Sphinx quashes sale rumours

The distributor denies rumours that it is up for sale

Mark Hatton: Claims that selling up is not even 'on the horizon'.

Security distributor Sphinx has quashed channel speculation that it is up for sale and instead unveiled plans to aggressively grow the business independently over the next two years.

Chief executive Mark Hatton confirmed that selling the business “is not even on the horizon”, despite rumours that Sphinx has been in talks with larger distributors including networking specialist Westcon.

“I can state categorically that we have never had a conversation with Westcon. We are not doing anything with our business other than growing it. We are putting a lot of investment into our vendors such as Secure Computing, Alcatel Lucent and Juniper,” he said.

“Our business is growing 25 per cent this year and we expect to grow 25 per cent next year.”
A source close to Westcon said that a UK acquisition is unlikely because the distributor has its hands full with the integration of recent purchases and is not interested in UK-only players.

Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of rival security distributor Wick Hill, said: “Security distribution is an incredibly buoyant sector and lots of larger players want to get into it, so there are always going to be rumours floating around.”