1. Sure Revenue Decreased, But The Long View Looks Better
Reflecting the sour economy, total revenue for this year's VAR500 is $523,253,705,492, down roughly $47 billion from last year's $597,588,818,754, or a decline of 7.9 percent.
That revenue comprises various types of technology, including desktops and notebooks, backup and security. VARs tend to sell multiple vendors rather than put all their eggs in one basket. On average, for example, members of the VAR500 sell roughly four different brands of printers (see chart).
Once again, IBM Global Services topped the list. This year it appears at #1 with revenue of $55 billion, down 4 percent from 2008 sales of $57.3 billion. In fact, four of the top 10 VAR500 saw revenue declines. But six saw average growth of between 1 and 8 percent. HP Services vaulted to the number two spot -- and saw phenomenal growth of 32 percent -- based largely on the vendor's purchase of EDS in 2008.
10 Years Ago: The 2001 VAR500 generated more than $278 billion in 2000 revenue, some $30 billion more than they brought in the year before. The mean revenue for was $557 million; the 2010, the average revenue is roughly $1 billion, an 80 percent increase.
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