Dell to acquire Wyse
Move designed to expand Dell's desktop virtualisation capabilities
With the ink still drying on its agreement to buy SonicWall, Dell has announced its intent to buy thin-client computing kingpin Wyse Technology.
The acquisition, which has been given the nod by both boards of directors, is designed to expand Dell's clout in the desktop virtualisation market.
Dell kicked off an acquisition run four years ago when it bought storage outfit EqualLogic and last autumn chief executive Michael Dell told ChannelWeb the firm would continue to pick off firms that will expand its enterprise business.
Only last month Dell announced an agreement to buy network security vendor SonicWall, which has a global network of 15,000 resellers. Force10, AppAsure, SecureWorks and Compellent are among its other recent conquests.
Founded in 1981, San Jose-baesd Wyse has been the big daddy of the thin-client market for years, having shipped more than 20 million units worldwide. It led the thin-client market in terms of shipments in Q4 2012, according to IDC.
On a conference call, Jeff Clarke, president of end user computing solutions at Dell, reached out to Wyse's 3,000 resellers, arguing that Dell had made "tremendous progress" in the channel over the last five years.
"As with all our acquisitions we will fully embrace the channel," he said. "We will retain these channel partners and our intent is for those with no [wider] relationship with Dell to extend the relationship so they sell the balance of Dell's portoflio."
Guy Watts, sales director at Wyse distributor Getech, said he generally saw the acquisition as posetive.
"It may be similar to when HP bought [Wyse competitor] Neoware. Some channel concerns were rasied then as they are being now, but hopfeully that will settle down. The channel has been mentioned in a lot of conversations so we expect that distributors and resellers will play a big role moving forward."
Tarkan Maner, chief executive of Wyse, said in a statement: "The combination of Wyse and Dell provides us with tremendous growth opportunities for our core desktop virtualisation business, helps us expand into new and fast-growing market segments including mobility and cloud computing, and provides us with reach and scale we did not previously have."