particularly refreshing. All too often, CEOs get on stage and string together a variety of hollow platitudes intended to make everyone in the room feel warm and fuzzy. Brown took a more humble approach and focused on what...  Continue Reading..

There's something that's been bugging me for a couple years now and I can't figure out what's going on. Resellers and retailers don't seem to care about PCI and EMV. Editorial pieces we produce on the topics don't get much traction on our site and in our newsletters. The headlines are compelling. The content is actionable and relevant (breaches are huge news). Yet, there's little interest.  Continue Reading..