A Slice of Channel History - PART TWO
A brief look at some of the key headlines and happenings over the last 15 years as CRN celebrates 30 years of the Channel Awards
In part two of our Channel Awards celebration timeline, we look at some of the headlines to hit our industry between 2008 to the present day.
Again, this is only a snapshot because so much happens in our industry every year. If we have missed anything major out - please do let us know.
2008
A global recession hits, ‘fondly' known in the UK as the ‘credit crunch', and during the year various analyst reports and market forecasts revealed that channel insolvencies rocketed during the year, and fraud mushroomed. But despite this, online consumer spending rose as people tried to cheer themselves up.
The global PC market declined steadily during the year, saved by an increase in notebook sales. HP led the market in pole position, with Dell second, Acer third, Lenovo fourth and Toshiba fifth.
Consolidation moves for Dynax and Teksys as a year of reseller consolidation kicks off in 2008
Avnet makes an £80m bid for Horizon Technology Group as distribution consolidation is predicted to rise sharply during the year. The deal closes later in the year.
Apple VARs bite back over W1 retail plans
Dell launches Certified Partner tier as part of its shiny new PartnerDirect strategy and claims it will accept resellers of all sizes into the tier
Sugar steps down as Chairman of Amstrad
Siri is born as voice recognition hits the iPhone
The number of connected devices overtook the number of people in the world for the first time and the steady move towards the Internet of Things begins
2009
Nortel goes bankrupt and the vendor is sold off piecemeal
Trams starts 2009 acquisition ball rolling with Rapid Group purchase
Speculation mounts over Equanet future as senior management leaves and suitors line up to buy the DSG International subsidiary
Ambitious ACS plays channel consolidator
Windows 7 launched and Microsoft defends claims that the OS will cause compatibilty issues, instead stressing the software will offer good margins for the channel
As demand for cloud computing solutions begins to increase, Google Apps launches a reseller programme and tries to lure rival Microsoft partners away
Arc Technology acquired by Exclusive Networks
Eurodata eyes growth after Transam integration
Oracle acquires Sun Microsystems for $7.4bn
Systemax snaps up WStore's UK and French operations
2010
Apple launches iPad
Google prepares for cloud battle
Icelandic volcano eruption causes chaos for the channel as events disrupted and shipments are delayed
Avnet acquires Bell Micro for approximately $631m, but the deal raises integration questions
Sun VARs hit out at Oracle charges as they experience a rocky road during the merging of the two channels
DiData sold to Japanese telco NTT for £2.1bn
Morse is sold to 2e2 for £70m
Security VAD Sphinx sold to Arrow ECS
Capita buys Ramesys for £15m
HP buys networking vendor 3Com
Cisco buys videoconferencing player Tandberg
Intel acquires McAfee for $7.68bn
2011
iPad 2 launched to the market
HP makes PSG U-Turn
Microsoft unveils Windows 8
Reseller insolvencies hit a nine-year high in 2011 according to Graydon UK
Japanese earthquake sparks component price hikes
HP seals Autonomy deal - ill-fated acquisition sees HP shell out £7.8bn for UK software firm
Office 365 launched
VADition acquired by Exclusive Networks
Eurodata bought by Trinity Expert Systems for undisclosed sum
Tim Cook becomes Apple CEO and former CEO Steve Jobs dies following a battle with pancreatic cancer
Meg Whitman becomes HP CEO
2012
Avnet closes acquisition of Magirus Group
Mike Lynch to make HP exit as Autonomy struggles
Tech Data completes SDG acquisition
Windows 8 launches
First Raspberry Pi is launched
Ginni Rometty becomes CEO of IBM
CRN investigation reveals a Welsh council - Torfaen was hoarding £1m worth of unused laptops procured from XMA. The story makes the national news.
WATCH: The CRN editorial team's review of 2012
2013
2e2 UK business falls into administration
Arrow accomplishes ‘Project Castle' with Computerlinks buy
Ballmer retirement ‘make or break' for Microsoft
Tablet sales to hit nearly 200 million in 2013, Gartner reveals, but IDC hails 2013 as the worst-ever year for the PC market
C2000 finally takes on the name of parent company Tech Data
3i set to sell or float Civica
SFO bins Autonomy investigation
Huawei 'not interested' in US markets anymore
Ex-Eurodata boss Lekerman leads Internet Group buyout
Kelway buys services division of Equanet for undisclosed amount
Michael Dell wins a lengthy battle to take Dell private in a $25bn deal
Exertis brand launched after major restructuring with both Micro-P and Gem names dropped
2014
Dropbox opens UK office
The Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive became law on 1 January 2014
CDW grabs a slice of Kelway for undisclosed sum - firm takes a 35 per cent stake
IBM-Lenovo server deal hits security snag - but the deal is completed later in the year which sees Lenovo buy IBM's x86 server business for $2.3bn
Satya Nadella takes over CEO post at Microsoft
Symantec to split in two
Westcoast Holdings, parent company of XMA, buys Viglen for undisclosed sum, creating a £250m behemoth
Ellison steps down as CEO of Oracle after 37 years and Mark Hurd becomes co-CEO
Alexa becomes a primary tool on Amazon devices
Trustmarque is bought by Liberata
2015
Partners claim Office 365 is too complicated to sell
SCC acquires Fluidata
Google opens a retail store in Tottenham Court Road
Systemax shuts 31 retail stores as it focuses on B2B
HP splits into two separate companies - HP and HPE. Meg Whitman stayed on as CEO of HPE and Dion Weisler became CEO of HP Inc
CDW swallows up the rest of Kelway - US giant buys the remaining 65 per cent after deal last year
Windows 10 is launched
Chuck Robbins becomes CEO and chairman of Cisco
Calyx MS gobbled up by Redcentric
Daisy gobbles up Phoenix in £135m deal
Dell acquires EMC
Wick Hill sold to Rigby Private Equity to form the basis of its new Nuvias distribution brand
2016
Ingram is acquired by Chinese aviation and shipping giant HNA for £4.7bn
The UK votes for Brexit and will no longer be a part of the European Union
Donald Trump wins US Presidential Election
Distributor Steljes goes into administration after 30 years in business
Outsourcery goes into administration
Cindy Rose becomes Microsoft CEO
OnBuy relaunches to take channel fight to Amazon
Tech Data announces plans to buy Avnet's Technology Solutions business for $2.6bn
Exertis buys both Hammer and Medium
Trustmarque is bought by Capita alongside Updata and Pervasive
Chess buys Lanway
Sophia the Robot becomes the first robot to receive a citizenship
Dell merges with storage giant EMC, in $60bn merger that results in the birth of Dell Technologies
2017
Tech Data and Avnet complete merger
Toshiba rebuffs PC sale rumours amid restructure
Qualcomm denies $130bn rival takeover
Graeme Watt becomes Softcat CEO as Martin Hellawell assumes Chairman role
Misco collapses and rivals try to cash in on gap left. XMA takes on the bulk of Misco Weybridge sales staff.
Lenovo buys 51 per cent of Fujitsu's PC business to form joint venture
HP buys Samsung print business for $1.05bn
Autotask and Datto combine forces
Bytes acquires Phoenix Software
Pure Technology Group edges towards acquisition
Chess acquires Foursys
Hololens is launched to developers and commercial partners
Danwood is acquired by Apogee Corporation for an undisclosed sum
2018
Apogee is acquired by HP Inc for £380m
Antonio Neri becomes CEO of HPE
SoftwareONE acquires Comparex
PC sales start to rebound
PCM UK snaps up Cisco Gold Partner Provista
Graeme Watt becomes CEO of Softcat and reseller becomes second UK firm to break the £1bn revenue barrier alongside Computacenter
Cancom reenters the UK market, snapping up OCSL for £29m
Computacenter makes a move in the US, swallowing up FusionStorm for an estimated $90m
Beta Distribution folds
Sharp to acquire Toshiba's PC business
Microsoft grabs open source coding site GitHub for $7.5bn
2019
Mark Hurd - HP CEO and latterly Oracle co-CEO dies at the age of 62
SCC offloads FluidOne
Misco brand is acquired by UK Computer Group and is revived
VAD IntY is acquired by ScanSource for an undisclosed sum
Novosco is bought by German giant Cancom
MirusIT is bought by IT Lab
IBM buys Red Hat for $34bn
Stone undergoes an MBO lead by CEO Simon Harbridge
Complete IT is acquired by Sharp Business Systems UK
Orange acquires SecureData and SecureLink
Phil Doye makes a return to the channel and acquires Microsoft and Dell partner SBL. The firm is eventually rebranded to Boxxe
PCM is bought by Insight for £440m
Tech Data is acquired for a gargantuan $5bn by PE house Apollo Global Management (AGM)
2020
Covid hits and the world goes into lockdown by March. The tech industry saw two years of digital transformation condensed into two months as firms scrambled to set employees up at home to keep businesses running. The events of Covid deserve a special section with a handful of headlines from the period:
China declares lockdown in manufacturing tech hub Shenzhen
PC vendors struggling to meet demand amid COVID-19 pandemic
Print volumes to decline by ‘seven football fields per minute' in 2020
44 per cent of businesses planning to furlough staff according to British Chamber of Commerce
Tech stocks hit hard amid fears of second coronavirus wave
Channel should brace for tightened end user spending, analyst says
Huge number of partners facing ‘unrecoverable financial distress', analyst warns
Gartner: Pre-Covid spending on IT won't return until 2022
Softcat transforms HQ into Covid-19 vaccination centre
CRN's Sales and Marketing Awards, and Channel Awards go virtual for the first time ever
Other (non covid) headlines from 2020:
Ricoh acquires MTI Technology
GPT-3 is introduced to the market as AI takeup begins to grow
Arvind Krishna becomes CEO of IBM
ScanSource divests its European hardware business to Ten Oaks Group for £30m
Computacenter acquires $1.2bn revenue firm Pivot Technology Services in the US
Ingram Micro is sold to Platinum Equity, five years after being acquired by Chinese giant HNA
Xerox pulls the plug on HP Inc acquisition plans
2021
Brexit headaches kick off the year for distribution as new regulations and customs checks come into force
Tech Data becomes the world's largest IT distributor after a $7.2bn merger with Synnex
Microsoft unveils changes to Office365 billing which means partners will have to shell out if customers cannot pay
Almost one third of all employees worldwide will be remote workers by the end of 2021, Gartner predicts
Sage acquires Brightpearl for £225m
Cloud Distribution is acquired by Nuvias
Exertis makes biggest ever acquisition with Almo Corporation deal in North America
CAE Technology acquires education VAR Novus Group
McAfee confirms $14bn sale to private equity consortium
QUANTIQ acquired by Microsoft giant Avanade
Salesforce completes $27.7 bn Slack acquisition
CDW acquires US-based Sirius Computer Solutions for $2.5bn
CRN research reveals one in ten UK resellers have lost business due to a lack of sustainability pedigree
Capita agrees the sale of Secure Solutions and Services business for £62m to NEC Software Solutions
Exclusive Networks files for IPO on Euronext Paris
Logicalis restructures UK and Ireland operations
2022
Russia invades Ukraine, sending shockwaves around the globe. The knock-on effects of the invasion are far reaching, and include soaring fuel prices for householders and businesses - many global brands, including IT vendors, suspend sales in Russia throughout the year as a result.
UKCloud acquired by private investment group led by its own chairman
Westcoast creates €5.5bn powerhouse as it merges with KOMSA
UKFast to take ANS name following last year's merger
FluidOne makes ‘strategic investment' in Marathon
Ricoh carries on quest to become one of Europe's largest AV integrators with the acquisition of PureAV
Midwich acquires Nimans for £27.5m
April sees CRN UK acquired by The Channel Company, owner of CRN US
Intel pledges net zero emissions globally by 2040
Exclusive Networks boss Graham Jones retires after 45 years in the industry
Barracuda acquired by KKR for a reported $4bn
Kaseya acquires Datto in $6.2bn deal
Cisco makes $20bn offer for Splunk
AMD makes $49bn acquisition of Xilinx
Nuvias acquired by Infinigate to form €1.4bn revenue powerhouse. Infinigate also acquired Vuzion a few months later.
Citrix agrees to $16.5bn private equity buyout
Daisy acquires business broadband provider XLN Group
Exclusive networks achieves first ever €1bn revenue quarter
Zoom launches partner programme and hails benefits to resellers
Capita completes Trustmarque sale for more than £100m
European Commission probing Broadcome's $51bn VMware deal
SCC to unleash £300m M&A war chest
2023
We are not even halfway into 2023, it has been a bumpy ride so far. Soaring inflation, consistently increasing food and fuel prices caused by the ongoing Ukraine conflict and Brexit repercussions, coupled with multiple strikes across rail networks and in the public sector appear to have pushed us back to the 1970s. But as ever, the channel is holding its own.
Job layoffs: 2023 appears to be the year that vendors shed staff - so far thousands of jobs have been axed at vendors including IBM, Dell, Amazon, Accenture, Lenovo, Salesforce, SAP, Dropbox, Microsoft, Cisco, 8x8 and Sophos.
Some 2023 headlines so far include:
ANS closes acquisition on Microsoft partner Preact
VMware and Broadcom merger: deadline extended by another three months
Fear of missing out driving CEOS to throw cash at AI - Gartner
More than half of UK channel companies ‘optimistic' for 2023 despite economic turndown - report
Accenture to acquire MSP Objectivity
PC shipments set to suffer into 2023 amid slower consumer demand
Mike Lynch is extradited to the US to face fraud charges following his sale of Autonomy to HP for $11bn in 2011. He is accused of overinflating the value of the software firm.
Centerprise International celebrates 40th birthday
Softcat celebrates 30 years
Westcoast Group celebrates 40th birthday
What else is to come this year? Stay tuned to Channelweb to find out.
The 2023 Channel Awards are taking place in November and the deadline for entries is 30 June. Click here to find out more and submit your entry. Best of luck.