Avnet Purchases ExitCertified, Expands IT Services Training

Avnet (AVT) has purchased Ottawa-based IT training provider ExitCertified for an undisclosed sum, as the distributor looks to expand its training offerings and form a basis for worldwide growth.

ExitCertified, which was founded in 2001, is known for offering both on-site and online training courses via its virtual training platform, akin to some of the services provided by CompTIA. The company is currently authorized by vendors including Amazon Web Services, Brocade, Oracle, Red Hat, SAP and more, according to the announcement.

Avnet’s portfolio already includes authorized training from HP, IBM, the Linux Foundation, Veeam and VMware. ExitCertified’s training services will be added to the Avnet Education Solutions portfolio through Avnet Academy, the distributor said.

The addition of ExitCertified’s training portfolio is significant because it adds 9,500 authorized IT training courses from more than 20 technology vendors to Avnet’s current lineup, including courses on big data, cloud and security as well as converged and hyper-converged solutions. The distributor also believes the acquisition will help it to expand its education services portfolio into Latin America, APAC and EMEA, according to Mike Hurst, senior vice president of Avnet Global Services.

ExitCertified reported revenue of $24 million in fiscal year 2015, according to the announcement. Avnet expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to earnings and achieve the company’s corporate return on capital target, which currently sits at 12.5 percent.

Last month, Avnet Government Solutions announced an expansion of its General Services Administraton schedule with the addition of Catalogic Software’s data management products and solutions. Avnet also recently partnered with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to bring a selection of HPE’s servers to resellers in the United States.