Ingram Micro Shuffles Execs, Avnet Buys Services Firm

While the IT industry last week took a collective holiday break, two distribution giants made moves worth noting: Ingram Micro (NYSE: IM)  made three executive management appointments impacting its consumer electronics division, and Avnet (NYSE: AVT) scooped up  TSSLink to beef up its services expertise.

At Ingram Micro, Brent McCarthy moves from executive director and general manager of the distributor’s Consumer Electronics unit to executive managing director of the U.K. and Ireland operations, replacing Matt Sanderson, who returns to Australia to head the company’s operations down under. Tom Bamrick, who most recently served as executive director of Global Sales and handled global partner development, will take McCarthy’s former post.

McCarty has led Ingram’s Consumer Electronics unit since 2009, after heading VAR sales for Ingram’s Canada division. He will report to Johan Vandenbussche, regional vice president, U.K., Belgium and Netherlands, with Ingram’s EMEA operation. Bamrick, who joined Ingram in 1994, will report to Brian Wiser, Ingram Specialty Division senior vice president.

Paul Bay, Ingram North America president, called McCarthy and Bamrick “seasoned and respected industry leaders, and we are confident they will deliver new growth and opportunity for our business.”

Meanwhile, Ingram rival Avnet continued to flesh out its services lineup by purchasing TSSLink, a $10.5 million, San Jose, Calif.-based IT professional services organization specializing in consulting for storage and virtualization solutions.

TSSLink, which provides technical support, consulting and outsourcing services, field product installation, end-user training and technical staffing, will be folded into the services organization of Avnet’s Technology Solutions (ATS) distribution arm. The eight-year old TSSLink also provides IT audit and compliance leadership, disaster recovery and business continuity planning consulting and technical support.

“A key component of our solutions distribution strategy is the ability to drive growth for our suppliers and value-added resellers in markets where demand is continually increasing, such as storage and virtualization,” said Jeff Bawol, ATS president.

Avnet said that the TSSLink acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings and that it maps to the company’s stated goal of 12.5 percent return on capital. The purchase price was not disclosed.

In the last year, Avnet has made significant gains to its services capabilities with a number of key acquisitions, including last October’s purchase of BrightStar Partners (BSP), a Rolling Meadows, Ill.-based, $10 million consulting specialist in IBM (NYSE: IBM) business analytics and performance management, and BSP Software, its software development unit. In March, Avnet acquired Ascendant Technology, an IBM middleware reseller and consultant, continued its shopping spree in July by adding Mattelli, an IT contract compliance solution provider, then in August buying Pepperweed Consulting, an HP (NYSE: HPQ) Software Elite Partner.

So far, Avnet appears to be keeping the requisite arm’s length distance from its acquisitions that otherwise might pose questions of impropriety owing to a perceived conflict of interest.

In mid-December 2012, Avnet tapped Kevin Moriarty, a 10-year veteran of Honeywell International’s (NYSE: HON) aerospace business, as its new chief financial officer (CFO) to succeed Ray Sadowski, a 34-year company veteran retiring from the post after a 20-year stint.