Memo From Michael Dell to Greg Davis: Another Acquisition

For Dell Channel Chief Greg Davis, each day is turning into M&A Groundhog Day. And that’s not a bad thing. Over the past year or so, Davis has been asked to ensure a range of acquisitions — Compellent, Kace, Force 10 Networks, etc. —  succeed in the IT channel. But instead of slowing down, Dell’s merger and acquisition activity is accelerating.

In recent weeks, Dell has snapped up SonicWall (firewalls), Wyse Technology (thin clients) and now Clerity (mainframe to x86 application migrations). Each time a new deal pops up, Davis needs to get on the phone and assure the media — and partners — that an acquired company will ultimately help Dell’s channel strategy. The result?

Davis is getting pretty darn good at M&A briefings. In fact, Davis often knows about Dell’s M&A deals shortly before they are announced. The early heads up allows Davis to sort through an acquisition target’s existing partner program and partner strategy. Then, Davis can decide how to best map that acquired company’s partner program to the Dell PartnerDirect channel program.

Admittedly, some early Dell acquisitions weren’t all that channel friendly. Dell’s buyout of Silverback Technologies around the 2006 timeframe could have helped MSPs with remote monitoring and managed services. But under Dell’s ownership, Silverback’s technology never really became a huge hit with MSPs.

Getting Smarter

In stark contrast, Dell has done a strong job managing Compellent and EqualLogic partner expectations during those recent buyouts. And Davis has spent recent weeks assuring SonicWall channel partners that Dell won’t mess up the SonicWall partner program.

So what about the most recent buyout — Clerity? At first glance, Clerity will help Dell’s own services organization to migrate customers from mainframe applications to Windows and Linux applications. But take a closer look, folks. Some large VARs have made a living helping customers jump from mainframes to x86 server applications. Surely, those folks might learn a thing or two from Clerity.

New Day, Same Challenge?

And as for Davis, what does tomorrow hold? More of the same, The VAR Guy suspects. More Dell acquisitions, and more communications with channel partners who want assurances that Dell won’t harm any partner programs along the way.

Good morning, Mr. Davis. It’s Michael Dell on the line. We’ve made another acquisition. It is, indeed, Groundhog Day.