Authors: Bruce Guptill, Charlie Burns, Mike West

Earlier this week, several trade media outlets reported that Dell was in talks to acquire one of its core software partners, Quest Software. Quest offers solutions designed to “simplify the management of IT across physical, virtual and cloud environments,” according to its website. Regardless of whether or not the acquisition occurs, Saugatuck sees this type of activity as another indicator of two key trends:

• Enterprise IT leaders and organizations are looking to traditional, IT Master Brands (“comfort vendors,” as we call them) for ways to manage increasingly-uncertain IT architectures and environments; and
• Traditional IT Master Brands are shifting their M&A activity to not only maintain their enterprise presence, but to establish or enhance credibility in a shifting, “boundary-free” IT and business environment.

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