Here are some of the most prominent venture capital and merger and acquisition news items from the past month. If you’d like SDxCentral to report on your company’s VC or M&A activity in our monthly Money Moves section, or if you have any tips on that activity, please send the information to Sydney Sawaya ([email protected]).

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) doubled down on its edge-to-cloud strategy with the acquisition of Silver Peak in a $925 million deal aimed at bolstering its SD-WAN offering.

The acquisition mark’s HPE’s second investment in SD-WAN technologies since it acquired Aruba Networks for $3 billion in 2015. Silver Peak also feeds into HPE’s $4 billion strategic investments in intelligent edge technologies, announced in 2018.

Combining Aruba’s SD-branch capabilities with Silver Peak’s SD-WAN and WAN optimization offerings will allow HPE to better address the changing needs of distributed enterprises, the company claims.

The acquisition also comes at a unique moment with a global pandemic forcing enterprises to change approaches to the WAN, edge, and the cloud, according to Keerti Melkote, Aruba’s founder and president of HPE’s Intelligent Edge division.

VMware scored a significant 5G win with Dish Network selecting the vendor to provide the underlying cloud platform and infrastructure to power its open radio access network-based 5G network.

The deal calls for VMware to supply its Telco Cloud platform to support Dish’s burgeoning 5G network plans. The carrier will use that platform as an abstraction layer running across multiple network domains and will allow Dish to tap into hyperscale public cloud capacity while maintaining core control points.

This is significant as it will be a greenfield deployment. This means it will be built from the ground-up using cloud-native architecture unlike so-called brownfield deployments where an operator is integrating a cloud-native architecture into an already established telecom network. This should provide for a cleaner and more efficient network deployment and operation.

Fortinet acquired Opaq Networks, a secure access service edge (SASE) startup, in a deal that adds cloud-delivered zero trust network access to its SASE platform. The companies did not disclose the price, but Opaq (pronounced “opaque”) raised $43.5 million in two funding rounds since its 2017 launch.

Opaq’s cloud-delivered zero trust network access supports enterprises’ distributed networks across data centers, to branch offices, to remote users, and IoT devices. When combined with Fortinet’s Security Fabric, the newly acquired technology boosts Fortinet’s SASE platform, which already includes firewall and SD-WAN, web security, sandboxing, endpoint security, identity and multi-factor authentication, multi-cloud workload protection, CASB, browser isolation, and web application firewall capabilities.

Intel Capital announced its intent to invest more than $250 million in Indian telco Jio Platforms.

Cisco acquired Swedish startup Modcam for an undisclosed amount. The newly acquired assets will transition into Cisco's Meraki smart camera portfolio.

Artificial intelligence (AI) integration platform provider Intento bagged a $3 million seed round led by Flint Capital with participation from Berkeley SkyDeck and SmartHub.

VMware continued its buying spree with a deal to acquire Datrium to boost its cloud-based disaster recovery.

Pricefx added $65 million in a Series C funding round, bringing the company’s total raised to date to $130 million.

Noteworth scored a $5 million oversubscribed seed funding round led by Laconia Capital Group.

Nvidia is reportedly readying a $32 billion check to acquire Arm from SoftBank.

U.S. Cellular expanded 5G network equipment deals with Ericsson and Nokia to now include millimeter wave (mmWave) gear and support for the regional carrier’s IoT and use of the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band.

Amdocs entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Openet for a total cash consideration of $180 million.

Self-service cloud management software developer Env0 announced a $3.5 million seed extension round, bringing the company’s total funding to $6.8 million.

Nokia announced plans for Vecima Networks to acquire its Gainspeed portfolio. The deal will transition Nokia’s Gainspeed portfolio along with all supporting technology and assets to Vecima Networks.

XM Cyberbreach secured a $17 million Series B funding round with Macquarie Capital, Nasdaq Ventures, Our Innovation Fund, and Swarth Group. The company has now raised $49 million to date.

Telefónica reached an agreement with Liberty Latin America to acquire Telefónica's Costa Rica for $505 million.

Cognizant announced the acquisition of New Signature, an independent Microsoft public cloud transformation company. Financial details were not disclosed.

GrammaTech penned a deal to acquire the intellectual property and assets of JuliaSoft.

Cisco’s $2.6 billion Acacia Communications acquisition was at a standstill awaiting regulatory approval from China. That approval represents the final hurdle preventing the two companies from closing the deal.

Infrastructure automation provider Puppet scored $40 million in financing from BlackRock.

Privacera pocketed $13.5 million in Series A funding led by Accel.

Innovium snapped up $170 million in funding that included contributions from a swarm of investors, the newest of which are Premji Invest, DFJ Growth, and BlackRock.

CyCognito raised $30 million in Series B funding, bringing the company’s total funding haul to $53 million.

SAP announced its intent to take Qualtrics public. A final decision on the initial public offering and its conditions is pending.

LogDNA completed a $25 million Series C funding round led by existing investor Emergence Capital. The round brings the company’s total funding to date to $60 million.

Synaptics reached an agreement with Broadcom to purchase the chipmaker’s wireless IoT business in a $250 million, all-cash deal.

Enterprise cloud data management Informatica acquired Compact Solutions for an undisclosed amount.

Cloud access risk security company Ermetic closed a $17.25 million Series A funding round led by Accel.

Traceable launched with $20 million in Series A funding.

VMware padded its vRealize Operations predictive analytics platform with the purchase of the True Visibility Suite business unit from Blue Medora.

TalaTek, an integrated risk management firm, entered into a definitive merger agreement with Cerberus Cyber Sentinel.

Rackspace filed IPO plans with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

LeanIX announced that it closed a $80 million Series D funding round led by new investor Goldman Sachs Growth.

Upsolver nabbed $13 million in Series A financing led by Vertex Ventures U.S.