The Tale of Mergers

I am so geek-ed out about this news of the proposed merger between Tech Data and Synnex. As a long-time enthusiastic fan, observer, and participant of the on-going transition of the IT channel, I see this as one of those “big bang” level events in the channel’s evolution, akin to that of the acquisition of PCM by Insight Enterprises back in 2019.

In one of the many rants I have posted in the past around the transformational changes in the IT channel, I speculated on how the swim lanes that separated the traditional roles of resellers and distributors in the legacy technology channel would blur. With regards to the future role of the traditional distributor in an (X)aaS world, it had always been a bit perplexing to me. Since the time of my original postings, I have observed the distributors build out their portfolio of service offerings to the OEM and the VAR communities in order to continue to add value and ensure their longevity. For instance, I was part of the team at Tech Data that had developed a suite of services directed at helping the OEMs with their transition away from traditional software and hardware offerings to (X)aaS.

This recent news event has already sparked plenty of speculation as to what plans Ingram Micro might have in the way of pivoting to the market changes and what news we might expect from Arrow Electronics regarding the computer products side of their massive electronics distribution business.

The saga continues – and to a geek of the industry like me, this is like a season shocker kind-of-moment. 

I'd love to hear your own thoughts and speculations on this week's merger news and how this all plays into the bigger picture of the evolution of the channel.