Brightstar Corp. will be sold to a unit of Brightstar Capital Partners, a private equity firm, for an undisclosed amount, with owner SoftBank retaining a minority stake. Brightstar Capital Partners was started by former Brightstar Corp. Chief Operating Officer Andrew Weinberg.

Tech Data is helping its female employees who are juggling work and increased family responsibilities due to the coronavirus pandemic by providing more flexibility regarding remote work and scheduling, says Ashley Brown, vice president of portfolio management and IT governance. "It's critical we set this tone from the top," she says.

A pilot program by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will examine whether adults under 21 can safety operate commercial heavy-duty trucks in interstate commerce. Program participants will have to log 120 hours on the road and cannot carry passengers.

Voice phishing is being used to access virtual private networks, according to a federal advisory. The scheme involves several steps, starting with scraping publicly available data on an employee and then posing as an IT employee and encouraging the employee to log into a fake virtual private network page.

Just over 53% of business-to-business buyers are annoyed by too many irrelevant ads and emails from vendors, and 36% are frustrated by not receiving answers to simple questions, per Drift and Heinz Marketing. The study also found 30% of B2B buyers say vendors aren't responsive over social or email.

Chatbots are the fastest-growing conversational tool among business-to-business marketers with a 92% year-over-year increase followed by live chat (35%) and social media interactions (31%), reports Drift and Heinz Marketing. Drift Chief Marketing Officer Tricia Gellman attributes the rise in chatbot usage to the decrease of in-person business dealings, a better grasp of the value of combining human and artificial intelligence capabilities and natural language processing advancements.

Employers could face a legal quandary if -- as a COVID-19 vaccine is released -- they attempt to mandate vaccines, since 35% of Americans say they would refuse to get an FDA-approved, free shot, according to a Gallup poll. Lieser Skaff Alexander attorney Alissa Kranz says HR's path is as "clear as mud" and warns of state-specific termination laws and the potential for workers' compensation claims if they have a bad reaction to a vaccine.

When giving a speech about yourself, talk about your early years, mistakes you made, the hard work it took to succeed and the people who helped you overcome adversity, writes Jim Anderson. Your audience will "understand why you made your decisions and they will want to hear more of your story," he writes.

Register now for NAW's Sept. 24 live webinar, "How Distributor Customers Will Use Technologies From Their Suppliers and Who Is Winning." Leading technology companies are offering customers new ways of ordering. Retailers and distributors are using AI-enabled business intelligence to understand customer needs better and are applying autonomous vehicles, including drones, for deliveries. Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein will delve into how important all of this is to distributor customers and whether distributors need to build technological capabilities to remain competitive.

According to analytics and technology expert Brent Johnstone, "If your company hasn't adopted best practices before going into a crisis, it will show in your performance. Doing an assessment now, mid-crisis, is one of the most valuable things you can do to shore up core capabilities for the 'new normal'. We've identified key questions for each of the 7 Ss identified in 'Optimizing Distributor Profitability: Best Practices to a Stronger Bottom Line' to assess your performance through the pandemic and pave your way forward." Read his post.

Designed for C-suite executives, these virtual roundtables provide actionable strategies that will help put your COVID-19 recovery plan in place! Companies belonging to this community are from distribution firms between $100 million and up to a billion in annual sales. You'll engage in robust conversations with your peers and hear from industry experts on topics to help your business transition to the new normal -- all in the comfort of your own office/home! Register today.