Distribution Watch: Arrow Electronics, Ingram Micro, Global Convergence

Happy Friday everyone, and welcome to this week’s Distribution Watch. We’ve got the latest updates from our friends at Arrow Electronics (ARW) Ingram Micro (IM) and Global Convergence Inc. (GCI), so sit back and enjoy.

Arrow Electronics: Arrow has signed a definitive agreement to acquire immixGroup, a value-added distributor that specializes in supporting VARs, solution providers and public sector channel partners.

Although a specific price was not announced, Arrow said it expects the acquisition to cost between 10 cents to 14 cents accretive to earnings per share excluding the impact of amortization of related intangible assets in the first year post closing. The acquisition is expected to close at the beginning of Q2 2015.

“immixGroup shares our strategic focus on solution selling into the higher value segments of the data center and will bring us an expanded presence in the public sector market,” said Michael J. Long, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Arrow, in a statement.

Ingram Micro: Ingram Micro appointed Anthony Vottima as executive director and general manager of its Vertical Markets business, as it looks to expand its involvement in several key verticals. The distributor is also expected to launch a new Healthcare community later this year in addition to a series of education tracks and enablement resources to help its channel partners accelerate their time to market.

Ingram will focus its efforts on growing its involvement in the education, federal, finance, healthcare, retail and state and local government markets. Vottima, who previously served as senior vice president of Avnet (AVT), will work to provide Ingram’s channel partners with the education, resources and technology needed to help customer organizations succeed, according to Kirk Robinson, senior vice president of Commercial and Global Markets at Ingram Micro.

"Ingram Micro excels at partner education and business enablement, and differentiates its business through leadership, market expertise and business intelligence," said Robinson. "We are investing in these five areas to generate greater business value and accelerate success for our channel partners and vendors who specialize in these verticals and others who want to build business practices within one or more of these high opportunity markets."

GCI: Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise announced a new partnership with Global Convergence that will provide its enterprise and channel partners with alternative options for deploying advanced communications and networking.

GCI will initially focus on promoting and distributing Alcatel-Lucent’s unified access technology, which consists of converged wired and wireless solutions for BYOD services, according to the announcement.

“Our focus on providing the channel with access to leading-edge technologies from the most innovative vendors in the IT industry is the reason that we chose to work with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise,” said Jim Bradshaw, chairman of the board and CEO of GCI. “Our new relationship will enable our network of partners to fulfill their clients’ growing needs for enterprise mobility, BYOD, and the Next Generation workplace with simplified connectivity and the convenience of seamless network policy management.”

And with that, we bid a fond farewell to another edition of Distribution Watch. Have a great weekend, stay warm, and as always, keep on distributing.