D-Link ends long affair with DMST

A Dear John letter has ended relations between D-Link and the distributor

Networking vendor D-Link has sparked off a chain reaction affecting other companies in the channel by summarily dismissing distributor DMST. D-Link general manager Mike Gill said DMST ?could expect a letter in the post to arrive? giving it the bad news, after what he claimed were disappointing product sales. ?Although we?ve had a long relationship with DMST, we?ve given them 60 days? notice that we?ll stop trading with them,? he said. ?It?s a bit like two lovers when one falls out of love with the other. I can?t give you any logical reason why it?s happened. They have targets and they haven?t met them. ?We?ve grabbed Logitek from Allied Telesyn and they have switched to us. Allied is the enemy, so it?s in my interest to get market share. We?ve fallen out of love with DMST.? Pat Harvey, managing director of DMST, said that so far his company had not received D-Link?s letter. ?We?ve been aware relations have been stretched for a while. One of the issues we have is we?ve had no support from D-Link or any visit from them since July. ?We?re very disappointed: this is a silly way of doing it. There?s no animosity on our part.? But the spat between D-Link and DMST, coupled with the appointment of Logitek as a replacement, will upset wide-ranging plans Allied Telesyn has to introduce a revamped channel strategy in the first week of February. An Allied Telesyn representative confirmed the firm would discontinue its relationship with Logitek on 1 February. He said: ?We will not be working with them from that date.?