Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Third-Party Software Support Market Predicted by Gartner to Triple to More Than $1 Billion By 2023

“Uptake of independent third-party support is increasing year over year,” report finds


LAS VEGAS -Tuesday 3 March 2020 [ AETOS Wire ]

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a global provider of enterprise software products and services, the leading third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software products and a Salesforce partner, today announced that, according to a recent research note from Gartner, the third-party enterprise software support market is expected to grow from $351 million in 2019 to $1.05 billion by 2023 – a 200% increase.1 Rimini Street reported annualized recurring revenue of $274 million in its 2019 Q3 Earnings filed publicly on November 7, 2019.

Key Gartner Research Note Findings

According to the Gartner research note, “Compared with the first nine months of 2018, the first nine months of 2019 show a 50% increase in Gartner client inquiries related to third-party support” and “Gartner inquiry volumes suggest that SPVM leaders are now acknowledging third-party support as an established option.” 1

The Gartner research note1 goes on to list a number of key findings for CIOs and sourcing, procurement and vendor management (SVPM) leaders to consider as they look to adapt their approaches to control costs while enabling digital business growth. A few of these findings include:

    “Each year, support costs for legacy software increase, while the benefits gained from that support decrease, leading to more organizations seeking lower-cost third-party support options.”
    “More buyers are aware of the value-added offerings from third-party support providers, such as custom-code support, interoperability support, and global tax, regulatory and security services.”
    “Uptake of independent third-party support is increasing year over year. The software vendors’ cloud-first fixation means that, for certain on-premises applications, third-party support may be the only alternative. As on-premises clients face a decreasing number of options, uptake of independent third-party support is expected to increase substantially.”
    “Another key benefit of third-party support is that it allows customers to use the savings (of at least 50% in costs) to fund digital transformation projects that they were unable to achieve while stuck in an ever-increasing support cycle.”

Rimini Street Support Accelerates Innovation

Gartner’s research note includes several recommendations, including that SPVM leaders should “evaluate third-party support as an alternative to the vendor’s support in order to help fund future innovation. In parallel, analyze the software vendor’s support contract and policies to understand any restrictions on terminating support.” 1

Rimini Street clients have been achieving success following such a strategy. “By moving to Rimini Street, Welch’s was able to redeploy the cost savings from our enterprise software support, to multiple growth areas across the business including IT, marketing and product development,” said Dave Jackson, Welch’s CIO. “For example, as a result of our significant savings, we were able to hire a new security analyst and roll-out new security software. We were also able to invest in new marketing initiatives and develop new products to expand the company’s portfolio, such as Welch’s sparkling Rosé.”

“We believe this research note from Gartner further validates the increasing and widespread global leverage and use of third-party support to maximize ROI on current enterprise software investments and shift savings to fund accelerated innovation that drives competitive advantage and growth,” said David Rowe, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Rimini Street. “To date, more than 3,100 clients with operations in 117 countries around the world, including 175 Fortune 500 and Global 100 organizations, have made the switch from vendor support to Rimini Street, and have saved more than $4 billion in total maintenance costs.”

Complimentary Report Access

Rimini Street is providing complimentary access to this new Gartner research note; for access, please click here.

Source: 1Gartner, “Predicts 2020: Negotiate Software and Cloud Contracts to Manage Marketplace Growth and Reduce Legacy Costs,” Jo Liversidge, Frances Karamouzis, et al., December 18, 2019.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Rimini Street, Inc.

Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI) is a global provider of enterprise software products and services, the leading third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software products and a Salesforce partner. The Company offers premium, ultra-responsive and integrated application management and support services that enable enterprise software licensees to save significant costs, free up resources for innovation and achieve better business outcomes. More than 2,000 global Fortune 500, midmarket, public sector and other organizations from a broad range of industries rely on Rimini Street as their trusted application enterprise software products and services provider. To learn more, please visit http://www.riministreet.com, follow @riministreet on Twitter and find Rimini Street on Facebook and LinkedIn. (C-RMNI)

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this communication are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “may,” “should,” “would,” “plan,” “intend,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “continue,” “future,” “will,” “expect,” “outlook” or other similar words, phrases or expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our expectations of future events, market size, future opportunities, global expansion and other growth initiatives and our investments in such initiatives. These statements are based on various assumptions and on the current expectations of management and are not predictions of actual performance, nor are these statements of historical facts. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties regarding Rimini Street’s business, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, changes in the business environment in which Rimini Street operates, including inflation and interest rates, and general financial, economic, regulatory and political conditions affecting the industry in which Rimini Street operates; adverse developments in pending litigation (including our pending appeal of the permanent injunction) or in the government inquiry or any new litigation; our need and ability to raise additional equity or debt financing on favorable terms and our ability to generate cash flows from operations to help fund increased investment in our growth initiatives; the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity requirements; the terms and impact of our outstanding 13.00% Series A Preferred Stock; changes in taxes, laws and regulations; competitive product and pricing activity; difficulties of managing growth profitably; the customer adoption of our recently introduced products and services, including our Application Management Services (AMS), Rimini Street Advanced Database Security, and services for Salesforce Sales Cloud and Service Cloud products, in addition to other products and services we expect to introduce in the near future; the loss of one or more members of Rimini Street’s management team; uncertainty as to the long-term value of Rimini Street’s equity securities; and those discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in Rimini Street’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on November 7, 2019, and as updated from time to time by Rimini Street’s future Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other filings by Rimini Street with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, forward-looking statements provide Rimini Street’s expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. Rimini Street anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Rimini Street’s assessments to change. However, while Rimini Street may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Rimini Street specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Rimini Street’s assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication.

© 2020 Rimini Street, Inc. All rights reserved. “Rimini Street” is a registered trademark of Rimini Street, Inc. in the United States and other countries, and Rimini Street, the Rimini Street logo, and combinations thereof, and other marks marked by TM are trademarks of Rimini Street, Inc. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners, and unless otherwise specified, Rimini Street claims no affiliation, endorsement, or association with any such trademark holder or other companies referenced herein.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227005228/en/

Contacts

Michelle McGlocklin
Rimini Street, Inc.
+1 925 523-8414
mmcglocklin@riministreet.com

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ASCM Drives Public Health Supply Chain Innovation in Africa With Leadership Forums

 New Global Health Supply Chain Maturity Model Will Identify Gaps and Implement Solutions in Order to Standardize Supply Chain



CHICAGO-Tuesday 3 March 2020 [ AETOS Wire ]

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today, the Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM) announced its continued Global Health Initiative (GHI) efforts in Africa to strengthen public health and humanitarian supply chains with upcoming leadership forums in Nigeria (March 19) and Kenya (March 24). These one-day leadership forums will bring together industry executives from multi-national companies and the Ministries of Health in sub-Saharan Africa to foster regional supply chain solutions.

ASCM’s Global Health Initiative is a long-term strategy focused on modernizing supply chain processes around the world. Recent work has focused on workforce development and digital transformation across supply chains in Senegal, Nigeria and Kenya, and have helped improve the delivery of food, medicine and other critical supplies in these countries. A key component of success is grounded in the development and rollout of the Global Health Supply Chain Maturity Model, a strategic, tactical and operational supply chain self-assessment tool, designed to help transform supply chain management for today’s increasingly interconnected and digital world. This easy-to-use tool is accessible anywhere (no internet required) and will help standardize supply chains in these African countries.

“With several public health professionals already trained from Senegal, Kenya and Nigeria, we’re looking to this year’s forum participants to further establish and grow sustainable supply chains in these critical markets,” said ASCM CEO Abe Eshkenazi, CSCP, CPA, CAE. “Decreasing the knowledge gap, improving distribution systems and enabling consistent monitoring all contribute to making healthier communities and creating a better world through supply chain.”

ASCM’s upcoming forums are part of a series of capacity building initiatives with the anticipated key outcome of increasing the technical capability of professionals and growth of the supply chain body of knowledge in Africa. Locations and dates include:

    Lagos, Nigeria - March 19, 2020
    Nairobi, Kenya - March 24, 2020

The agenda includes speakers from Coca-Cola East & Central Africa, The MPI Group, and Zippy Logistics, among others. A full schedule of events can be found at https://www.ascm.org/events/.

ABOUT ASCM

The Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM) is the global leader in supply chain organizational transformation, innovation and leadership. As the largest nonprofit association for supply chain, ASCM is an unbiased partner, connecting companies around the world to the newest thought leadership on all aspects of supply chain. ASCM is built on a foundation of APICS certification and training spanning 60 years. Now, ASCM is driving innovation in the industry with new products, services and partnerships that enable companies to further optimize their supply chains, secure their competitive advantage and positively influence their bottom lines. For more information, visit ascm.org.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005590/en/

Contacts

Stephanie Proos
LEWIS Global Communications
ASCM@teamlewis.com

Permalink : https://www.aetoswire.com/news/ascm-drives-public-health-supply-chain-innovation-in-africa-with-leadership-forums/en

Telecom Operators Collaborate to Build the Telco Edge Cloud Platform with GSMA Support

Shared Approach Aims to Bring Applications Closer to End-Users and Enable the Implementation of Innovative Enterprise Services


LONDON-Monday 2 March 2020 [ AETOS Wire ]

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- Leading operators; China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, EE, KDDI, Orange, Singtel, SK Telecom, Telefonica and TIM have joined forces, with the support of the GSMA, to develop an interoperable platform to make edge compute capabilities widely and easily available.

The platform to be developed in 2020, will make local operator assets and capabilities, such as latency, compute and storage available to application developers and software vendors enabling them to fulfil the needs of enterprise clients.

Operators have agreed to work together to develop an Edge Compute architectural framework and reference platform, and the GSMA has launched an Operator Platform Project to support this exciting operator initiative. Initially, the platform will be deployed across multiple markets in Europe and progressively extended to other operators and geographies to achieve global reach.

Operators can offer enterprises unmatched proximity to their customers and deliver high performance. For enterprises, these capabilities create an opportunity for expansion to local or international markets whilst maintaining compliance with local regulatory and data protection laws.

Telco Edge Cloud will:

    Be open and inclusive

    Provide data protection and sovereignty mechanisms

    Offer carrier-grade reliability, security, trustworthiness

    Leverage existing technology solutions; as appropriate, including, but not limited to, aggregation platform solutions such as MobiledgeX, or the interconnection mechanisms developed as part of the GSMA MultiOperator MEC experience.

"Operators are very well placed to provide capabilities such as low latency through their network assets," said Alex Sinclair, CTO at GSMA. "It is essential for enterprises to be able to reach all of their customers from the edge of any network. Based on the GSMA Operator Platform Specification, Telco Edge Cloud will provide enterprise developers and aggregators with a consistent way to reach connected customers."

"Edge cloud will build a unified network edge ecosystem, providing diversified and customised products and services, and multiple platform capabilities. It will also realise more extensive boundary-crossing cooperation to meet the requirements of digital transformation of various vertical industries," said Xiongyan Tang, the Chief Scientist of China Unicom Network Technology Research Institute and the Chief Architect of China Unicom Intelligent Network Center, China Unicom.

"Edge Cloud has an exciting potential to enable and enhance many innovative experiences for our customers. I welcome this operator initiative to take ownership of the edge opportunity by joining forces to deliver our capabilities in a federated edge service," said Claudia Nemat, Board Member Technology & Innovation at Deutsche Telekom. "Leveraging MobiledgeX as platform partner and aggregator in the federation puts operators on the best track to create scale, bring in the developer community and make a market impact."

"Edge Cloud is a promising opportunity to enable the development of services that need low latency connection and to meet various service demands from enterprise customers. The innovation of telecommunication services will be accelerated by the enhancement of service quality and the customer experience in real-time applications such as cloud XR and cloud gaming," said Yoshiaki Uchida, Member of the Board, Executive Vice President, Executive Director, Technology Sector at KDDI.

"To address the edge-cloud computing market, operators need to work very closely together to create an interoperable platform and to monetise their extremely valuable assets," said Mari-Noëlle Jégo-Laveissière, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Chief Technology and Global Innovation Officer, Orange. "We, at Orange, believe that it is a must-have to unleash new business opportunities enabled by both edge computing and 5G. That's why we are proud to support the GSMA Telco Edge Cloud initiative."

“We believe that a cross-border edge cloud platform which serves bandwidth needs and lower latency requirements, is what’s needed at this time as it allows organisations with multi-market operations to deploy and manage time-critical applications closer to where the data is collected. We look forward to collaborating with GSMA and the other telcos on this exciting initiative,” said Mark Chong, Group CTO of Singtel.

“Edge Cloud is a key enabler to unlock the full potential of emerging applications such as AR/VR, cloud robots, and smart factory with improved QoS, real-time intelligence, security and data privacy. In order to provide a seamless global MEC experience to our customers, it is critical that mobile operators around the world come together and join forces,” says Dr. Kang-Won Lee, Vice President and Head of Cloud Labs at SK Telecom. “SK Telecom is excited to collaborate with global partners, bringing our edge cloud experience and tech leadership to the team to realise the vision of mobile edge cloud.”

"The market needs an Edge Cloud that meets the enterprise demands to service their customers. Telecom operators are in an extremely good position to provide a trusted and open Edge Cloud, so enterprises can maximise their service offering and business opportunities being as close as needed to their customers," said Enrique Blanco, Group CTO, Telefonica.

"Edge Cloud is a fundamental asset for the new requirements of many business segments and customers," said Elisabetta Romano, Chief Innovation & Partnership Officer, TIM.

“Edge Cloud will be a formidable enabler to transform the network from a "bit pipe" to an effective digital business platform, thanks to flexible computing capacity and low access latency to computing resources."

The GSMA Operator Platform Project

The GSMA's Operator Platform Project intends to develop a framework for operators to expose and monetise their network capabilities. Operators will offer through the Operator Platform edge compute, storage and connectivity to their customers leveraging:

    their existing relationships with enterprises who already have use cases requiring edge,
    their vast local footprint/real estate,
    an inimitable position for stringent security and data privacy, residency, sovereignty and
    the organisational competence from the experience of providing highly reliable (five nines) services over a distributed and capillary network environment.

Cloud capabilities will be treated as a subset of edge.



About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting nearly 750 operators with almost 300 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress Shanghai, Mobile World Congress Americas and the Mobile 360 Series of conferences.

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227005232/en/

Contacts

Media Contacts:
For the GSMA
GSMA Press Office
pressoffice@gsma.com

Caitlin Gosai
cgosai@webershandwick.com


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Emmanuel Babeau Joins Philip Morris International as CFO

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -Monday 2 March 2020 [ AETOS Wire ]

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) (NYSE: PM) announced today that Emmanuel Babeau has been appointed Chief Financial Officer, replacing Martin King. King will be taking on a new role as CEO, PMI America, a newly created function. Reporting to global CEO André Calantzopoulos, King will coordinate both international services based in the U.S. and all U.S. representation, including PMI’s relationship with Altria, which is commercializing IQOS in the American market.

Emmanuel Babeau will join PMI on May 1, 2020 from Schneider Electric, where he served most recently as Deputy CEO in charge of Finance and Legal Affairs. A native of France and graduate of ESCP Business School, he has spent nearly three decades leading fundamental change across industries.

“PMI is undergoing a period of intensive change as we transition away from cigarettes to our science-based smoke-free products—products that are much better alternatives than continued cigarette smoking,” said André Calantzopoulos. “We are thrilled that Emmanuel will be joining us to further accelerate the PMI transformation towards a smoke-free future. He has an enviable track record of challenging the status quo and growing businesses under the most complex circumstances.”

During his 10 years at Schneider Electric, Babeau helped to grow the company from €18 billion market cap to c. €60 billion, while transforming the business model from hardware products for electrical distribution into digital technologies driving the energy transition and industry 4.0. In 2019, Harvard Business Review cited Schneider Electric as one of the top 15 business transformations of the past decade. The company now has €27 billion in revenues and is a leader in digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability.

Earlier, Babeau spent 15 years at Pernod Ricard, including six years as Group CFO, where he helped to turn a regional challenger into the world’s second-largest wine and spirits company. That transformation involved several important acquisitions, including Seagram and Allied Domecq, which brought to Pernod Ricard iconic wine and spirit brands such as Chivas Regal, Martell, Malibu, and Mumm.

Emmanuel Babeau commented: “PMI is precisely the challenge I was looking for: a global leader in its industry with a commitment to fundamental change—and one that is prompted not only by business strategy but also by a desire to operate more sustainably and in the interest of public health. I am excited about working with André Calantzopoulos, Jacek Olczak, and the rest of the leadership team to achieve PMI’s business objectives.”

Babeau sits on the boards of Sodexo, Sanofi, and AVEVA PLC. In his new position, he will report to André Calantzopoulos.

Philip Morris International: Delivering a Smoke-Free Future

Philip Morris International (PMI) is leading a transformation in the tobacco industry to create a smoke-free future and ultimately replace cigarettes with smoke-free products to the benefit of adults who would otherwise continue to smoke, society, the company, and its shareholders. PMI is a leading international tobacco company engaged in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes, as well as smoke-free products and associated electronic devices and accessories, and other nicotine-containing products in markets outside the United States. In addition, PMI ships a version of its IQOS Platform 1 device and its consumables authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to Altria Group, Inc. for sale in the United States under license. PMI is building a future on a new category of smoke-free products that, while not risk-free, are a much better choice than continuing to smoke. Through multidisciplinary capabilities in product development, state-of-the-art facilities, and scientific substantiation, PMI aims to ensure that its smoke-free products meet adult consumer preferences and rigorous regulatory requirements. PMI's smoke-free IQOS product portfolio includes heat-not-burn and nicotine-containing vapor products. As of December 31, 2019, PMI estimates that approximately 9.7 million adult smokers around the world have already stopped smoking and switched to PMI's heat-not-burn product, available for sale in 52 markets in key cities or nationwide under the IQOS brand. For more information, please visit www.pmi.com and www.pmiscience.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200302005422/en/

Contacts

International Press Inquiries
Jody Sunna, Philip Morris International
T. +41 (0)58 242 4500
E. jody.sunna@pmi.com

USA Press Inquiries
Corey Henry, Philip Morris International
T. +41 (0)58 242 4500
E. corey.henry@pmi.com

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Jim McCarthy Joins i2c as President

Veteran Payments Executive and Fintech Advisor to Support Rapid Global Growth of i2c

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.-Monday 2 March 2020 [ AETOS Wire ]

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- i2c Inc., a leading provider of payment and open banking technology, today announced the appointment of Jim McCarthy as President of the company. Reporting to i2c CEO and founder Amir Wain, McCarthy is responsible for i2c teams working with clients, partners and prospects. He is based at i2c headquarters in Silicon Valley.

McCarthy is an industry veteran with over 20 years of experience in financial services across all stakeholders in the payments and open banking industries. Most recently, he has served as a strategic consultant and advisor to many Silicon Valley fintech startups.

At Visa, where McCarthy worked for eighteen years, he held senior positions in sales, risk and authentication, consumer credit, digital products, product innovation and payments. During his last position as Visa’s EVP of Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, he was responsible for the development of Visa’s product and technology roadmap, innovation efforts, and led business development for strategic partnerships. While at Visa he was responsible for the introduction of 3D Secure and Visa Token Service, which have become industry standards, as well as contributed to the launch of Apple Pay®.

“When I was at Visa heading up Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, I had the opportunity to see firsthand the innovation taking place in payments across the globe,” said Jim McCarthy. “But I have to say I’ve never seen any platform as robust, flexible and reliable as the i2c single global processing platform that can support credit, debit, prepaid and lending products. With its unique human-centric architecture, “building-block” capabilities, hundreds of APIs and 100 percent availability over 19 years, there is nothing like it out there. I’m excited to be joining this team and contributing to the i2c success story.”

“We are extremely happy to welcome Jim to the i2c team,” said Amir Wain, founder and CEO, i2c Inc. “He brings a deep knowledge of the payments industry and innovation as well as a proven ability to connect with and establish long term effective partnerships with clients. Jim fits in well with the i2c culture of innovation and commitment to client success.”

About i2c Inc.

i2c Inc. drives innovative global payments and open banking to financial services organizations with a multi-function platform built for endless possibilities. Advanced “building block” processing technology at its core provides a vast suite of credit, debit and prepaid solutions —all from a single global SaaS platform. This enables clients to dynamically configure payment solutions with unparalleled flexibility, agility and performance while maintaining highly secure and reliable payments.

Founded in 2001, and headquartered in Silicon Valley, i2c’s next-generation technology helps organizations drive revenue growth, scale and adapt to change while supporting millions of users in more than 200 countries and territories and across all time zones. Visit www.i2cinc.com and follow us at @i2cinc.



Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/52180462/en

Contacts

Jessica Kersey
Vice President, Marketing Communications
i2c Inc.
+1 650.480.5714
jkersey@i2cinc.com

Permalink : https://www.aetoswire.com/news/jim-mccarthy-joins-i2c-as-president/en

Monday, March 2, 2020

SES Announces Next Phase of Strategic Transformation

 Company to explore the creation of pure-play market verticals through the potential separation of its data business within SES

‘Simplify and Amplify’ will drive focus on company’s core strengths, simplify its operations and facilitate innovation for future growth

LUXEMBOURG-Monday 2 March 2020 [ AETOS Wire ]

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- SES is launching a comprehensive programme to position itself for future growth and deliver maximum value to current and future customers and stakeholders.

The programme, called Simplify and Amplify and executed throughout 2020, comprises a series of strategic actions to enable SES to best deliver against its declared purpose of doing the extraordinary in space to deliver amazing experiences everywhere on Earth. It is the next phase in a process that began in 2017 when SES first established distinct units for its video and data businesses.

SES sees enormous opportunities in its core markets given the changing dynamics of the video and data industries, and this programme is designed to position SES as the leader in global content connectivity solutions—operating as an efficient, high-performance partner that is simpler to do business with, and strengthening its position as the partner of choice for the world’s leading broadcasters, governments, telcos, cloud solutions providers, and comms-on-the-move customers.

The programme comprises four major initiatives:

    Create Pure-Play Verticals: SES will investigate the creation of two ‘pure-play’ market verticals through the potential separation of its Networks business within SES in order to drive strategic and operational focus, provide increased external visibility and to appropriately configure SES’s overall business for the future. Consideration will include an analysis of a separate capital structure for the Networks business, potentially providing it access to external capital to accelerate growth and build on the unique value proposition that has been established in the market. This structure also would facilitate a sharp focus on the cash generating and value sustaining priorities within SES's market-leading video business, leveraging its premier direct-to-home (DTH) neighbourhoods and superior global reach.

    As a result of the recent adoption by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of its order regarding the repurposing of part of the C-Band spectrum, SES is putting in to place a dedicated team to execute on the most complex and demanding spectrum repurposing ever contemplated. This team will leverage the company's in-house expertise to ensure a seamless process that meets the critical needs of its current customers as well as the FCC's desire to enable 5G leadership for the United States on an accelerated timeline. This is a transformational opportunity to protect SES’s neighbourhoods and current customers, support the nearly 120 million U.S. households that rely on the C-Band for their cable and broadcast programming, and create shareholder value for SES.

    Focus on Core Strengths: The markets in which SES operates have become both more resource intensive and the subject of technological disruption. SES will focus its capabilities and offerings across each of its markets on profitable segments that play to the group's core strengths, doubling down where it makes sense to do so, while exiting, reducing exposure to, or establishing alliances and partnerships to serve, other market segments. This will result in a stronger, more focused SES with world-leading products and solutions in the areas where it excels.

    Simplify Operations: SES expects to realign its resources to support the above initiatives, to simplify operations, to maximise efficiency, and to make SES easier to do business with. Activities will include the consolidation and reorganisation of some functions to reflect any changes in business scope and structure. In addition, the company plans a comprehensive review of its global footprint. Overall it is expected that SES will generate EBITDA optimisation ramping to EUR 40-50 million annually from 2021 as a result of this focus on core strengths and simplification of its business.

    Innovate for the Future: SES will deepen its commitment to innovation to drive the customer solutions demanded in the market today and in the future. SES has led the industry in the development of low-latency NGSO and now multi-orbit architectures along with the integration of network functions and automation. This further commitment to innovation will broaden SES’s leadership in cloud integration through the development of a "cloud practice" focused on creating and driving cloud scale across all target market segments. In addition, the company intends to establish an innovation hub to co-create and incubate solutions together with customers and partners, and develop new technologies and business models through corporate venturing.

“Our vision is content and connectivity everywhere, and we are positioning SES to realise this vision and deliver growth and value for our customers in their fast-changing markets,” said Steve Collar, CEO of SES. “This next phase of our strategic transformation is designed to ensure that we prepare SES for an exciting future while delivering on our commitments to customers and to the market today. In so doing, we will make SES a simpler organisation to do business with and deliver substantial value to all of our stakeholders.”

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About SES

SES has a bold vision to deliver amazing experiences everywhere on earth by distributing the highest quality video content and providing seamless connectivity around the world. As the leader in global content connectivity solutions, SES operates the world’s only multi-orbit constellation of satellites with the unique combination of global coverage and high performance, including the commercially-proven, low-latency Medium Earth Orbit O3b system. By leveraging a vast and intelligent, cloud-enabled network, SES is able to deliver high-quality connectivity solutions anywhere on land, at sea or in the air, and is a trusted partner to the world’s leading telecommunications companies, mobile network operators, governments, connectivity and cloud service providers, broadcasters, video platform operators and content owners. SES’s video network carries over 8,300 channels and has an unparalleled reach of over 355 million households, delivering managed media services for both linear and non-linear content. The company is listed on Paris and Luxembourg stock exchanges (Ticker: SESG). Further information is available at: www.ses.com.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200301005062/en/

Contacts

Suzanne Ong
External Communications
+352 710 725 500
suzanne.ong@ses.com

Permalink : https://www.aetoswire.com/news/ses-announces-next-phase-of-strategic-transformation/en

ABB Completes Divestment of Solar Inverter Business To FIMER SpA

ZURICH-Monday 2 March 2020 [ AETOS Wire ]

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- ABB has completed its divestment of its solar inverter business to the Italian company FIMER SpA. The transaction enables ABB’s Electrification business to improve the focus of its business portfolio on priority growth markets and enhance business opportunities for the solar inverter business under FIMER.

Tarak Mehta, President of ABB's Electrification business, said: “The completion of this divestment is another step forward in our strategy of systematic portfolio management. It strengthens our competitiveness and allows us to focus on other growth segments. ABB will continue to integrate solar power into a range of solutions for smart buildings, energy storage and electric vehicle charging throughout intelligent low- and medium-voltage offering.”

ABB’s solar inverter business employs around 800 people in more than 30 countries, with manufacturing and R&D sites located in Italy, India and Finland. It includes the solar inverter business from Power-One acquired by ABB’s Discrete Automation and Motion division in 2013. The business offers a comprehensive portfolio of products, systems, and services for different types of solar installations.

ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a technology leader that is driving the digital transformation of industries. With a history of innovation spanning more than 130 years, ABB has four, customer-focused, globally leading businesses: Electrification, Industrial Automation, Motion, and Robotics & Discrete Automation, supported by the ABB Ability™ digital platform. ABB’s Power Grids business will be divested to Hitachi in 2020. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 144,000 employees.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200302005385/en/

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For more information please contact:

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Media Relations
Phone: +41 43 317 71 11
Email: media.relations@ch.abb.com

Investor Relations
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Email: investor.relations@ch.abb.com

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