News

Bell Micro brand to be history by October
2010-08-23
Multispecialist Avnet Technology Solutions has put a timetable in place to axe the Bell brand and have all front office staff in place by the end of september. The current phase, which is about 85% determined, is to put in place the structure for the vendor/reseller facing teams to ensure there is minimal or no disruption to business. Although Avnet employs around 1900 staff in Europe, it has refused to discuss headcount cuts. The grand plan is to wring out $50m to $60m in "synergy savings" from the expanded Avnet by reducing staff duplication, consolidating systems and premises. For example, the distributor has in the region of four ERP systems, which should be standardized to SAP in the mid-term, after a migration from Bell to Avnet's infrastructure by Q1. The brand Bell should have disappeared by October, 1st (source : Microscope United Kingdom).

Avnet Technology Solutions and Mellanox Sign Pan-European Distribution Agreement
2010-06-03
Multispecialist Avnet Technology Solutions and Mellanox Technologies, a supplier of end-to-end connectivity solutions for servers and storage systems, have unveiled a pan-European distribution agreement. As a part of this new relationship, Avnet will distribute Mellanox’s complete line of 40Gb/s InfiniBand and 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapter cards, 40Gb/s InfiniBand switches, InfiniBand to Ethernet or Fibre Channel gateway systems, copper and fiber cables and software to server and storage solutions integrators in Europe. Currently, no Avnet TS office is officially announced to carry Mellanox products, but this should change in the coming weeks, as soon as each country trains its team and update its portfolio.

Edit 07/15/2010 : Mellanox products are available through Avnet offices in Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom.

Avnet and Brocade expand their partnership to new geographic and technology markets
2010-04-30
Multispecialist Avnet Technology Solutions has expanded its relationship with Brocade to include enterprise IP networking products (former Foundry Networks) in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. As Brocade’s “EMEA Distributor of the Year” for four consecutive years, Avnet is a long-standing Brocade distributor in the storage networking market and was the first Brocade Alliance Partner Network distributor in the United Kingdom for enterprise IP networking products. Under the new expanded agreement, Avnet will now help value-added reseller partners in Eastern Europe enhance their ability to deliver IP networking solutions that address the high-performance needs of data centers.

Oracle expands distribution agreement with Avnet TS to include Switzerland
2010-04-29
Switzerland : multispecialist Avnet Technology Solutions has expanded its distribution agreement with Oracle to include Switzerland. Avnet will provide there a range of services to its value-added reseller partners, including sales, marketing, technical and commercial skills. This new agreement extends Avnet’s market opportunities further into Europe, where it already work with Oracle in Slovakia and the UK. There, Avnet has been an Oracle value-added solutions distributor for Oracle applications and technology products. This includes the recruitment and enablement of Oracle partners, as well as driving deeper adoption of Oracle’s technology and application products within the IT channel.

Avnet offers its partners pricing and deal support for Oracle solutions, as well as enablement and demand generation activity. Avnet is also responsible for identifying a strategic network of specialist partners focused on BI, security, identity, access management and SOA, as well as driving deeper adoption of Oracle products within the ISV community. Other expansions may very well follow in other major countries in the coming months, as the distributor is working with Sun in some countries (Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands) and Sun is now a subsidiary of Oracle.

Avnet to acquire Bell Microproducts
2010-03-29
Giant American multispecialist Avnet has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire storage and security specialist Bell Microproducts in an all cash merger for €5.20 per share, which equates to an equity value of approximately €187.29m and a transaction value of approximately €441.48m assuming a net debt position for Bell of €254.16m at face value as of December 31, 2009. The acquisition has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies and is subject to the approval of Bell's shareholders as well as customary regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to close in 60 to 120 days.

Given Avnet organization, Bell should be either kept as a separated division or, most certainly, be merged into its Technology Solutions business unit. In EMEA region, Bell Micro is present in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Avnet Technology Solutions is, on its side, present in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal (which was very recently opened), Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Turkey. This acquisition should mainly strengthen Avnet positions in storage and industrial computing.