Pure Storage: IPO more positive after Dell-EMC deal

EMEA channel director Ben Savage says IPO is more beneficial to partners in light of EMC's private move with Dell deal

Pure Storage's EMEA channel boss Ben Savage has said the storage vendor's IPO earlier this month is even more positive for its partners in the wake of the Dell-EMC mega deal.

The proposed agreement for Pure Storage's rival EMC was announced by Dell last week and in light of the news Pure's share price jumped to a high of $20.35 (£13.14) last Thursday, according to the New York Stock Exchange. This was compared with $16.01, at which it finished after its first day of trading on 7 October.

Speaking to CRN at this year's VMworld in Barcelona, Savage said the firm's move to go public gives partners more insight into the company's true nature.

"The fact we have now gone public is important for our customers and our partners because we are selling to large enterprises and large global companies that are also public companies," he said. "It is extremely important for them as part of their own governance that they are working with partners and vendors who have clear visibility of stability and profitability."

He also suggested the news of the Dell-EMC deal, which will see EMC go private, means Pure's move to go public is even more advantageous.

"In terms of our partners, especially in light of the news last week, it's even more positive because they can look at Pure Storage and say we no longer have the tag of being a unicorn company; we are now a publicly traded company. We can publicly produce our results and I'm sure profits in the future. That will give partners confidence that working with Pure is the right thing to do, so I think it's absolutely positive."

Savage's comments follow Pure's chief executive Scott Dietzen last week penning a blog post which claimed the EMC Dell deal "comes out of weakness, not strength".

Savage (pictured right) added that he felt the Dell-EMC deal was a shock to the industry.

"I don't think anyone really expected it," he said. "I think the industry was more expectant of an acquisition of companies like Pure Storage than EMC, so it is somewhat surprising."

Indeed, analyst Context said Pure's IPO made it a prime candidate for a takeover by bigger companies. But when asked if Pure could go down the same path as EMC and be taken over, Savage said the firm is committed to its current plan.

"EMC has been around for a long time and I am not sure anyone can look that far ahead and see what's going to happen. All I can say is that at the moment, we are committed to our strategy, which is to remain an independent storage company in its own right."

But despite Pure's comments that it is in a strong market position, its pre-IPO filing showed it had made a loss of $183.2m for FY15.

And in July, CRN reported the vendor had missed its UK revenue targets by a distance for Q1 of this year. When asked about the company's targets, Savage indicated that one of the key focuses with Pure's partner and internal sales strategy is securing repeat business.

"I did see that piece, and we won't comment on that," he said. "All I will say is our plan is in line with our growth expectations and the people who are successful at Pure, are still at Pure.

"We don't want to be like all the other storage companies. Our plan is very different and I won't go into the complexities of the plan, but one of the elements of it is getting our products to new companies that have not bought Pure before.

"The reason for that is from a partner perspective, but also for the people who work for us, in terms of their ability to meet targets. Once we sell a product to a customer, their repeat spend is significant because of the benefits of our products to the customers."

Savage, who joined Pure in June, said central to his role has been a focus on upskilling partners and making sure they are not just selling the technology "as a box". He is also focused on helping partners sell complementary technology from vendors such as Cisco and VMware and making sure Pure is not "diluting the market with too many partners".