Distie deal thrills, Orcon spills and dollar bills

Six months is a long time in the New Zealand channel market.

And as the industry approaches such a milestone in 2014, The Channel runs through what has got Kiwis talking so far this year, from January 1 to the present day.

Following months of negotiations, Renaissance started March by completing the $14m sale of the Yoobee School of Design with the Academic Colleges Group (ACG).

Yet for shareholders hoping to receive some cash from the sale, chairman Colin Giffney was quick to note that the company’s preference is to ‘fix retail first – whatever that may entail.’

Coming just days after the embattled company completed the sale of its Yoobee Design School, Renaissance also agreed the sale of its Yoobee Apple computer retailing operation, for a measly $1.

Terms of the deal saw Logical Systems Limited acquire the assets, fixtures and fittings of the retail business for just $1, that’s right, $1.

Luckily for Renaissance, the internet service provider space provided the tech industry with distraction, as five companies made bids for ISP Orcon.

Three names who submitted indicative bids were 2degrees, CallPlus and The Warehouse, but following investigation by The Channel, The Warehouse issued the following response:

“The Warehouse Group has absolutely no intention of being involved in the bid and due diligence activity for Orcon.”

With The Warehouse distancing itself from any potential deal, that left CallPlus and 2degrees as the apparent frontrunners, but even two months down the line, no company has yet to make a further bid for the firm.

Back to the channel market and it Ingram Micro recorded a big market win, snaffling the New Zealand distribution of Storagecraft products from Westcon.

In early January, the distributor advertised for a new business development manager for a ‘new role, new vendor, new opportunities’ - with the company confirming plans to appoint a dedicated resource to manage the StorageCraft brand in the country.

As the month winded down further big news impacted the market after Dicker Data shareholders gave the $65.5 million purchase of Express Data the greenlight.

In a notice to the ASX, Dicker Data chairman and chief executive David Dicker said “Initially the $65.5 million for the acquisition of ED will be in the form of a bridging facility for a period of 18 days, whereby the purchase price will be paid to the vendor.

Check back to The Channel tomorrow for a look back at the big stories in April.

What’s got you talking this year?