Shock waves were felt across the channel last week after Magirus agreed to sell its European IBM and Hewlett-Packard (HP) business unit to Avnet.

Magirus’s Enterprise Infrastructure Distribution division, including all of its IBM and HP server, storage, software and services will now sit within Avnet’s Technology Solutions division, alongside its IBM business. Magirus will now focus on storage, security and training units.

The deal, which was for an undisclosed sum, is believed to have been fast-tracked towards the end following a counter offer, which CRN understands could have been from Avnet’s main European rival, Arrow.

Sukh Rayat, vice president at Avnet Technology Solutions Europe told CRN: “Avnet is one of the consolidators and this is another milestone towards us becoming one of the biggest players in the industry. This will give us a footprint in the Nordics and a bigger presence in Germany and the UK in the enterprise space. We now carry IBM, Sun and HP, allowing us to offer a more rounded solution.”

A Magirus representative said: “This is a continuation of Magirus’ consultative distribution strategy. We will help resellers move into storage, virtualisation, security and open source, and more resources and attention can be spent on this. We will still have a preferred supplier agreement with Avnet for infrastructure solutions.”

Andy Gass, managing director of distributor Computer 2000, said: “Magirus has been focusing more on software and services and trying to move out of hardware so the acquisition makes sense. It will be a big integration job for Avnet on a European level, but it is investing in this market so it must still see some growth there.”

Graeme Watt, European president at Bell Micro, said: “We acquired in 2004 and 2005, and latterly Avnet and Arrow have become very active in consolidating, which now tends to be across Europe. It shows there is still good business to be had in the value distribution space.”

Andy Griffiths, sales and marketing director at VAR Q Associates, said: “For resellers it will mean the loss of some natural competition in the UK market, and now it is up to Avnet to create relationships with Magirus’ resellers to build on the acquisition.

“It is a continuation of the Arrow versus Avnet consolidation war and it will be interesting to see who will be next,” he said.

Arrow was unavailable for comment as CRN went to press.

Magirus signs with Avocent