Good times/Bad times

We examine who's hit the jackpot and who's lost their shirt in the IT industry this week

Good times

M&A advisers
IT rentals firm Hamilton Rentals is seemingly single-handedly keeping IT industry M&A advisers in their jobs after undergoing a change in ownership for the fourth time in six years.
The firm was acquired by 2e2 and the following year conducted its first MBO, before being snapped by XTG in 2011. Last week it performed its second MBO.
Bookies are taking bets already as to the date of Hamilton's next change of hands. September 2015 has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Security spending
With just 141 shopping days to spare, Selfridges opened its Christmas store last week and in the IT industry ‘tis the season to be jolly - for security players, at least.
According to the latest figures from Canalys, spending on IT security will grow at a compound annual rate of 6.6 per cent until 2017. Firms are frantically beefing up their security because of impending changes in the EU data protection directive, the analyst believes. On top of which an anti-virus update makes a great stocking filler for the special lady in your life, if members of the CRN newsdesk are to be believed.

Famous partnerships
Sometimes, when famous duos break up, the chemistry between the two partners proves too strong to resist. Despite their efforts to go their separate ways, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Torvill and Dean and Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams were all drawn back together like magnets, such was their mutual attraction.
Maybe it's stretching it to add Avaya and Azlan to that list, but the comms vendor and VAD announced they are giving it another go despite ending their UK partnership less than two years ago. We can only hope their comeback is a sellout to rival Burton and Taylor's Private Lives, Dancing on Ice or Take That's sixth album, Progress.

Bad times

Tim Cook
As George "James Bond" Lazenby, 1990s Iron Maiden stand-in singer Blaze Bayley, and a string of workaday Australian spin bowlers in the past seven years will attest, it is hard, if not impossible, to replace a legend. With his company remaining the most valuable on earth, while sitting on a $100bn cash pile and raking in $7bn in net profit a quarter, sometimes it seems Tim Cook's only real crime is not being Steve Jobs.
Last week an uncharacteristically opinionated Larry Ellison claimed that Apple will flounder without its founder.
"He's irreplaceable," he said. "They won't be nearly so successful because he's gone."
Ouch. But if Cook is looking for solace, he might like to note that Lazenby went to land a bit part in season nine of Baywatch. Whatever happened to that Sean Connery, anyway?

Insight
Not only did the mega-reseller endure a year-on-year sales and profit decline in Q2, but it is expecting its profitability to take a hit as a result of changes to the partner incentive programme of its "largest software partner".
According to Insight boss Ken Lamneck, the unnamed vendor is implementing a reward structure for top VARs that "is complex, with many dynamic elements under review".
In unrelated news, Microsoft recently announced a rebate and branding overhaul of its Large Account Reseller scheme.
We wonder if Insight has considered ditching its mysterious software partner and linking up with Ballmer's crew?

BlackBerry
Given that BlackBerry devices now seem as dated as that awful Band Aid rehash of 2004, news that the once uber-cool firm is exploring possible sale options is perhaps long overdue.
It was nearly two years ago that analyst Richard Holway predicted that BlackBerry would be damned as the "noughties equivalent of the Filofax" after the vendor's high-profile outage that left customers unable to access its services for days. BlackBerry's fortunes don't seem to have improved and the Canadian vendor last week formed a special committee that will "explore strategic alternatives" for its future.
We think BlackBerry has about as much chance of a revival as the careers of The Darkness, Busted or any of the other bands picked to feature in Band Aid III's pitiful take on the 1984 Geldof/Ure anthem.