Two more insights into Avnet's acquisition of Abacus late last week. One from each side.
As I observed in last Friday's blog shortly after the deal had been announced it is Abacus's strong interconnect, passive and electromechanical (IP&E) component business which is the attraction for Avnet.
Harley Feldberg (pictured), president of Avnet EM (Electronic Marketing) confirmed my thoughts in a statement yesterday. "One of Electronic Marketing's key growth strategies has been to expand our IP&E business in all regions," he said. "The acquisition of Abacus represents an acceleration of that strategy in EMEA as it will double our IP&E sales and bring value added capabilities to our regional portfolio."
Avnet Time enjoyed a rocket fueled launch in Europe in the early 90s under the stewardship of Patrick Frizoni. Hardly a week went by in the early days without a new supplier clambering on board.
Following that start it has not as they say the horse racing world "trained on". It is an influential IP&E distributor, but probably not as much as it would like to be.
While Avnet Time can tick all the blue riband suppliers in IP&E, it doesn't have some of the fill in product lines which can be found on the Abacus linecard. In interconnect the UK distributor brings Cinch, Augat, Bulgin, Hypertac and Schaffner to the party. It adds amongst others, Oxley, Piher, Euroquartz and Rohm in passives and Hamlin, Halo, ITW, Lorlin and Schurter will boost the e-mech line up at Avnet Time. The trick will be to give them all enough focus to keep them on board.
It's a real shame to see the Abacus company sold. Under Martin Kent's stewardship, the company has grown, not least through a well chosen acquisition strategy. It was the difficulty in being able to continue that strategy, with high borrowings and a share price the company saw as undervalued, that caused the company's board to eye up buyers and settle for Avnet.
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