Today we’re getting back to this column’s roots. Appointments, mergers, acquisitions and no other noise.

While we focus on roots, others are concentrating on family trees. Toronto-based VIBRANT Marketing has appointed Charles Brouillet to the office of Vice President. His brother Eric remains in the position of company president.

“We’re happy to have Charles join the company; his expertise is a tremendous asset to our existing client base and through his leadership we will amplify our outsourced sales services along with our brand marketing offerings,” said President Eric Brouillet.

Press release: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/vibrant-marketing-bolsters-senior-leadership-and-expertise-through-appointment-of-new-vp-and-partner-charles-brouillet-885559815.html

IBM is working to acquire Waeg, a Salesforce Consulting Partner in Europe. The deal will extend IBM’s portfolio of Salesforce services and advance the company’s hybrid cloud and AI strategy.

“Salesforce continues to play a critical role in companies’ digital transformations as they adapt to the conditions created by the pandemic. Trust is the new currency of customer and employment engagement, and every touch point is an opportunity to personalize the relationship,” said Mark Foster, Senior VP of IBM Services and Global Business Services. “Waeg’s strength in Salesforce consulting services will be key to creating intelligent workflows that allow our clients to keep pace with changing customer and employee needs and expectations.”

Press release: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/ibm-acquires-waeg-to-deepen-expertise-across-the-salesforce-platform-in-europe-885613421.html

There is a lot to learn about telecom’s involvement in content from the AT&T deal to merge WarnerMedia, its content unit, with Discovery.

According to Aija Leiponen, professor at the SC Johnson College of Business and an expert in telecom industries, the merger confirms that telecom ownership of content businesses is not a value added structure.  

“This proposed deal to join AT&T’s and Discovery’s media and entertainment businesses is more validation that there are limited or no synergies between wireless networks and media,” said Leiponen. “In the past few years, telecom network operators have been acquiring media assets based on an argument that by owning the content, they can better ‘innovate’ new types of media services for 5G and other evolving communication networks. However, this was doubtful to begin with, as there was nothing specific in the acquisition plans that suggested co-ownership would solve some fundamental contracting problems between telecom network and media companies. Now it is becoming clear that whatever innovation has been pursued, customers haven’t much appreciated it – or there hasn’t been any meaningful innovation.”

Press release: https://www.newswise.com/articles/with-warnermedia-deal-att-abandons-losing-strategy

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Kate Baggott is a former 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. Find links to recent articles by following her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-baggott-9a0306/