CA's Cheyenne buy fuels fears

Uncertainty reigns in Cheyennne's channel following the $1.2 billion acquisition of the vendor by software firm Computer Associates (CA) last week.

Fears of a purge were raised because CA already uses Ingram Micro and P&P distribution arm PSL. Any convergence will further crowd Cheyenne's channel, which sources say is already over-distributed. The storage management vendor has six existing partners.

A channel source confirmed that Cheyenne partners and employees were feeling nervous. 'We don't know a damn thing. There is a lot of concern because there are two hierarchical structures and two separate channels.

'Cheyenne was looking to shrink its UK distribution channel before this purchase even happened, so if they do merge channels they may just use their two distributors plus one other,' he said.

Jay Huff, CA's UK marketing director, said it was 'too early to say' what would happen. 'Discussions are happening as we speak to see how we can make best use of Cheyenne's channel. We don't intend to disturb it,' he said.

Charles Wang, CA CEO, denied there would be any job cuts. He said that Cheyenne's products would go well with CA's enterprise management range, Unicenter.