A new manager for Brightstar
2011-09-08 Germany : following the decision of its founder in the country, Axel Grellhorst, to quit, telephony and mobility specialist Brightstar has appointed Torben Pedersen as new country director. Torben is of course not a newcomer in this business, as he was the VP Western Europe of its arch-competitor Brightpoint. Since last April, Torben is Brightstar's director for Nordics, Mediterranean and Eastern Europe.
Brightpoint leaves France
2009-11-10 France : following its underway reorganization, pan-European telephony specialist Brightpoint has decided to close its French office, which reached a €150m turnover in 2007 (last known data, in strong growth compared to 2006). According to a former employee, the company is currently reorganizing its operations, by focusing on 3 or 4 logistic poles (among which Germany), and a centralized back-office in Spain. Some less performing offices have to be closed until a restart of local activities in the coming years, almost certainly around a reduced team working with an optimized back-office. Some feels it a shame, as Dangaard (which was acquired by Brightpoint in order to strengthen its positions in Europe) was one of the best performing among mobile phone distributors and is now a shadow of itself. In the last months, Russian office was also closed and many others should follow, although it is difficult to be rapidly aware of which, as Brightpoint seldom communicates about this. Meanwhile, another giant is preparing to thrive and take Brightpoint place : Brightstar should open more offices very soon.
Brightpoint to close offices
2009-08-20
American-based telephony specialist Brightpoint saw revenues tumble 40 per cent to €555m in the quarter to June 30, compared with the same period last year, as sales fell away and the average selling price decreased. It therefore will look to exit certain under-performing markets in Europe, failing to hit a 15 per cent return on capital investment, in the second half of the year consequently ; the UK will not be among the casualties, even though a precise list of the future closed subsidiaries has not been unveiled. Beside UK, Brightpoint owns subsidiaries in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates. It has recently closed its Russian office (source : Mobile Today United Kingdom).
Brightpoint fires its EMEA chef
2009-07-14
Telephony specialist Brightpoint has dismissed Michael Køehn Milland, who was its President for EMEA region. Michael Køehn Milland was Brightpoint EMEA CEO since its merge with Dangaard Telecom in 2007. New EMEA boss is now Anthony W. Boor, who continues to act as Executive Vice President and CFO of the company. Reasons of Milland departures have not been made official, but one may guess they are due to disagreements in strategy, as the company is relocating some of its EMEA activities from its headquarter in Denmark to its offices in Spain, resulting in layoffs in Denmark (source : ComputerWorld Danmark).
