What were some of last week's big news stories impacting solution providers? Here are five that will interest partners of GTT Communications and Westcon-Comstor, and highlight a look ahead at two mergers. 

$2.3 billion – Value of new business that government solutions provider giant CSRA took in during its 2017 second quarter, more than double its $1 billion target. CEO Larry Prior told Wall Street analysts that the company, which was spun off a year ago from CSC, recorded a 40 percent win rate for new business in the quarter, well above its goal of 25 percent. "We're really hitting our stride as a new company," he said.

$20 million – Two-year cost savings solution provider Insight Enterprises expects after it closes its intended $258 million acquisition of Datalink, one of the channel's largest pure-play data center solution providers. Insight is making the bid to strengthen its data center services offerings around hybrid cloud, converged and hyper-converged infrastructure.

145,000 – Route miles  Windstream  and EarthLink will cover in its combined  footprint after the two telecommunications vendors revealed plans to merge in a $1.1 billion all-stock transaction. The footprint will include strategic routes located across the Southeast and Northeast U.S., the companies said. Both firms are actively working on integration-planning activities for their partner programs, said Windstream Channel Chief Jason Dishon.

More than 600 – Number of VARs in Westcon-Comstor's partner base that network visibility and traffic monitoring technology developer Gigamon will have access to after it and the distributor agreed to add the Gigamon platform to its product line card in North America. The deal will give solution providers an opportunity to boost security sales.

$1 billion – Annual revenue target for cloud networking vendor GTT Communications as it announced plans to buy Hibernia Networks, based in Ireland, for $590 million. GTT wants to have the channel play a bigger role in its future. "We continue to say publicly that we are under-represented in the channel and we'd like to change that," GTT CEO Rick Calder told CRN. "We both have growing channel partner programs, and historically, both companies have taken the direct routes to market."