Channel Brief: Ingram Micro Drops Broadcom to ‘Transform Relationships, Not Just Transact Sales’

Ingram Micro and Broadcom will be curtailing their distribution relationship in early January.  Ingram Micro told ChannelE2E that it will no longer do business with Broadcom, and it will have limited engagement with VMware in select regions. (Neither of these relationships is material to Ingram Micro’s business, the distribution giant told ChannelE2E.)

“For us and the more than 1,500 vendors and 161K customers we work with, the future business is focused on transforming relationships, not just transacting sales,” an Ingram Micro spokesperson told ChannelE2E.

In a LinkedIn post Canalys Chief Analyst Jay McBain noted that Broadcom just achieved “the $1 trillion valuation plateau,” and reshared his predictions from 10 months ago about the trajectory of the company following the completion of its VMware acquisition.

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Today’s Tech, Channel and MSP News

1. ‘Tis the Season for acquisitions – MSP compliance-as-a-service platform provider Compliance Scorecard has acquired PrivacyMSP, a specialty consulting firm focused on helping clients reduce risk and ensure compliance and governance to meet privacy regulations. PrivacyMSP founder Brian Blakley will join Compliance Scorecard as chief risk officer and will head the newly created Professional Services Division, providing customized service packages designed to guide MSPs through every step of their compliance journey.

2. And another acquisition - MSP and channel partner marketplace AppDirect has acquired IT asset management platform Firstbase. Financial details were not disclosed. Firstbase is backed by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins. The deal opens new go-to-market channels for Firstbase.

3. MSP expansion and talent acquisition – Blue Mantis (previously known as GreenPages) has expanded its service offerings in recent years and now offers digital strategy and services including cybersecurity, cloud and AI.  Now the company has introduced a Strategic Advisory Services Practice to provide clients with an expanded portfolio of structured digital advisory services that will further accelerate IT modernization and support business growth, increase innovation and maximize their IT-driven business outcomes, Blue Mantis said in a statement.  IT and consulting services industry veterans Richard Amos and Sean Foley are joining Blue Mantis as Vice Presidents to lead the Strategic Advisory Services Practice.  They are both former executive partners with Arborpoint Advisory Group. 

4. Cozying up to the channel - Cybersecurity specialist vendor Kindo has launched a channel partner program for value added resellers (VARs), MSPs and other technology partners. The program calls for partners to deliver Kindo’s AI-augmented security operations to DevSecOps teams.

5. Outage liability – Crowdstrike has asked a Georgia court to dismiss Delta’s claims against it in relation to the worldwide IT outage in July 2024 caused by a Crowdstrike update.

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