American Power Conversion, the market leader in computer-power protection, data-center power systems and cooling, is now a French company. Schneider Electric announced this morning that it will acquire West Kingston, R.I.-based APC for $6.1 billion, roughly four times the company's revenue and 25 percent above its stock value.

It's been a rough year for APC, suffering from a series of executive turnovers -- particularly in its channel program. Last spring, Peter Klanian, who was APC's channel chief and a 12-year company veteran, quietly left the company to run channels at emerging managed services enabler SilverBack Technologies.

Then, in August, longtime president and CEO Rodger Dowdell announced his retirement. After 21 years at the helm, Dowdell said it was time for him to enjoy the fruits of his labor. However, insiders say Dowdell's departure was more likely a result of flagging stock prices and valuations.

While APC pushed deeper into cooling technology and physical security with its NetBotz acquisition, it faced stiffer competition from longtime rivals, namely Liebert and Tripp Lite. At the same time, France-based MGE was making greater forays into the U.S. channel.

In the soon-to-be-released VARBusiness 2007 State of the Market survey, solution providers rated vendor consolidation as a moderate detriment to their businesses. Smaller VARs are more affected by consolidation, while large VARs see such M&A activity as a positive.

My question: What does this deal say about the power-protection market? If I look at the market leaders, they're typically subsidiaries of larger companies. Liebert is a subsidiary of Emerson. APC is now a subsidiary of Schneider. Eaton, an industrial power management vendor, acquired Powerware two years ago. Is this a trend where power protection will fold into the background of physical plant infrastructure? And, if so, what does that mean for the traditional IT channel that sells power solutions?

I doubt we'll see U.S. solution providers rejecting french fries over the Schneider/APC deal. But, from where I sit, we may be seeing a new era for the power-protection market and a shift in the channel. Power on, Paris!