Microsoft announced it is expanding its Global Engineering Development Center footprint to the UAE. One of Microsoft’s first engineering centers to be launched in the Arab world will be established in Abu Dhabi. KT Corporation and Microsoft Corp. unveiled a five-year, multibillion-dollar partnership which includes an investment from KT in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, cloud technologies, and IT business, and a resource commitment from Microsoft in the areas of infrastructure and people. Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Zoomin, a leading data management provider for unstructured data. Smartsheet announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by funds managed by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $8.4 billion.
Hi and welcome to episode 157 of The ERP Minute. I’m your host, Rebekah McCabe.
Microsoft has been driving its international growth this week, with announcements for Abu Dhabi and Korea.
First, Microsoft announced it is expanding its Global Engineering Development Center footprint to the UAE. One of Microsoft’s first engineering centers to be launched in the Arab world will be established in Abu Dhabi. This center will be part of a global ecosystem of centers dedicated to the creation of AI innovations, cloud technologies, and advanced cybersecurity solutions.
Then, KT Corporation and Microsoft Corp. unveiled a five-year, multibillion-dollar partnership which includes an investment from KT in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, cloud technologies, and IT business, and a resource commitment from Microsoft in the areas of infrastructure and people. Through this partnership, the companies will propel KT’s AI and ICT (AICT) transformation and accelerate the advancement of AI services and innovation in Korea.
This demonstrates the desire of major vendors like Microsoft to continue to invest in global markets, providing major resources to support the development of technology across the globe.
In other news, Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Zoomin, a leading data management provider for unstructured data. Salesforce Data Cloud, with Zoomin’s capabilities, will accelerate the unlocking of unstructured data to power AI agents, making them more personalized and context-aware in every customer interaction. This acquisition will provide users with the ability to make data-informed decisions utilizing data that may have previously been inaccessible.
Finally, Smartsheet announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by funds managed by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $8.4 billion. This is a major step for Smartsheet who is going to receive backing to invest more in the product and deliver more to their growing base of customers.
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