AppDirect-TBI

AppDirect executives say their purchase of technology services distributor TBI creates the largest ecosystem in the tech advisor channel.

The deal unites one of the channel’s longest running tech services distributors (TSDs) in 32-year-old TBI with CDPQ-backed AppDirect, which has acquired a handful of tech services distributors (TSDs) over the last four years. The deal also represents another domino falling in the field of national TSDs, after PlanetOne and TCG agreed to deals last year. AppDirect beat out a competitive field of suitors, including multiple national TSDs and one IT distributor, to purchase TBI. (Learn more here.)

For TBI owner Geoffrey Shepstone and many members of his senior leadership team, the acquisition meant a large — though lower than expected — payout and a job at AppDirect going forward. But for the dozens of TBI employees laid off prior to the acquisition, their exit reportedly came as a shock.

Channel Futures reported that at least 58 people had been laid off in two separate workforce reductions prior to the closing of the deal. Other estimates in the past week have put that number even higher. TBI last year disclosed to the Chicago Tribune that it employed 230 U.S. workers. AppDirect did not provide an official number of people who joined AppDirect from the TBI side, but sources indicate it is closer to 150. Sources have clarified that a sizable portion of employees left TBI of their own accord in the last year. (Read more from our ongoing coverage here.) 

For Mark Venuto, chief operating officer at AppDirect partner US Network, it’s business as usual. The additive area, Venuto noted, is in TBI’s telecom processes, particularly with some of the larger service providers. But otherwise, he doesn’t see any disruption.

“The resources that I currently work with today will remain intact for us,” Venuto told Channel Futures. “I’ll see no change in resources from AppDirect. And if anything else, additional resources will help facilitate our sales volume and help increase our close ratio.” (Learn what partners had to say about the acquisition.