IBM woos disties in European bid

The IBM RS/6000 group is courting major European distributors with a view to signing more pan-European distribution agreements. The Unix vendor signed Ingram Micro as a pan-European distributor of RS/6000 hardware in December and is now in talks with C2000.

The addition of Ingram Micro to the RS/6000 channel caused little initial concern among the existing distributors, Sphinx CST and Bytech. The move towards using major distributors to cover wider geographies will leave some feeling left out in the cold.

Ken Moss, Bytech MD, said: ?Pan-European agreements can mean that some companies will have an immediate advantage and that is bound to cause concern. I think the market can cope well with three distributors but any more than that would begin to erode margins.?

IBM RS/6000 sales manager, Diane Oubridge, defended Big Blue?s position: ?Those resel- lers working on a pan-Euro-pean basis will prefer to work with distributors that are organised along the same lines. We?re looking to find new reseller partners, not have them move from one distributor to another.? IBM has said it will be in talks with a number of European distributors.