The business news writing lexicon has changed during the pandemic. Disruptions have been replaced by “strategic pivots.” The term “industry consolidation” no longer seems as apt as “aggressive expansion” or the even more popular descriptor “unprecedented diversification.” Like all reporting, the B2B News is fact-based and, in this column, deals only with actual events. Events that prove the vocabulary had to evolve for this moment.

For anyone who has ever lived down wind from a steel mill, the word “sustainable is not one that comes immediately to mind, especially with everyone talking – wishfully or negatively—about a green new deal.

Except, US Steel just acquired Big River Steel. The Arkansas-based “mini-mill” is the only LEED-certified steel mill.

“Taking a page from the Big River Steel playbook, we are closing on this world competitive green steel asset purchase under budget and ahead of schedule,” said David Burritt, U. S. Steel President and CEO. “Our customers now have access to a truly sustainable source of the most advanced high strength steels.”

The deal is worth $774 million US.

Press release: https://www.ussteel.com/best-of-both-BRS

Fractal’s aggressive expansion of its artificial intelligence and advanced analytics solutions continues. The company announced its acquisition of Zerogons, a provider of cloud-based AI open source frameworks that support model versioning, tuning & scoring in the engineering fields. No purchase price was stated.

In the last quarter of 2020, Fractal raised capital to spin off its subsidiaries Theremin.ai, an algorithm-based investment app, and Qure.ai, a diagnostics assistant for radiologists. The company is expected to spin off two more subsidiaries in the near future.

Press release: https://fractal.ai/news/fractal-strengthens-its-cloud-ai-business-acquires-enterprise-ai-provider-zerogons/

Deals around B2B Supply Chain services can no longer be described as mere “industry consolidation” either. The German-American brand NTT DATA expanded its US holdings by acquiring of the SAP consulting company My Supply Chain Group (MSCG). MSCG’s areas of expertise is in supply chain process re-engineering and the application implementation services using SAP Extended Warehouse Management, Integrated Business Planning/Advanced Planning and Optimization, and Transportation Management.

Press release: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/ntt-data-is-significantly-expanding-its-presence-in-the-us-market-890519900.html

As the big are getting bigger, there was some slowing down of the huge becoming enormous. Things are now accelerating in the on-off romance between Cisco and Acacia. The pair first announced their intentions in July 2020.  The amended terms of the merger will now see Cisco acquire Acacia for $115 US per share, up from $70. The new deal is worth $4.5 billion US.  The acquisition is expected to complete by the end of the first quarter of 2021, pending Acacia stockholders’ blessing.

Press release: https://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=2137402

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Kate Baggott is the Managing Editor of B2BNN. Her technology and business journalism has appeared in the Technology Review, the Globe and Mail, Canada Computes, the Vancouver Sun and the Bay Street Bull. She is the author of the short story collections Love from Planet Wine Cooler and Dry Stories. Links to recently published pieces can be found at www.katebaggott.com