HP Acquisition Exec Jumps Ship To Join Dell Enterprise 'Dream Team'

Tom Joyce, a six-year Hewlett-Packard veteran who was a key member of the company's corporate development acquisition team, is joining Dell's Software Group, sources said.

Joyce, HP's senior vice president of global corporate development, helped drive key acquisitions for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based behemoth, including its $3 billion acquisition of wireless networking superstar Aruba Networks last month. Joyce also played a role in other HP acquisitions including big data encryption security standout Voltage Security and software-defined networking (SDN) innovator ConteXtream.

HP confirmed that Joyce, who also launched HP Ventures, is no longer an HP employee.

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Before joining HP, Joyce was CEO of Akorri, a maker of cross-domain performance management software that was acquired by NetApp.

Solution providers said Joyce's appointment marks yet another key hire in Dell Enterprise Solutions President Marius Haas' all-out talent grab to build a Dell Enterprise "dream team."

"This is Marius adding to his dream team," said Bob Venero, CEO of Holbrook, N.Y.-based solution provider Future Tech, No. 232 on the CRN 2015 Solution Provider 500. "And I'm sure he's not done. There is a lot of enterprise market opportunity for Dell."

In the past two months alone, Dell has brought on board former Cisco Vice President and General Manager of Computing Systems Paul Perez, one of the driving forces behind Cisco's wildly popular Unified Computing System, as chief technology officer of the Dell Enterprise Solutions Group and former AMD CEO Rory Read, a 30-year industry veteran with deep channel expertise, as chief operating officer and president of worldwide commercial sales.

Venero said Dell's moves to bolster its enterprise business will help solution providers grow sales. "All of the Dell enterprise talent brings us more tools to help Future Tech grow its sales and profits in enterprise accounts," he said.

Venero said Joyce's acquisition expertise and knowledge of the industry will be critical in helping Dell grow its software business.

Dell, which went private in 2013 in a $25 billion leveraged buyout, has said its move to become a private company has freed up capital for it to make technology acquisitions and invest more in the channel.

Dell has spent some $20 billion over the past decade on acquisitions, building out its portfolio by purchasing companies like security managed services provider SecureWorks, security software maker SonicWall, systems management software maker Quest Software and Networking equipment maker Force10. Since going private, it has acquired big data analytics company StatSoft.

Among the areas Dell is likely to look at in making additional "strategic" acquisitions are security, networking and software, said Dell Vice President Bryan Jones in a keynote address at CRN parent The Channel Company's 2015 XChange Solution Provider Conference in March.

"In the software market, you will continue to see us aggressively look at acquisitions in all the different markets that we participate in," Jones said. "The software piece is obviously that critical component to tie all these things together into end-to-end solutions."

PUBLISHED JUNE 10, 2015