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05 Feb 2007
The soap opera surrounding the sale of security distributor Noxs has taken another dramatic twist, with speculation mounting that former front-runner, Arrow-owned DNS, has pulled out of the race.
That would leave late entrant Westcon as the strong favourite to land the pan-European distributor, which was put up for sale by Dutch parent Unit 4 Agresso in October (CRN, 23 October).
However, there are signs that Noxs is in danger of losing some of its biggest vendor contracts as the sale process drags on into its fifth month.
Tony Larks, northern European marketing manager at vendor Trend Micro, said: “We have a strong relationship with Noxs in the Benelux, but are reviewing our contract with it in France, which runs until March.” CRN understands the contract could be worth as much as a quarter of Noxs’ French business.
Frank Coggrave, regional director for the UK and Ireland at security vendor Websense, said: “Noxs is delaying important decisions until after it is acquired. The longer this goes on, the less valuable a proposition Noxs becomes.
“No one can understand why DNS seems to have pulled out. The two firms were such a good geographical fit.”
Ingram Micro is rumoured to have shown interest in Noxs – although the firm declined to comment on the situation – and Westcon is widely thought to be sitting firmly in the box-seat.
But a source close to Westcon, which is backed by acquisitive South Africa-listed parent Datatec, played down speculation that it is close to striking a deal.
“Westcon did look at this business in the Autumn, but there were a number of outstanding issues,” the source said. “A deal is nowhere near imminent, if it’s happening at all.”
Edwin Van Leeuwen, Unit 4’s chief financial officer, said: “I can confirm that we are in talks with two companies. We have completed due diligence and it won’t be very long before we make an announcement.”
DNS declined to comment.
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