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03 Sep 2007
Avnet’s recent shopping spree in the UK
is far from over, according to the distribution giant’s chief executive Roy
Vallee.
Speaking exclusively to CRN, Vallee said the firm was still very much on the
look out for the right opportunities in the UK.
“We are looking to acquire more firms in Europe and we are certainly not done in
the UK the market is huge,” he said.
Only weeks ago Avnet acquired the enterprise infrastructure division of
Magirus a move that gave
Avnet distribution rights to HP to sit along side its recently expanded IBM
and Sun teams
(CRN
Online, 19 July).
However, Vallee said the distributor was looking for a specific type of
acquisition.
“There are two types of organisation we are looking for: the first would give us
the opportunity after the acquisition to grow our business at a higher rate
for example we would love to acquire a firm rich in virtualisation and VMware
skills with EMC or one that can bring us customer relationships, talent and
local market knowledge,” he said.
Alastair Edwards, senior analyst at
Canalys,
said: “Avnet missed out to Arrow [in buying] Centia a distributor that
specialises in virtualisation. It appears on the surface that Avnet is following
the infrastructure distribution route getting into the complex solution space
is where margin opportunity is higher. The problem is there are relatively few
distribution firms available for acquisition that would give it the reach and
competence in that space.”
Vallee also told CRN that the distributor will focus more on technologies such
as storage, networking and security. In terms of his vendor wish-list, Valee
said: “We have signed with Avaya in the US and we may bring this to Europe.
Cisco has huge market share, so it would make it an obvious choice. We have been
in dialogue with Cisco for a long period of time and we are looking for the
right circumstances for this to happen.”
Further Reading
Avnet
rejigs strategy to boost vendor focus
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