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Cinven's Acquisition of Salsify: A Bet on a Retail Network Marketed as a Bet on Bots

Heather Hershey — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Desktop as a Service 2026 Vendor Assessment

Shannon Kalvar, Filippo Vanara — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study presents a vendor assessment for the worldwide desktop-as-a-service market. The DaaS providers identified were evaluated using the IDC MarketScape model, and the process included information collected from the market and the providers themselves. Providers were measured in terms of their current capabilities and future strategies for delivering services to customers globally.

"The mainstreaming of DaaS marks a fundamental shift in how the enterprise views client computing. By stripping away the legacy infrastructure complexities that historically bottlenecked virtual desktop deployments, DaaS has evolved from a tactical disaster recovery tool into a core strategic asset. In a highly distributed business environment, the capability to provision secure, stateless, and fully compliant digital workspaces in minutes across global availability zones is no longer a luxury — it is an absolute prerequisite for operational resilience and talent agility," said Filippo Vanara, research manager, Worldwide Enterprise Client Computing Platforms at IDC.

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Virtual Client Computing 2026 Vendor Assessment

Shannon Kalvar, Filippo Vanara — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study presents a vendor assessment for the worldwide virtual client computing market. The VCC providers identified were evaluated using the IDC MarketScape model, and the process included information collected from the market and the providers themselves. Providers were measured in terms of their current capabilities and future strategies for delivering services to customers globally.

"VCC has matured from a localized hardware containment strategy into the definitive control plane for the modern digital workspace. By decoupling the operating system and enterprise data entirely from physical silicon, VCC provides global organizations with the ultimate architectural flexibility to handle volatile security landscapes and rapid AI deployment. In the current enterprise environment, treating endpoints as persistent corporate data stores is a severe operational risk; VCC neutralizes this liability, turning the distributed edge into a secure, predictable, and entirely stateless extension of the enterprise cloud," said Filippo Vanara, research manager, Worldwide enterprise client computing platforms at IDC.

Verizon 2Q26 Earnings: Strong Subscriber Growth, Broadband Momentum and Lower Churn Drive Improved Outlook

Jitesh Bhayani — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Verizon announced its 2Q26 financial results on July 24, 2026, reporting total operating revenue of $34.3 billion, a 0.7% year-over-year decline. The decline was driven entirely by lower equipment revenue, which fell nearly 20% year over year, reflecting longer device replacement cycles and Verizon's reduced reliance on subsidy-driven customer acquisition. In contrast, mobility and broadband service revenue increased 2.8% to approximately $23.4 billion, while total service revenue and other revenue grew 3.5% to $29.2 billion. The continued shift toward service-led growth and lower equipment dependence reflects Verizon's strategy to improve customer economics and reduce reliance on promotional activity. Supported by strong operational execution and improving customer trends, the company raised its full-year 2026 guidance for the second consecutive quarter.

For 2Q26, Verizon reported adjusted EPS of $1.30, up 6.6% from $1.22 a year earlier. Reported EPS declined to $0.92 and net income fell 22.9% to $3.9 billion, primarily due to approximately $1.8 billion in pre-tax special items, including charges related to the planned divestiture of its international wireline connectivity and managed network services business, asset rationalization initiatives, and workforce restructuring. Excluding these items, underlying performance remained strong, with adjusted EBITDA increasing 7.2% to a record $13.7 billion and adjusted EBITDA margin expanding to a record 40.1%. IDC views the divergence between reported and adjusted results as a reflection of strategic portfolio optimization rather than any weakening in core operating performance.

Cash generation remained strong in 2Q26, with cash flow from operations increasing 16.3% YoY to $10.4 billion and free cash flow rising 24.4% to $6.4 billion. First-half cash flow from operations reached $18.4 billion, up 9.9%, while free cash flow increased 16.0% to $10.2 billion. The stronger cash flow profile supported continued network investment, ongoing debt reduction, and shareholder returns. Verizon also expanded its full-year share repurchase target to up to $4.5 billion, reflecting confidence in the sustainability of its cash generation.

Reflecting strong first-half execution and improving operating trends, Verizon raised its full-year 2026 guidance for a second consecutive quarter. The company now expects mobility and broadband service revenue growth of 2.5%–3.0%, with growth accelerating through the second half of the year. Adjusted EPS guidance was increased to $4.99–$5.04, up from $4.95–$4.99 in 1Q26. Verizon also raised its outlook for cash flow from operations and free cash flow while reaffirming capital spending of $16.0–$16.5 billion. Operationally, the company continues to expect retail postpaid phone net additions in the upper half of its 750,000–1.0 million range, reinforcing management's confidence in sustained subscriber and service-revenue momentum.

From Assisted to Autonomous: Blue Yonder Bets Retail on the Cognitive Operating Model at ICON 2026

Ananda Chakravarty — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective discusses Blue Yonder’s ICON 2026, held in San Diego (May 17–20). The event marked the third act of a three-year arc. The company now makes every deployment agentic from day one. The deeper message is that Cognitive is an operating model change, not a software upgrade. For retailers, it lands squarely on availability, full-price sell-through, merchandising, and omni-channel fulfillment. IDC organizes the week into four themes that mirror the decisions leaders now face. This document also examines the gamble Blue Yonder is making, why it framed the move as an operating model change rather than a software upgrade, and what it means for retail leaders.

“ICON 2026 made the strategy unmistakable. Blue Yonder is betting the company on Cognitive and treating it as an operating model change rather than a software upgrade. For retailers, this bet aligns across availability, sell-through, and the shelf. But the customers onstage were refreshingly blunt — the real work is not the tech but redesigning the roles and fixing the data to make agentic work,” says Ananda “Andy” Chakravarty, VP research, IDC Retail Insights.

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide AI-Enabled Financial Governance, Risk, and Compliance 2026 Vendor Assessment

Heather Herbst — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study evaluates 11 leading vendors in the worldwide AI-enabled financial governance, risk, and compliance (FGRC) market for 2026, focusing on solutions relevant to the Office of the CFO. The assessment highlights the shift of FGRC from a compliance cost to a strategic capability, emphasizing platform breadth, automation maturity, and AI integration. It provides comparative insights into vendor strengths, challenges, and strategic fit, guiding CFOs in selecting platforms that align with evolving regulatory, risk, and business continuity needs.

"Financial governance, risk, and compliance has shifted from cost center to strategic advantage. CFOs who master FGRC technology will define the future of resilient finance." — Heather Herbst, research director, CFO Buyer Insights

IDC MaturityScape Benchmark: AI-Fueled Organization in APAC, 2026

Xiao Liu — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

AI has moved from the periphery of the technology agenda to the center of enterprise strategy, yet scaling AI remains challenging. Many organizations continue to struggle to translate investments into measurable business value, and the rapid rise of agentic AI is adding a new layer of complexity to deployments. The AI-fueled organization is one in which strategy, governance, people, and technology are orchestrated so that intelligence is embedded across the operating model rather than confined to isolated pilots, supporting the full spectrum of AI technologies, including descriptive, interpretive, predictive, generative, agentic, and physical AI.

This IDC study presents the Asia/Pacific results from IDC’s MaturityScape Benchmark AI Survey, released in May 2026 across 1,900 organizations worldwide, of which 790 are based in Asia/Pacific. It is the updated edition of IDC MaturityScape Benchmark: AI-Fueled Organization Worldwide, 2025 (IDC #US53271725, March 2025) and applies the framework set out in the 2026 definition report IDC MaturityScape: AI-Fueled Organization 2.0 (IDC #US54450625, April 2026). The most significant change this year is the elevation of governance to a distinct fourth dimension alongside strategy, people, and technology, recognizing that trust, risk management, and responsible AI practices have become prerequisites for scaling AI. The benchmark assesses enterprise maturity across five stages and four dimensions, intended to guide line-of-business leaders, C-suite executives, and the IT and data organizations that enable the AI agenda, helping them understand where they stand relative to peers and prioritize moves that accelerate progress the most. Key findings in this benchmark study are:

Only 2.5% of organizations in Asia/Pacific have reached the most mature optimized stage, and just 9.3% have progressed to the two most advanced stages (managed or optimized), both below the worldwide averages of 3.1% and 12.8%, respectively. Becoming an AI-fueled organization is achievable, but in Asia/Pacific, it remains a sustained journey rather than the product of a single deployment.
Two-thirds of organizations in Asia/Pacific (65.9%) remain in the two least mature stages (i.e., ad hoc and opportunistic), which is a heavier concentration than the worldwide figure of 61.3%, underscoring how much foundational work in strategy, governance, and data still lies ahead before AI can deliver enterprisewide value across the region.
Asia/Pacific’s mean maturity score rose only modestly to 2.35 in 2026 from 2.29 in 2025, which trails the worldwide mean of 2.43. The near-flat result suggests that while the AI market is evolving at extraordinary speed, execution in the region is not keeping pace. The broad middle remains stuck in the early stages even as expectations, tooling, and competitive pressure escalate. The bright spot is at the top, where the share of organizations reaching the optimized stage climbed from 0.2% to 2.5%, which evidence that a small leading cohort in Asia/Pacific is beginning to separate from the pack even as the broad middle advances slowly.

IDC’s Worldwide Digital Transformation Use Case Taxonomy, 2026: Water Industry

Roberta Bigliani, Gaia Gallotti, Jean-François Segalotto, John Villali — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation provides a structured framework for mapping the strategic technology transformation underway across the water industry. It organizes the full landscape of digital and operational capabilities into a three-tier hierarchy (9 strategic priorities, 59 programs, and approximately 256 use cases) that spans the entire water value chain, from water abstraction and treatment to network distribution, wastewater and stormwater management, and customer engagement.

Each use case is assigned to one of three investment horizons based on current industry adoption rates from IDC’s Energy and Utilities Survey (March 2026). Horizon 1 covers mature, mainstream capabilities, with over 50% of utilities already investing; Horizon 2 captures emerging capabilities, with adoption scaling to 20–50%; and Horizon 3 identifies early-stage, exploratory areas, with adoption below 20%.

The goal is to provide water utility executives, technology leaders, and their vendor and advisory partners with a comprehensive, evidence-based map that answers three questions at once: what capabilities the industry must master to navigate water industry transformation, how those capabilities organize into coherent investment domains, and where each falls on the maturity curve. This enables capital, talent, and technology decisions to be prioritized against a shared industry benchmark and ad hoc internal assessments to be deployed more effectively.

Agentic Orchestration Becomes the Operating Model of Advertising in 2026

Alex Holtz — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective examines how agentic AI orchestration platforms (Publicis Groupe's CoreAI, Omnicom's Flywheel + Annalect AI, and WPP Media Open Intelligence) are turning closed-loop advertising into a business cycle flywheel for the 2026–2030 window. It quantifies the device foundation (mobile + CTV) and channel overlays (social and retail media networks) against the worldwide 2025–2030 forecast, maps the ecosystem partners that close the loop (Amazon, Walmart Connect, TTD, LiveRamp, Vizio, Samsung, YouTube/Google TV), and frames three reusable archetype activation stacks (archetype 1, Amazon + Roku, championed by Omnicom; archetype 2, Walmart–Vizio, championed by Publicis Groupe, and archetype 3, walled garden + clean room, championed by WPP Media) that buyers can use to choose a primary closed-loop architecture and the agency of record that follows from it. This document also flags the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) and live event streaming measurement gap, assesses the impact of the 2025 Omnicom–IPG combination on holding company concentration, and May 2026 Publicis Groupe–LiveRamp announcement on the identity layer. It also introduces the independent advisor layer: management consulting practices outside the holding companies that help buyers build and run commerce media businesses on their own terms, with McKinsey & Company's commerce media practice as the neutral advisor case in point and Accenture Song as the hybrid advisory and execution alternative.

"The closed loop is no longer a thesis; it is the operating model. Picking a primary archetype, such as Amazon + Roku, Walmart–Vizio, or walled garden + clean room, is now the same decision as picking an agency of record. Advertisers that make the pick deliberately will pull further ahead of those who run all three in parallel every quarter the flywheel turns," says Alex Holtz, research director on worldwide media and entertainment digital strategies, IDC.

Alphabet 2Q26 Results: AI Investments Drive Commercial Returns

Matthew Eastwood, Dave McCarthy — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Alphabet reported 2Q26 earnings on July 22, delivering another strong quarter as the company's multiyear AI investments increasingly translated into accelerating commercial momentum. Revenue grew 24% year over year to $119.8 billion, marking Alphabet's 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, while operating income increased 30% to $40.8 billion with operating margin remaining a robust 34.0%. Net income increased significantly, driven primarily by $98 billion in unrealized gains on equity securities.