Top 5 stories: Week of Aug. 3-7

Here’s a look at the most popular stories on IWCE’s Urgent Communications from last week:

1.  “Black & Veatch buys assets of RCC Consultants assets for 3.1 million” – Black & Veatch purchased a majority of RCC Consultants assets for $3.1 million—$1 million more than the expected collectible accounts payable. The deal, approved by a New Jersey bankruptcy court, allows the public-safety communications consulting company to purchase the assets “free and clear of claims”. Black & Veatch plans to expand its client relationships and bring specific industry expertise through the contracts list of RCC, a telecommunications consultant company. 
2.  “Arizona FirstNet terminates deals with multiple contractors” – All contractors for Arizona FirstNet received word that their contracts were being terminated as a “cost-cutting” measure, a key contractor told IWCE’s Urgent Communications. Throughout Arizona state government, officials have searched for cost-savings to aid in the budget shortfalls. Those efforts have helped the state realize a $266 million surplus.
3. “Motorola Solutions announces $1 billion investment from Silver Lake private-equity firm”– Silver Lake—a private-equity firm focused on the technology sector—will make a $1 billion investment into Motorola Solutions. Motorola Solutions plans to use the investment to help realize its strategic focus on smart public-safety solutions and services, said Motorola Solutions Chariman and CEO Greg Brown. Silver Lake Managing Partners Egon Durban and Greg Mondre shared their optimism on the new partnership with Motorola Solutions. 
4. “FirstNet fills key technical jobs, posts additional positions” – FirstNet recently filled key roles for leading the cybersecurity strategy and monitoring the development of public-safety LTE standards. One such appointment is that of Dean Prochaska, who was just hired to head the standards efforts for the organization. FirstNet will be accepting applications for the role of supervisory electrical engineer-director of core network until Aug. 18.
5.  “Newscan: Fiat Chrysler kept hack risk from regulators for 18 months” – Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV waited 18 months to reveal to federal safety regulators that there was a security flaw in radios being installed into more than a million vehicles, which hackers took advantage of in July to seize control of a Jeep. The hackers divulged the details of how they took control of the Jeep at a Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas. Documents Fiat Chrysler filed with NHTSA note that the company didn’t consider the software issue—identified by a third party in January 2014—to be a safety defect under U.S. law.