Warrington, United Kingdom – 7 November 2011, PC and PC Components Distributor VIP Computer Centre has acquired CMS Computers, a PC Assembler based in Liverpool. Following the acquisition VIP Computer Centre will have added another successful company under the group structure with a combined turnover well in excess of £200 Million.

CMS Computers are one of the UK’s largest channel serving systems builder, producing assembled PC’s for the UK IT industry. CMS Computers owns the Zoostorm and FizzBook brands. The company prides itself on providing high quality products backed by local customer service to the IT trade, resellers and retailers.

VIP is a trade only distributor of PC’s and PC Components, with the UK’s largest market share on computer components and have been growing their market share year on year. The CMS Computers acquisition creates synergies and opportunities for growth for both companies.

CMS Computers will be run independently by two of their current directors under the VIP Group. Sion Roberts and Ian Fraser commented that this is an exciting opportunity for CMS allowing us to further enhance the Zoostorm brand and increase market share. CMS will maintain its own identity and continue to trade as CMS Computers Limited.

Jatti Sahni, Chairman of VIP Computer Centre commented “CMS are the UK’s third largest independent PC builder in the UK and will grow further by maintaining their commitment to their business model with the added strength and support of VIP Group ”

Sahni concluded, “I am keen to leverage the strength of VIP Group to significantly acquire scale through a blend of organic growth and further strategic acquisitions within our chosen sectors"

On May 10, Microsoft announced that it bought Skype, an Internet communications vendor, for $8.5 billion. Dave Stevinson, Sales Director from VIP Computers agrees that there is great synergy between the two companies, and that its union will open many doors for the channel.

Like many, I was surprised to hear that Microsoft had bought internet phone and video service Skype for $8.5 billion last week, especially considering Skype incurred a net loss of $7 million last year on revenue of $860 million. And although the $8.5 billion price tag is well over what its worth, with most analysts valuing Skype at around $4 billion based on the company's 2010 revenue, they did manage to grow their user base by nearly 40% to 145 million users last year.

In its press release announcing the deal, Microsoft played up the potential synergies between Skype and its own communications offerings, including its Lync VOIP platform, Outlook mail, Messenger instant-messaging, Hotmail Web mail and Xbox Live gaming service.

The fact that Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of other Windows devices, spells tremendous opportunity for the channel.

With social networking getting more and more popular and devices embracing the internet more, Microsoft will really try to put Skype in all Windows powered devices and perhaps will strike deals to incorporate Skype in innovative products like Smart TVs and more, bringing benefits to both consumers and enterprise users and generating significant new business and revenue opportunities.

At VIP, we have recently bought on board a number of different vendors to enable us to leverage the surging popularity of video chat using smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. FaceVsion, a vendor of Skype-compatible HD webcams is one of these for example where this tie-up will help generate significant revenue opportunities.

Other areas looking poised for growth via this development include:

• Future versions of Windows will most definitely incorporate Skype, so opportunity for selling compatible peripherals to aid in peer-to-peer communication, such as HD webcams.

• Skype enabled tablets, this will be a welcomed feature for further penetration of the tablet market

• Windows powered smartphones with Skype embedded will offer substantial opportunities in the enterprise market.

Even though Microsoft’s largest acquisition (dollar-wise) in the history of the company has had mixed reactions, I think it presents some exciting opportunities ahead.

- Distributor sets up Miami office to help vendors penetrate difficult markets -

Warrington, United Kingdom – 14 April 2011, VIP Computers, the UK’s largest independent distributor of components, peripherals and consumer products has today announced the launch of their US office as the business continues to expand their global operations.

The office, located in Miami, has been established to support VIP’s vendors in Latin America and help them penetrate difficult markets. It’s opening builds on VIP's existing operations in the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Romania, Taiwan and most recently the Middle East where an office was opened in Dubai last year.

The Warrington-headquartered distributor will now begin working with Patriot & Pallit in the US, and start cementing longer term relationships in this key territory as VIP moves to diversify its offering outside its core expertise in distributing PC components.

Dave Stevinson, VIP Computer’s Sales Director said: “This is a key move for VIP as we position ourselves for growth. We are looking to support our vendors in emerging markets and Latin America offers substantial growth opportunities for all of us.”

Google’s Motorola acquisition, Steve Jobs stepping down at Apple and HP’s strategic shift are reshaping the mobility sector, says Dave Stevinson.

It started with Google buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn (£7.8bn), which will fundamentally alter the smartphone game. Explaining the acquisition, Google chief executive Larry Page said: “Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio. This will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.”

I see the Google-Motorola deal as a pivotal move that will shake up the tablet market. Analysts are even predicting that Android-based tablets will outsell the Apple iPad by 2013. But there is still a lot of work for Google to do - to generate these big sales numbers, it is going to have to sell to enterprise. Getting this channel in place quickly will be paramount.

As if that were not enough excitement, three days later HP discontinued its webOS device operations, including the just-released TouchPad tablet and webOS smartphones. This shows how hard it is for a company to control both the hardware and the software. HP was lacking a non-hardware ecosystem to support its smartphones; Apple has iTunes, the App Store, and a developer platform.

The market is ripe for upheaval and HP will not be the last to bow out. But the vendor must now communicate quickly with partners on its mobility strategy and how it fits with client devices.

Steve Jobs is no longer Apple chief executive - a third blow in mobility. However, at this early stage analysts seem to think that the company will survive its co-founder’s handing the reins to Tim Cook.

Meanwhile, though, firms looking to deploy or support Apple products still face a lack of assistance from the company and its channel partners. This is a massive enterprise opportunity for Apple or LARs offering after-market parts and services.

The iPhone 5 is expected very soon, and the next iPad some time in early 2012, so Apple also needs to start talking with the channel about this, to open up the enterprise market.

Where should services providers place their bets? One thing is clear: every vendor must develop a channel strategy for smartphones and tablets. Vendors that want to win share with high-margin mid-market and enterprise customers should establish relationships with partners that can secure and manage these new devices for them.