Datatec buys NZ distributor

Johannesburg - Datatec, the international information and communications technology (ICT) group, announced on Thursday it has acquired Datastor - a New Zealand ICT distribution business.

The acquisition provides Datatec's subsidiary Westcon Group with the opportunity to add an additional operation in New Zealand to help consolidate its existing business and create a market leading position that is complementary to Westcon Group's Asia Pacific distribution business. The cash consideration has been funded from Westcon Group's resources.

Datastor is a value-added distributor focusing on technology enablement and distribution of storage and virtualisation products, solutions and services, Datatec said in a statement.

Datastor has alliances with more than 20 global technology vendors including VMware, EMC, Seagate, APC, IBM and Juniper. The investment will also provide Westcon Group with a platform to extend existing global and regional vendor relationships through an increased customer footprint and market presence. For the year ending 31 March 2010 Datastor has budgeted revenues of NZ$96m (approximately $69m).

Jens Montanana, CEO of Datatec commented: "The Asia Pacific market has been the source of significant growth for Datatec over the past decade."

"This acquisition allows Westcon Group to extend its reach in the region and to service vendor demand by providing consolidated distribution channels and cross-border transactional capability for partners in Asia Pacific."

Dave Rosenberg, CEO of Datastor, commented: "Westcon Group's global reputation is very well regarded in the region and we are confident that this transaction will result in substantially increased support and solutions availability for Datastor's customer base. Access to Westcon's global best practices in value added distribution gives Datastor greater ability to grow our market share and to make alliances with new technology vendors."

- I-Net Bridge