Time for a change at Computacenter?
Plans for management buyout been a long time coming, writes Sara Driscoll
Far from being a shock to the market, the news last week that Computacenter is planning a management buyout has been a long time coming.
Since the company warned the City back in November last year all eyes have been watching the firm, waiting for something, other than a small shift in strategy, to take place. The November warning came on the back of Hewlett-Packard’s (HP’s) rebate restructure, which undeniably hurt the reselling giant.
But the HP effect is far from the only reason why this latest news has come about. For a long time Computacenter has been forced to pay homage to the City, with the number crunching, pinstriped-suited executives watching every move through a monocled eye. That is an enormous amount of pressure for any company. And of course a management buyout would alleviate the firm from all of that pressure, and allow it to reshape and reform without the prying eyes.
So lets speculate for a moment that the management buyout does get the go ahead, as this in itself raises many questions. Not least of which is exactly what kind of restructure the company will go through. It is no secret that the firm’s hardware business has, like everyone else’s in our sector, been struggling. And in terms of services, this is becoming a higher and higher percentage of the firm’s business every year. Therefore the management may feel it prudent to sell off this part of the business. But then what will become of CCD, the firm’s distribution arm, and CC Direct? If the company is planning to become a purely services-orientated business, then what is the need for a distribution arm, or indeed a direct selling product arm?
But this is merely speculation, of course, and the one thing worth remembering is that Peter Ogden and Philip Hulme, the two executives planning the management buyout are far from new to the channel, have the experience and no doubt the financial ease to be able to help Computacenter return to its glory days.