Fewer Choices

Matthew Kanaskie is vice president of solutions for Marco Technologies. The Minnesota-based company is an agent partner for both companies as well as a managed print and IT services supplier for both. 

Kanaskie said AppDirect’s acquisition of TBI affects Marco in a similar way to the Synnex-Tech Data and ScanSource-Intelisys deals. In both instances, Marco was partnering with both companies separately, having chosen to diversify itself.

“There is a clear undertone here. Be more diversified than you think you may need to be with your partnerships – it is fairly easy to become a partner in the TSD space and may be worth having multiple options,” Kanaskie told Channel Futures.

But Kanaskie said supplier partners and selling partners need to look at these relationships with a long-term vision that includes even more M&A. On one hand, the outpouring of private equity investment into the channel is causing partners to put their eggs in more baskets. He said the average agent of the old era tended to focus on a single TSD while transacting with a backup option, Marco had been working with more than four.

But for Kanaskie, it seems likely that that the egg baskets will ultimately come together over time.

“Inevitably they will merge, acquire and become one larger combined entity someday. I work with the assumption that no company will be what or who they are today three years from now (meaning pure organic growth versus investment growth),” he said.