And with the Thursday (Sept. 5) news that Verizon has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Frontier,the largest pure-play fiber internet provider in the U.S., in an all-cash transaction valued at $20 billion, the future of connectivity — and therefore the connected economy — looks bright.

With the rise of 5G and even 6G, the increasing reliance on fiber optics and the ongoing shift to digital-first lifestyles, this acquisition speaks volumes about the future of connectivity and the strategic maneuvers large corporations are making to position themselves in a rapidly evolving landscape.

“Less than four years ago, we set out an ambitious plan to build … the digital infrastructure this country needs to thrive for generations to come,” Frontier President and CEO Nick Jeffery said in a press release announcing the acquisition. “Today’s announcement is recognition of our progress building a best-in-class fiber network and delivering reliable, high-speed broadband to millions of customers across the country.”

As industries digitize, from manufacturing to logistics and agriculture, reliable high-speed connectivity is becoming a competitive necessity. Fiber and 5G are the cornerstones of the next wave of digital transformation, and by acquiring Frontier, Verizon has secured a key piece of the infrastructure puzzle.

“Connectivity is essential in nearly every part of our lives and work,” Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg said in the release.

The deal aims to bring together Frontier’s pure-play fiber business and Verizon’s fiber and wireless networks to expand the telecom giant’s footprint across the market. Per the announcement, Verizon’s fiber network largely covers regions in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, while Frontier’s own coverage connects users in areas across the Mid-West, as well as Texas and California.

Read more: Why the Connected Economy Isn’t 

Ensuring Digital Transformation Is Transformational

New data from PYMNTS Intelligence finds that consumers in the U.S. engage in an average of 14 different digital activities each month: paying bills online, conducting telehealth visits, streaming music and videos, and shopping and paying for groceries and retail products using digital payments and apps.

In an earlier interview with PYMNTS, Frank Boulben, senior vice president and chief revenue officer of Verizon Consumer Group, said, “Verizon is reintroducing itself, leveraging its longstanding reputation as a trusted network provider and highlighting its pivotal role in enabling how people live, work and play … We’ve established a foundation of reliability over two decades, and now we’re illuminating the transformative potential of our network.”

But as PYMNTS’ Karen Webster wrote this summer, “too much of the digital transformation to this point is digital — but not exactly transformational.”

In essence, while companies are making their operations digital — moving from analog to digital systems, implementing cloud services and adopting digital tools — many of these efforts fail to fundamentally transform how businesses operate or drive new value. In essence, many organizations are embracing digital tools without fully realizing their potential to drive innovation, disrupt markets or reshape business models.

Webster covered on Tuesday (Sept. 3) how, as digital becomes the DNA of business, success won’t be measured by the products a business makes or sells, but how well they create and monetize ecosystems that connect activities across traditional industry sectors. “As I have written many times, payments is the cornerstone for this digital transformation,” she wrote.

See also: Nine Things Payments Execs Need to Know for Their 2025 Business Plans

Digitizing Legacy Systems Without Modernizing Them

At its core, digital transformation should represent a fundamental rethinking of how businesses use technology to meet customer needs, improve efficiency and drive new value. However, in many cases, businesses are simply digitizing existing processes, often automating them or moving them online, but not reimagining how they operate in a truly innovative way.

“The Industrial 4.0 revolution was based on digitization, and it’s starting to mature now,” Prateek Kathpal, president and CEO of SymphonyAI Industrial, told PYMNTS in an interview posted Dec. 1.

Automating a broken or inefficient process can give the illusion of progress, but it doesn’t address the underlying need for redesigning those workflows to be more adaptable, data-driven, or customer-focused.

“Businesses are realizing that there is a cost to some of the legacy things that they’re doing, and that it can be an impediment to making their business efficient,” Robin Gregg, CEO at RoadSync, told PYMNTS. “I think businesses now understand that no matter how traditional they are, how they’ve been operating, that now is the time to update how they work.”

The post Verizon Acquires Frontier for $20 Billion as Connected Economy Evolves appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

“Managed accounts are one of the fastest-growing investment vehicles in the asset management industry, enabling investment advisors and asset managers to offer customized portfolios to retail investors at scale,” Emily Portney, global head of asset servicing at BNY, said in a news release announcing the deal Thursday (Sept. 5). “By combining Archer’s market-leading capabilities with BNY’s broader footprint and expertise, BNY will offer fully integrated, end-to-end retail managed account solutions across our entire platform.”

Archer provides middle- and back-office solutions for asset and wealth managers working with institutional, private wealth and retail investors, the release said. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

By integrating Archer’s managed account solutions, capabilities and professional servicing team, BNY will bolster its enterprise platform to support retail managed accounts, a market expected to reach $8 trillion in assets over the next three years in the United States, according to the release.

In addition, Archer will provide BNY Investments and BNY Pershing’s Wove wealth platform for advisors with “expanded distribution of model portfolios and access to Archer’s multi-custodial network,” the release said.

“Today’s asset and wealth managers have a strong desire to create multi-asset solutions across a variety of products, along with direct indexing and tax optimized portfolios, to meet the needs of their distribution partners and investors,” Archer President and CEO Bryan Dori said in the release. “As a new addition to the BNY platform, Archer’s expertise, capabilities and scale will be leveraged across all of BNY to help even more clients drive long-term growth for their businesses.”

BNY rebranded from BNY Mellon in June. It also renamed its investment management and wealth management arms BNY Investments and BNY Wealth, while its financial solutions unit, BNY Mellon Pershing, became BNY Pershing.

In other wealth management news, PYMNTS wrote earlier this year about the potential for open banking to reshape the industry.

Despite its promise, “the widespread adoption of open banking across sectors, including investment and wealth management, is not without its challenges,” the report said. “Interoperability issues and varying API standards across regions and institutions can impede seamless integration and collaboration within the open banking ecosystem.”

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The planned acquisition will add Airbase’s finance and spend management software solution to Paylocity’s human resources (HR) and payroll software platform, Paylocity said in a Wednesday (Sept. 4) press release.

Subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to close in the first or second quarter of fiscal 2025, according to the release.

“Many companies use disparate software solutions or manual processes to manage their labor costs and non-labor vendor and procurement spend, and we expect this acquisition will give us the ability to provide a comprehensive solution and modern client experience for managing all spend on a single integrated platform,” Paylocity President and CEO Toby Williams said in the release.

Airbase Founder Thejo Kote said in a Wednesday post on LinkedIn that he was convinced to sell the business by the opportunity to create a unified human capital management (HCM) and finance platform for mid-market companies.

“Airbase’s mission has always been to improve the lives of those who work in the office of the CFO and help companies control their destiny with better management of their non-payroll spend,” Kote said in the post. “By joining forces with Paylocity, we now have an opportunity to deliver a unified experience to manage 100% of the spending that happens in a business.”

Paylocity’s software solutions help businesses automate and streamline HR and payroll processes, according to the release.

Airbase’s platform features bill pay and accounts payable automation, expense management, corporate cards, procurement process automation, and workflow automation across key spend and business process systems, per the release.

The planned integration of these solutions will enable companies to see payroll and non-payroll spend “through a single pane of glass,” the release said.

“Airbase represents an exciting opportunity to expand our relationship with our nearly 40,000 clients to offer an integrated software platform for running their business operations, while also offering a very compelling value proposition for prospects across our target market,” Williams said in the release.

This news comes about nine months after Paylocity acquired headcount planning firm Trace. Paylocity said in December 2023 that the addition of that firm will enable it to expand its platform and offer labor planning tools to model, forecast, implement and analyze headcount decisions.

The post Paylocity to Add Spend Management Software Solution With Airbase Acquisition appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The acquisition is expected to close Sept. 30, GoHealth said in a Wednesday (Sept. 4) news release.  The company called the acquisition a “significant milestone in GoHealth’s mission to deliver unparalleled consumer-centric solutions while reinforcing the companies’ shared values of integrity, empathy, and accountability.”

GoHealth said both firms have deep industry expertise, and each has a “complementary set of strengths that will dive mutual growth … especially as the upcoming benefit season expects to bring significant disruption and high demand for a high-quality shopping experience.”

GoHealth CEO Vijay Kotte said in a statement that the acquisition would benefit Medicare consumers.

“GoHealth’s scale, proprietary technology and operational excellence combined with e-TeleQuote’s established talent and high-quality track record will create a mutually accretive relationship poised to drive better outcomes for and meet the evolving needs of our Medicare consumers,” Kotte said.

Earlier this year, GoHealth noted in its earnings call in March that its investment in in its data science platform, Encompass, was paying off. The company said it launched the platform in 2023, and saw it drive 75% of its enrollment as of March.

This was happening, Kotte told analysts at the time, as GoHealth is expecting consumers to increasingly swap health plans.

“We want them to shop. We expected them to shop,” Kotte said. “They are shopping. But when it comes to the appropriate time to make switches, it is either because they’ve got incrementally much better benefits, or in contrast, when they have a lot of change in their benefit structure.”

In other Medicare news, Amazon announced in June that it was expanding its Amazon Pharmacy offerings to Medicare members.

As of June 18, more than 50 million enrollees in the government health insurance program became eligible for Amazon’s RxPass, a Prime member benefit that allows for affordable access to common medications, free delivery each month and the ability to connect with a pharmacist around the clock, PYMNTS reported at the time.

Amazon said Medicare beneficiaries who take at least one medication through RxPass could save around $70 per year, while a beneficiary who takes two or more medications could save more. If every Medicare beneficiary was to use RxPass, Medicare spending would be reduced by close to $2 billion, while customer out-of-pocket spending would decrease as well, Amazon added.

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The customer relationship management company will use Tenyx’s expertise in developing AI-powered voice agents to advance its own AI solutions, according to a Tuesday (Sept. 3) press release.

“Upon close of the acquisition, Tenyx will extend Salesforce’s existing autonomous agent capabilities for Agentforce Service Agent by integrating Tenyx’s innovative voice AI solutions, specifically tailored for service use cases,” the release said. “With Tenyx’s expertise, Salesforce aims to advance its AI-driven solutions, delivering more intuitive and seamless customer interactions.”

The deal, expected to close Oct. 31, will see Tenyx’s co-founders — CEO Itamar Arel and Chief Technology Officer Adam Earle — and their employees join Salesforce.

The acquisition follows Salesforce’s announcement in July that it had developed Einstein Service Agent, its first fully autonomous AI agent.

Einstein “is designed to replace conventional chatbots by understanding and taking action on a broad range of service issues without preprogrammed scenarios and make customer service more efficient,” PYMNTS wrote at the time.

Kishan Chetan, general manager of Salesforce’s Service Cloud, said the agent “will not just complete service jobs on its own; it will augment how human agents work and completely transform how service teams operate, making them far more efficient and productive.”

A week later, Salesforce announced a partnership with Workday that combines the companies’ AI platforms and data offerings to build an agent that can communicate with workers in natural language and human-like comprehension, making tasks such as onboarding, health benefit changes and career development easier.

Meanwhile, the PYMNTS Intelligence report “How Consumers Want to Live in the Voice Economy” found that Americans are optimistic about voice technology, with 60% of them saying that voice assistants will eventually match human intelligence and reliability.

“This optimism is further reflected in a willingness to invest financially in the promise of advanced voice assistants, with nearly 30% of American consumers open to paying a monthly fee for services that deliver the envisioned level of intelligence and reliability,” PYMNTS wrote in April. “Among millennials, this figure rises to 43%, reflecting a strong demand for next-generation voice technology among this age group.”

For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.

The post Salesforce Acquires AI Voice Agent Developer Tenyx appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

This acquisition will add Venminder’s unified platform for managing third-party risk to Ncontracts’ integrated compliance, risk and vendor management solutions for the financial services industry, the companies said in a Wednesday (Sept. 4) press release.

Simultaneously with this transaction, software and services business investor Hg bought out prior Ncontracts shareholder Gryphon Investors and prior Venminder shareholders, according to the release. Hg’s specialty is supporting the development of sector-leading enterprises that supply businesses with software applications or workflow services.

The combined business created by these transactions will be led by Ncontracts founder and CEO Michael Berman, per the release.

“With our teams coming together to help reduce risk, improve compliance and control costs, we will continue to strengthen the financial industry and the communities they serve,” Berman said of the combination of Ncontracts and Venminder. “With the investment and support from Hg, we are well positioned to continue our rapid growth.”

Ncontracts provides governance, risk and compliance (GRC) software solutions to more than 4,000 banks, credit unions, mortgage companies, FinTechs and registered investment advisors, according to the release.

With the company’s acquisition of Venminder and its more than 1,200 customers, Ncontracts will serve a total of more than 5,000 customers, per the release.

Hg Head of North America Alan Cline said in the release: “We see Ncontracts swiftly becoming a ‘gold standard’ provider of highly automated, AI-enabled, integrated software solutions for the financial industry. The merger with Venminder creates a compelling platform with a comprehensive product suite that can deliver significant value to customers.”

Artificial intelligence can be harnessed to address the pain points financial institutions face when grappling with vendor lifecycle management, Berman told PYMNTS in an interview posted in January.

For example, when agreements come up for renewal, the technology can flag language that is missing or that needs to be improved so that remediation measures can be taken, Berman said.

“AI is going to allow us to address risk and compliance in a much more efficient way than we’ve ever been able to do before,” Berman said.

The post Ncontracts Adds Third-Party Risk Management Expertise With Venminder Acquisition appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The deal, announced Tuesday (Sept. 3), is designed to strengthen Tarabut’s ability to offer faster and more accessible and interconnected financial services in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region and around the world.

According to a news release, the acquisition — which officially closed Aug. 1 — comes as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates impose new regulations dealing with payment initiation services and open banking.

“As the region braces for the new financial regulations, Tarabut is poised to lead with its compliance-first approach and advanced technology offerings,” the release said. “Tarabut’s existing tech stack of data and compliance products coupled with Vyne’s payment expertise opens new doors for seamless, cardless, account-to-account payment and streamlined operational processes, such as enhanced real-time reporting and reconciliation.”

The release adds that the deal also extends Tarabut’s operational footprint to the U.K., furthering its position in the open banking world.

The deal comes on the heels of an open banking milestone in the U.K., with the country recently marking 10 million active open banking users, or 15% of the British population. Is that a good number? PYMNTS put the question to Marion King, chairperson and trustee of the U.K.’s Open Banking Ltd regulatory and advocacy group.

And though she isn’t resting on any laurels, King said she was satisfied that the government-mandated direction from the country’s leading financial institutions to make data sharing and new payment options available will usher in more success in the short term.

Part of that momentum, she told PYMNTS, will come from the next tier of banks and their business customers.

“It’s a very good number,” King said.

“We’re seeing really strong double-digit growth. And I think this is just the beginning, because you need to remember that this is only measured from the nine banks that were involved in the Competition and Market Authority’s initial open banking effort — so it could actually be higher. So double-digit growth month on month is very positive, and I think it shows pent-up demand for secure data exchange as we move forward with all of this.”

Tarabut last year announced it had raised $32 million, funds it said it hoped would help it expand in Saudi Arabia.

“Open banking is reshaping the financial landscape in KSA and the wider Middle East, and we at Tarabut Gateway are proud to be at the forefront of this innovation,” founder and CEO Abdulla Almoayed said in a news release. “This fundraise reflects the potential of open banking, our advanced technology and the trust placed in us by our partners both in KSA and globally.”

The post Tarabut Acquires Vyne as New Open Banking Rules Come Online appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The proposed transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies but is subject to the receipt of required gaming regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, DraftKings said in a Wednesday (Aug. 28) press release.

Simplebet provides micromarket pricing and content for sports betting, according to the release.

The incorporation of its proprietary machine learning (ML) models into DraftKings’ pricing and technology platform would create highly accurate betting opportunities during every moment of the game; improve the quality, breadth and speed of data throughout the DraftKings trading lifecycle; and unlock a faster and more frictionless experience for DraftKings’ customers, per the release.

“Live betting represents an area for potential growth for online sports betting, and the proposed acquisition would allow DraftKings to leverage Simplebet’s proprietary technology to create an in-play wagering experience that moves at the speed of sports,” Corey Gottlieb, chief product officer at DraftKings, said in the release.

DraftKings and Simplebet have already been long-term collaborators, Chris Bevilacqua, co-founder and CEO of Simplebet, said in the release.

“This transformative acquisition, upon completion, will marry our best-in-class AI and machine learning technology with the DraftKings product offering, enhancing the customer experience for a new era of real-time, in-play gaming,” Bevilacqua said.

This news comes about six months after DraftKings announced that it reached an agreement to acquire Jackpocket, a digital lottery app. When announcing the acquisition, executives said they expected there to be significant overlap between Jackpocket and DraftKings, together with an opportunity to cross-sell their product offerings.

DraftKings reported Aug. 2 that it saw a revenue bump in the second quarter, primarily due to continued healthy customer engagement, efficient acquisition of new customers, expansion of its sportsbook product offering into new jurisdictions, higher structural sportsbook hold percentage and the impact of the acquisition of Jackpocket, which closed on May 22.

“We will continue to capitalize on the healthy customer acquisition environment for the rest of 2024 which positions us to achieve $900 million to $1 billion of adjusted EBITDA in 2025,” DraftKings CEO and Co-Founder Jason Robins said Aug. 2 during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

The post DraftKings to Enhance In-Play Betting Offering With Simplebet Acquisition appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The firm is talking with Wall Street banks and direct lenders in hopes of getting roughly $1 billion of debt financing, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Aug. 27).

Vista has not decided what financing route it wants to take and is discussing terms with competing groups of lenders, according to the report, which cited unnamed sources.

Jaggaer and Vista announced the acquisition earlier this month, although the terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“This new partnership with Vista underscores Jaggaer’s strong momentum and the compelling value our intelligent software delivers by helping our customers manage and automate complex processes while enabling a highly resilient, responsible and integrated supplier base,” Jaggaer CEO Andy Hovancik said at the time in a press release.

“Jaggaer provides configurable source-to-pay and supplier collaboration software for direct and indirect procurement processes through a single, unified platform,” the release said. Its artificial intelligence-enabled solutions “help optimize and automate sourcing, spend management, contracting, eProcurement, invoicing and supply chain visibility.”

Private equity groups Apollo, Ares, KKR and Blackstone reportedly invested $162 billion between April and June in anticipation of a revival in deal-making. Apollo’s contribution accounted for more than 40% of the total.

Executives said they are readying for an increase in mergers and buyouts as they wait for central banks to reduce interest rates.

“The deal market is back,” said Scott Nuttall, co-head of KKR. “This year, we not only have an open market, we have pent-up supply of deals … coming to markets. So, we are optimistic.”

Private equity groups are holding onto more than $2 trillion of dry powder, a term for money that has been committed but not yet invested.

There has also been an 18-month slowdown in dealmaking triggered by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes, leaving companies struggling to sell existing investments and return money to their backers.

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Branded is in talks to acquire Heyday in exchange for $521 million in equity in a new company, Essor, that would be worth more than $1 billion, Bloomberg reported Monday (Aug. 26), citing unnamed sources.

The deal would include debt from Apollo and BlackRock to help the new company make acquisitions in the direct-to-consumer eCommerce market, according to the report.

Reached by PYMNTS, BlackRock declined to comment on the report. Neither Apollo Global Management nor Heyday immediately replied to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

Branded was founded in 2020 as a consumer products firm focused on acquiring and scaling Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) companies.

The company said in 2021 that it had “established the structure to thrive in the new retail paradigm, where online convenience and social proof in the form of customer reviews are the ultimate drivers of customer purchase behavior.”

It added that it aimed to capitalize on a consumer shift to online buying, the perceived value of customer ratings and reviews, and the opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to thrive in an increasingly digital environment.

Amazon aggregators are built on the premise of acquiring private-label sellers that have been visible, successful and growing via Amazon, PYMNTS reported in February.

While this was a highly successful business model in the past couple of years, especially during the pandemic, fortunes changed rapidly as the growth of eCommerce hit some headwinds, funding dried up and macro pressures confronted the aggregators.

Amazon aggregator Thrasio Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February.

Another Amazon aggregator, Benitago, filed for bankruptcy in 2023, two years after raising $325 million in funding.

Similar to others in the field, Benitago’s business model involved acquiring small third-party sellers on Amazon’s online marketplace and running them as a group, thereby providing marketing and logistics expertise and benefiting from economies of scale.

However, Benitago faced challenges as consumer preferences shifted during the later stages of the pandemic. The eCommerce sector experienced a decline as lockdowns ended, leading to a rapid reversal of fortune for Benitago, and the shrinking eCommerce market contributed to its financial difficulties.

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