Next year will see Ingram Micro spending $80-$100 million to "de-layer" and "align" its global infrastructure and internal organisations in the hopes of annual savings worth... $80-100 million.

The distributor already coughed up $8m on restructuring during Q4 2013. The rest will be spent during H1 2014, meaning Ingram will only see the eventual cost-saving results by 2015.

As CEO Alain Monie puts it, "the overall objective of our organisational effectiveness programs... is to streamline and focus our resources to run our businesses faster, smarter and better to capture the tremendous opportunities we have already started to invest in, while generating greater, sustainable shareholder value."

ALSO Holding acquires Saphin-owned printer and computer accessory distributor Alpha International, with aims to strengthen supplies business expertise in all countries distributor covers.

Financial details of the deal are not available. ALSO will also boost existing distribution activity in Benelux, while Alpha and ALSO Netherlands get joint management.

Arrow Electronics finalises the acquisition of Munich-based value-added distributor Computerlinks, a purchase valued at around €230 million, following approval by European and US anti-trust authorities.

“The acquisition of Computerlinks supports our strategy to serve the data center of the future and strengthens our position in this rapidly growing segment,” Arrow CEO Michael J. Long says.

First announced on August 2013, the deal comes as Arrow goes through mostly weak fiscal quarters due to restructuring changes and poor sales. The company hopes the acquisition will improve its bottomline, since 2013 Computerlinks sales are estimated to total €700 million.

W.European VARs expect 4-8% growth for 2011-- slightly higher than Longboy Research's expectations and January 2011 predictions, following its latest survey. 

UK resellers report relative strength from SMBs and large businesses/corporations, as opposed to the public sector's declining IT spending. They also highlight gains by HP on switching (due to price competitive 3Com lines) at Cisco's expense. Leading the way are storage upgrades (NetApp in particular) and virtualisation projects. 

Predictions for UK resellers' Q2-- relatively flat, seen as Read more...