CDW Wraps $2.5 Billion Sirius Acquisition

IT giant CDW has closed on its purchase of Sirius, the VAR and MSP behemoth — a $2.5 billion deal.

CDW expects the acquisition to accelerate and enhance its services and solutions capabilities in key growth areas. Those include hybrid hybrid infrastructure, security, digital and data innovation, and cloud and managed services.

CDW generated net sales of more than $20 billion in its last fiscal year.

Delivering More to Customers

CDW’s Christine  Leahy

Christine Leahy is president and chief executive officer of CDW.

“We are excited to officially welcome the talented Sirius team to CDW. Through this transaction, we meaningfully expand and scale our services and solutions capabilities and further enhance our ability to solve customers’ increasing interconnected and complex technology challenges,” Leahy said. “The addition of Sirius strengthens our role as the trusted technology adviser to our customers, with the expertise and portfolio breadth, depth and scale to orchestrate complete customer-centric outcomes across the full technology solutions stack and life cycle. I am confident in our ability to leverage our common values and collective unparalleled expertise to deliver the best customer and partner experiences and create value for CDW shareholders.”

Joe Mertens is Sirius president and CEO.

Sirius’ Joe Mertens

“CDW and Sirius share common values and a commitment to delivering an outstanding customer experience. Together, we will have the ability to broaden our reach and deliver even more value to our customers, who we expect to benefit substantially from the accelerated services and solutions mix, scale and efficiency of the combined company.”

Expert Reaction

The acquisition may not completely diversify CDW’s portfolio because its gains are primarily in similar vertical markets. That’s according to Hansa Iyengar, principal analyst in Omdia’s enterprise technology advisory service. Iyengar spoke with Channel Futures in October when the acquisition was initially announced. In addition, she said another drawback of the deal is that offshore presence remains limited for the combined entity. This makes it more difficult to compete with other system integrators on price when competing for high-value deals.

However, Frank Rauch, head of cybersecurity company Check Point Software, sees it differently. He told us that both companies have made significant investments in enablement and demand generation. This will allow companies like his to benefit in terms of market reach, new customer acquisition and accelerated adoption of emerging technologies.