Briefs: February 28, 2005

TECH DATA NAMES NEW VP

Ducatelli, senior vice president of U.S. sales, replaces Terry Bazzone, a 12-year Tech Data veteran who retired last summer. Ducatelli will report to Tech Data's president of the Americas, Ken Lamneck.

Ducatelli said he plans to spend the next 30 to 90 days working closely with Lamneck to identify "strategic initiatives that need to be driven, both from a client standpoint and revenue standpoint." He said it is too early to talk about specific changes.

"From a VAR standpoint, the underutilized market right now is around the midmarket and SMB space," Ducatelli said. "There is a tremendous amount of opportunity for Tech Data to help and support our VARs in that midmarket SMB space."

Ducatelli said he plans to put a "concerted emphasis" around Tech Data's specialized strategic business units, which he called a "significant value for Tech Data clients moving forward."

"I am really excited about the strategic business units," he said. "That is the unique capability we can bring to our business partners for specialization around higher value-added products and solutions. [Our customers] can tap into [the] expertise we have resident inside our organization to increase their value to their clients or, more important, to really expand the depth and breadth of offerings that they bring to the table."

INGRAM MICRO REPORTS 4Q EARNINGS ABOVE ESTIMATES
Ingram Micro beat revenue and earnings estimates for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004, ended Jan. 1, primarily because of favorable currency conversion rates and improved sales and operating efficiencies in its Asia-Pacific operations, according to the distributor.

Earnings for the quarter jumped 70.7 percent, to $79.2 million, or 48 cents per share, from $46.4 million, or 30 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Sales rose 10.2 percent, to $7.45 billion, compared with $6.76 billion in the same period last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call had expected earnings of 35 cents per share on $7.14 billion in sales.

The results include a $14.2 million gain, 8 cents a share, because of favorable currency exchange rates during the November 2004 acquisition of Tech Pacific, based in Australia.

In North America, Ingram Micro's quarterly sales increased 2 percent to $3.14 billion.

For the 2004 fiscal year, Ingram Micro's earnings rose 47.3 percent to $219.9 million, or $1.38 per share, compared with $149.2 million, or 98 cents a share, the previous year. Revenue was $25.46 billion, compared with $22.61 billion in the prior fiscal year.

North American revenue was $11.78 billion, a 7 percent increase.

CSC, SYMANTEC PARTNER TO OFFER MANAGED SECURITY
Systems integrator Computer Sciences Corp. and security vendor Symantec have joined forces to offer end-to-end managed security services.

Under the deal, Symantec will bolster CSC's security solutions with security monitoring services including intrusion detection, security device management, and data analysis and correlation.

In exchange, CSC will deliver Symantec solutions to its customer base and will work with Symantec MSSPs to sell the expanded solution to new companies as well. NOVELL SEES SLOWDOWN IN 1Q
Novell saw sluggish sales of NetWare, Linux and services in its 2005 fiscal first quarter, but CEO Jack Messman said he's optimistic that new Linux products and a new sales model will stimulate growth going forward.

The software vendor reported revenue of $290 million, a 9 percent year-over-year gain, for the quarter ended Jan. 31. NetWare sales fell 14 percent, while Suse Enterprise Linux Server 9 subscriptions rose by 21,000 during the quarter, a 4 percent sequential increase. During the quarter, the company recognized revenue of $15 million associated with Suse business overall, but only $7 million from new subscriptions.

Novell posted a first-quarter profit of $395.2 million, or 90 cents a share, which includes $448 million from the company's legal settlement with Microsoft. Excluding that settlement, Novell's earnings were $10 million, or 3 cents per share, the same as a year earlier.

Novell executives attributed the slowdown in NetWare sales to the impending release of Open Enterprise Server, which the company launched at LinuxWorld, and lackluster Suse Linux business amid Microsoft price cuts and possible customer use of unpaid Linux licenses.

SYSTEMAX TO RESTATE EARNINGS FOR 2003, PART OF 2004
Distributor and custom-system builder Systemax said it will be restating its financials for 2003 and for the first three quarters of 2004.

The company is currently completing its reviews of those time periods and will restate its historical results once finished, executives said.

The restatements result from the discovery of errors in accounting for inventory at its U.K. subsidiary, the company said. As a result of those errors, Systemax has replaced the senior management of the subsidiary and placed overall management of its U.K. business under control of its TigerDirect computer marketing operation.