Shop Talk: Distributors Ingram, Avnet, Westcon Make Acquisitions

The second half of 2012 has started with a bang for distributors Ingram Micro, Avnet and Westcon Group, all of which revealed acquisitions Monday.

Ingram Micro, Santa Ana, Calif., said it planned to acquire mobility specialist BrightPoint for about $840 million, or $9 per share, a 66 percent premium over the company's closing price last Friday.

Avnet, Phoenix, set its sights on acquiring Magirus, a pan-European distributor based in Stuttgart, Germany.

And Westcon Group, Tarrytown, N.Y., reached a deal to acquire Afina Group, which sells into Latin America, the Caribbean, Iberia, France and Morocco and focuses on the distribution of security and data center solutions.

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Ingram Micro's acquisition of BrightPoint greatly enhances its mobility and smartphone business, according to the company. BrightPoint, based in Indianapolis and founded in 1989, earned $48.8 million, or 71 cents per share, on $5.2 billion in sales in 2011.

"BrightPoint's offerings are highly complementary to both our logistics and distribution businesses, which will enable us to go to market with the leading portfolio of mobility device life-cycle services and solutions," said Ingram Micro President and CEO Alain Monie. "Strategically, it is a great fit and is immediately additive to Ingram Micro's existing offerings."

Ingram Micro has focused on increasing its presence in mobility, and BrightPoint helps fulfill a goal that would have been challenging to accomplish on its own, Monie added.

Avnet's acquisition of Magirus, meanwhile, significantly increases the distributor's presence in Europe and the Middle East, especially with vendors Cisco, VMware and EMC and their VCE effort.

Magirus was founded in 1981 and serves more than 4,500 VARs across Europe. The company generated about $530 million in sales during 2011, according to Avnet, and will be integrated into Avnet Technology Solutions' existing EMEA business, according to Graeme Watt, president of Avnet Technology Solutions, EMEA.

"Magirus is a high-quality-focused business and represents an excellent expansion to our current operations as it adds complementary product lines across the region while meaningfully increasing our scale in important markets including Germany and France," Watt said in a statement. "Magirus' position with market-leading suppliers in high-growth technologies will bolster our solutions practices and create significant cross-selling opportunities in the combined customer base."

NEXT: Westcon Expands In Latin America

For Westcon Group, the acquisition of Afina Group expands the distributor's geographic presence in Latin America.

"The Latin American market is now entering a highly robust period of IT spending driven mostly by Brazil and Mexico. Most analysts estimate the region will generate more than $310 billion in IT spending in 2012," said Dean Douglas, president and CEO of Westcon Group, in a statement. "With the acquisition of Afina, Westcon is very well positioned to capture this momentum."

Afina was founded in 1990 and has headquarters in Madrid and Miami with a vendor portfolio that includes VMware, Citrix, Riverbed and Symantec. Afina also offers specialized services to support its resellers, including post-sale support, value-added augmentation, and training, according to Westcon Group.

PUBLISHED JULY 2, 2012