Avenet Trades One VAR For Another

By John Vinson
Expert Author
Article Date: 2011-01-05

Business is business, and sometimes the relationships you develop don't work out. For Avnet,their short running ownership of VAR company ProSys came to a schreaching halt. Avnet purchased ProSys by way of Bell Microproducts in March 2010. The acquisition was $252m in cost, and included 360+ employees.

Moving onto their next VAR, Avnet purchased itX Group Limited. This VAR has a long standing in the Australian IT market, where Avnet deals with a majority of their business. itX has an interesting history, dating all the way back to 1983. Where the company was a part of GEC Australia. The company has since been bought and sold, and renamed multiple times. They've only been a publicly traded company since 2007.

Avnet paid $79 million for their acquisition of itX. The company has some high profile distribution deals, with the likes of IBM, HP being in their portfolio. They also are involved with software companies: Oracle, VMware, Citrix, Red Hat, and Trend Micro.

Avnet's decision to switch certainly makes sense if they're looking to expand. itX has a strong portfolio with their software, and has 150 offices around the world. Certainly, this is a company to use as a VAR if you're looking to expand in the international market.

ProSys isn't being left in the cold, as they've been bought by Applied Computer Solutions. It's an American based company out of California. They're a reseller for both IBM and HP servers, and other storage solutions.

There have been no financial details released, concerning the sale of ProSys. However, it involves a cash payment at closing and earnings based upon the performance of the VAR.

Here's some more information about Avnet and itX:

Avnet - One of the world's largest trans-national electronics distributors of electronic parts, enterprise computing and storage products and embedded subsystems, Avnet provides a vital link in the technology supply chain.

Market needs and trends drive Avnet's product and services strategy, supported by a global infrastructure. Avnet brings a breadth and depth of service capabilities, such as supply-chain and design-chain services, logistics solutions, product assembly, device programming, computer system configuration and integration, and technical seminars - all in addition to its core distribution services.

itX (mission statement) - "To be regarded as one of Australia's leading value-add Distributors of IT products, by offering high level pre-sales technical support and effective Account Management in conjuction with leading edge technologies to the enterprise market."

About the Author:
John is a staff writer for WebProNews.