M&A, Strategies, Alliances Libelium’s Cooking-Hacks education-focused brand has kicked off its IoT Spartans challenge. Orbcomm has launched its CargoWatch Secure platform, for real-time tracking and monitoring shipping from origin to destination. The IIC might be aligning its Industrial Internet Reference Architecture with Platform Industrie 4.0’s own industrial-focused standards architecture. The ZigBee Alliance has passed the 1,500 products certified threshold, from over 200 manufacturers. The COM group has formed to create an open standard for sensor interfaces based on the M.2 (NGFF) form factor, with the end goal of creating adapters that bring processing and wireless links to sensor boards incorporating the M.2 port. Initial members include Advantech, ARM, Bosch, Sensortec, Sensirion, and Texas Instruments. Software Red Hat and Eurotech are…