Datrontech socks it to Ideal Hardware

A war of words has broken out after vendor AMI bypassed Ideal Hardware in favour of a distribution deal with Datrontech.

A war of words has broken out after vendor American Megatrends International (AMI) bypassed Ideal Hardware in favour of a distribution deal with Datrontech.

Linda Ng, marketing director at AMI, is known to have had a number of meetings with Ideal as the component manufacturer sought a supplier for its range of high-end server products.

However, last week sources close to the deal revealed AMI would be using Datrontech to supply system builders and resellers with Raid and Microsoft NT clustering solutions, chassis and motherboards.

The official line from AMI is that Datrontech was chosen for its reseller list of system builders. But Ng told Computer Reseller News that Ideal was passed over because doubts remained about the stability of the company.

"Everything is up in the air with Ideal at the moment. The acquisition of Bell Micro is not sufficient for inspiring great confidence in that company," she said.

But the allegations were angrily refuted by Ian French, chief executive of Ideal. "We are very close to finalising our merger with Bell Micro.

"To put it in the simplest terms so that some people might understand, Ideal has exchanged contracts but we have not quite completed them yet," he said.

French claimed that officially, Ideal would be the European end of the US company and the distributor will continue to operate under the name Ideal.

French said "mischievous allegations" about Ideal were self-defeating.

"You would have to question the knowledge of channel politics of anyone who rejects us in favour of Datrontech. [Datrontech] continues to lose money and it changes personnel as often as I change my socks."

A spokesman for Datrontech hit back: "If that's the case, I'd hate to be one of his socks. We keep our staff a long time."