Intelligent Electronics XLs itself as department sales aid profitability

US indirect channel organisation Intelligent Electronics has sold its direct corporate sales arm to GE Capital for the sum of $136 million, just two days after selling its distribution business to Ingram Micro for $78 million.

GE Capital has been looking at numerous Var business takeovers in recent months as it tries to boost its corporate market share worldwide. In the UK, the company recently acquired Brighton-based Systems International.

As a result of the sale, Intelligent Electronics will now focus on supplying sales organisation XL Source and services business XL Connect Solutions, said Dick Sanford, chairman and CEO, as the company leaves the wholesale and Var markets to its former competitors.

?Our efforts are intended to return the company to profitability,? Sanford said. Intelligent Electronics made sales totalling $3.6 billion and lost $98 million in its financial year to 30 January.

In an unrelated move, GE Capital parent General Electric said it will shift all of its corporate sales online within two years in a bid to minimise costs and speed procurement. General Electric?s 12 divisions sell products worth around $1 billion every year.