IT channel news: Buyout target Tech Data sees 2% drop in sales

IT channel companies continued to make news during the shortened Thanksgiving work week. Here’s a quick summary:

• Distributor Tech Data reported a 2% year-over-year decrease in third quarter sales, with a drop in European revenue the key contributor. The company generated worldwide sales of $9.1 billion for the quarter ended October 31. Gross profit increased 1% for the quarter. Tech Data said it does not plan to hold an earnings call or provide forward-looking guidance, citing its pending sale to Apollo Global Management. Apollo, a private equity firm, agreed to purchase Tech Data in a transaction valued at $5.4 billion.
• DLT Solutions, an IT aggregator based in Herndon, Va., has captured a contract to provide SaaS offerings, support and other services to state, local and education agencies in Texas. The contract with the Texas Department of Information Resources could run through October 2025, if all options are exercised. DLT’s IT channel partners can tap the contract through the company’s Contract Access Agreement program. Tech Data in October agreed to acquire DLT, in a deal expected to close by the end of 2019.
• D&H Distributing, a distributor based in Harrisburg, Pa., said it will boost credit lines for about 600 of its IT channel partners, which include value-added resellers and retailers. The $21.5 million increase, spread across the selected partners, will help those companies pursue larger projects, enter new markets or capture a larger business volume, according to D&H.
• The NPD Group’s B2B Distributor and Reseller Tracking Service reported a 3% uptick in year-over-year sales growth through the third quarter of 2019. The Port Washington, N.Y., company noted software sales outpaced hardware sales, with software rising 9% compared to a 1% increase for hardware. IT operations and networking software represented the largest dollar share of overall B2B software and cloud services sales, according to the tracking service.
• Distributor Ingram Micro has bolstered its Salesforce expertise. The company this week purchased the Salesforce consulting practice of Quosphere, a global IT firm with U.S. headquarters in New York .
• Lastline, a security and breach detection vendor, inked an agreement with immixGroup, the public sector IT distribution subsidiary of Arrow ECS. Lastline said the agreement enables immixGroup partners to sell its network detection and response platform to federal, state and local government agencies.
• Avaya said distributor Synnex Corp. is now providing Avaya OneCloud Secure unified-communications-as-service products to partners in the U.S. public sector market.
• Windstream Enterprise, a managed communications service provider, recently restructured its channel organization. The company promoted Matt Milliron from vice president of channel sales to head of strategic channels, replacing Curt Allen. Allen will move into an advisory role, consulting with Milliron and Windstream executives on the channel, the company said.
• Anexinet Corp, a digital business solutions provider based in Philadelphia, has appointed Robert Sheinker as vice president of partner strategy. Sheinker is responsible for vendor partnerships, with a focus on hybrid cloud, hyper-converged technology, flash storage, networking, virtualization and security offerings.

Additional reporting by Spencer Smith.

Our usual Market Share IT channel news roundup resumes next week.