Good week, bad week

Who won and who got done in the channel last week?

Good week

Headphone aficionados

You might think Dr Dre has the monopoly on rapper-endorsed high-end headphones, but hip hop rival Ludacris might be about to make inroads into the UK with a job lot of his SOUL-branded gear set to flood into the market.

Hayes-based distributor Widget stocks the Atlanta rapper's wares and recently supplied fallen retailer HMV with about £12,000 worth of top-of-the-range personal audio equipment. The headphones are now set to be returned by the administrator and the distie is looking to offload them en masse.

"Worldwide hustlers get that dough, work that tip, get rid of evidence, move that brick," explained Widget boss Mark Needham in a statement.

At least, we think that's what he said. We were only half reading this story as we were too busy reminding ourselves of Luda's seminal party anthem, Saturday. Sticky icky icky icky! (Too obscure a reference? - Ed)

Biros

The humble biro, along with other stationery staples, including, erm, staples, is set to feel some channel love just in time for Valentine's Day, after Westcoast announced it is setting up a dedicated office supplies division with its own manager and everything.

Ever-effusive marketing director Alex Tatham said he was "ecstatic" about the move into office supplies - and we can see why, Alex. There is nothing more satisfying than opening a freshly stocked office supplies cupboard and filling your boots with as much pennage, paper clippage and Post-it notage as you can carry.

The Internet Group

It isn't every day a quartet of industry veterans comes knocking, offering to buy into your business for a hefty seven-figure sum, but that is exactly what happened to The Internet Group last week.

Eurodata co-founder Des Lekerman led the buyout along with a trio of channel faces who joined the firm's top management team. The foursome promised to grow the business in 2013, with Lekerman claiming to have spoken to private equity firms which have shown interest in backing future acquisition opportunities.

Bad week

Dell offspring

The $24.4bn mega-deal to take Dell into private hands again may be good news for the vendor's ability to innovate and invest in new technologies and markets, but spare a thought for the fiscal future of the Dell clan.

Michael Dell has, by his admission, "put a substantial amount of my own capital at risk" in backing the buyout. As of September 2012, Forbes put Papa Dell's personal fortune at $14.6bn. The exact level of his investment isn't clear, but it may well be that his kids' inheritance fund is down into 10-figure territory. Looks like own-brand caviar and Tesco Value champagne might be the order of the day for the time being.

While we applaud his willingness to invest in his firm, the consensus here at CRN is that if we had that kind of money, our spending plans might have a bit more in common with that other great eponymous vendor founder: John McAfee.

2e2 staff

Hopes that a white knight would come galloping to the rescue of 2e2 faded fast last week as the firm's administrator, FTI Consulting, cut another 627 jobs after failing to conclude a sale of the business.

At the time of press, buyers were still being sought for the remaining assets but less than a third of its 1,442 UK staff remained on board. It looks like the end is in sight for a firm that went from zero to over £400m in revenue through a spate of acquisitions. We only hope that the nearly 1,000 staff laid off are quickly rehoused.

Techie teenagers

As if algebra and acne weren't enough to contend with, teenagers are being let down by the technology industry according to HP's UK boss.

Nick Wilson claimed that both the government and IT vendors are not doing enough to inspire young people to study science, technology, maths and engineering. But help is at hand as HP is attempting to bridge the seemingly widening skills gap with its new partnership with Staffordshire University. The pair will jointly create
degree-level courses which could lead to full-time employment with the vendor on completion of the course.