Good week/Bad week
We look at who's on a roll and who's going downhill fast this week
Good week
Arrow
It was trebles all round for distributor Arrow, which celebrated a stonking 2011 financial year. The money-making distie saw a four per cent rise in fourth-quarter sales, with full-year sales rising by 14 per cent. Profit increased from $479.6m (£302m) in 2010 to $598.8m last year.
Probably clutching a (reasonably priced) glass of bubbly, chief financial officer Paul Reilly said the firm continues to "exceed overarching goals of growing sales faster than the market".
ShoreTel
The IP telephony vendor was clearly feeling flush this week, spending $150m on acquiring hosted comms player M5 Networks.
Twelve-year-old M5, which will operate as a business unit of its new owner, brings with it 2,000 customers. Incumbent chief exec Dan Hoffman will remain in charge, while his team of engineering bods will work separately but collaboratively with ShoreTel's techies. ShoreTel claims the deal will give it a unique ability to offer first-rate on- and off-premise unified communications technology.
It also gives it the distinction of being the only vendor to have acquired a firm named after the major arterial road linking the Midlands to the South West - which can only be a good thing.
Refurbished market
The second-user market was given a shot in the arm this
week as jumbo distributor Avnet decided to splash (an undisclosed amount) of its (not inconsiderable) cash on snapping up US-based second-hand tin reseller Canvas Systems.
Its new purchase has a UK branch, a Dutch outpost and all the refurbished HP, Dell, IBM and Sun servers an acquisitive distribution giant could wish for.
As well as giving the distie's bean counters something to do, the deal will also provide the firm's vendor partners with "an additional channel for capturing brand loyalty in the secondary market," said someone senior from Avnet in a statement. Brilliant!
Bad week
Microsoft's UK customers
The biggest UK customers of the world's most inescapable software company could be facing a hefty hike in costs this summer.
The vendor wants to establish a "clear and equitable" strategy across Europe and is moving to unify pricing for volume customers across the region. Reseller Softcat was quick to warn its client base that if current exchange rates do not change dramatically, they may face a "significant rise" in cost and should prepare. Computacenter has also urged end users to get in touch to discuss potential problems.
ChannelWeb doesn't know what everyone's worrying about. The UK will almost certainly have left/been kicked out of Europe in five months' time. Problem solved.
CITHS suppliers
Some smaller resellers that spent significant time and money ensuring they secured a berth on Buying Solutions' £6bn Commodity IT Hardware and Software (CITHS) framework in 2010 are now wondering why they bothered. Not only has it been something of a damp squib for some - with government bodies frequently circumventing it - the arrival of a shiny new pan-governmental hardware and solutions framework threatens to supersede it.
Although we can see the logic of the new £4bn framework - after all, it should save Johnny taxpayer money - it's small recompense for those who bet the farm on CITHS two years ago.
The PC
Despite Valentine's Day being just around the corner, it appears the UK is not feeling the love for the humble PC, as Gartner predicted the UK market faces a "long, uphill struggle" in 2012 after a terrible fourth quarter last year.
Total UK PC shipments fell 19.6 per cent in Q4, with leader HP suffering a sales drop of 27 per cent. Gartner piled on the gloom by claiming the hard disk drive shortage caused by last year's Thai floods could also see price rises, causing muted demand this year.
ChannelWeb's ever-resourceful hacks are already dusting off their typewriters and trilbies in anticipation of a return to the good old days of journalism.