Security VAR Tolerant Systems has severed its ties as a Network Associates (NAI) Elite partner and switched allegiance to Computer Associates (CA).
The VAR, which has been named NAI's European McAfee reseller of the year for the past two years, last week signed a two-year agreement to become CA's Master Reseller for its eTrust anti-virus portfolio.
Under the new deal, existing CA anti-virus resellers selling 100-plus licences will have to buy through Tolerant, which will deal directly with CA, but those selling 99 licences and below will continue to use CA's regular channel.
"This won't diminish the value of our distribution channel," said Chris Devlin, European general manager indirect at CA. "We have a very big channel, of which anti-virus is only a part."
Devlin said the appointment of Tolerant was a mutual decision that would help CA increase its market share in the anti-virus sector.
Nick Tunstall, managing director of Tolerant, said: "We have formerly resigned as a Network Associates Elite partner and chosen to partner with CA, because it has an aggressive pricing strategy and offers low cost of ownership.
"It is not what Network Associates has done wrong, it is more what CA is doing right."
Sarah Whipp, director of marketing at NAI, said: "Every partner has the opportunity to go with whichever vendor they choose to serve their customers best.
"We have made a lot of acquisitions and given our partners the chance to expand their skill sets. Some choose to expand their ability to go to market, and some don't."
Separately, NAI has revealed that Computacenter is due to sign as an Elite partner in the next few days.
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