Tech Data announces a change in leadership, as COO Richard T. Hume takes the reigns of the company after current CEO Bob Dutkowsky steps down from his position after over a decade in charge.

Hume assumes the CEO position-- a "culmination of the board's leadership succession plan," as the distributor puts it-- on 6 June 2018. In turn, Dutkowsky becomes executive chairman of the board.

The Misco European business appears to be in trouble, as the distributor has closed down operations in Italy and Spain, at least judging from the messages left on the websites of the aforementioned subsidiaries.

Currently the Misco Italy and Spain websites bear the statement "Thank you for your business and continued interest in Misco. We regret to inform you that Misco has stopped trading directly in your country." In other words, Italian or Spanish customers wanting to deal with Misco have to do so via the Dutch subsidiary.

By Braham Shnider

The sale of physical products (something with a SKU number) and some horizontal-based consumption based services (mainly IaaS) will be dominated by a small number of mega channels. In this blog I will deal with why this is going to happen, what the future will look like and the implications for us all.

Let’s begin with “Why?”

As I wrote in an earlier blog, we as individual consumers are increasingly using B2C digital sales channels over traditional consumer channels. Through advanced analytics, B2C digital sales channels know what and who we like or not, who we are influenced by, what we want to buy, how price sensitive we are etc. As B2B customers, many of us also want this hyper-personalized customer experience in the B2B buying process. Most business customers prefer to do their own research using search, social media, chat, blogs etc.

The board of Nordic reseller Dustin chooses Thomas Ekman as new president and CEO, a position he will assume from 1 January 2018. He succeeds Georgi Ganev, who leaves the position by end 2017.

Ekman joins Dustin from the Cabonline Group, where he was CEO. Previous to that he was CEO of Tele 2, and is currently a member of the Com Hem board.

Tech Data follows on the €2.45bn acquisition of the Avnet Technology Solutions business with a rebranding effort-- one establishing a single brand across all markets throughout the world.

The rebrand does not involve a logo change, but the company colour palette and graphic devices are updates to "incorporate both [the company's] foundation and new dimensions."

"As we evolve our business in anticipation of what's next, the Tech Data brand has evolved as well. Today we are proud to introduce the new Tech Data and the next chapter in the history of our company," CEO Bob Dutkowsky says. "Our new global brand is centered on the proven strength of the Tech Data name and provides a unified promise of integrity, expertise and excellence."

Pan-European IT and technology distributor EET Group announces Søren Drewsen as CEO. He succeeds John Thomas, who steps down after a 20-year tenure in order to "spend more time with his family."

Thomas will remain at EET Group as a member of the board, as well as shareholder along majority owner FSN Capital. His successor, Søren Drewsen, joins EET Group from a position as VP and group managing director and head of N. Europe at UK-based roofing systems manufacturer Icopal/BMI Group. He holds a Master of Science and Bachelor degrees in both Marketing and Organisation from Copenhagen Business School.

Storit, the holding company of CMS Distribution, announces a record fiscal 2016 with revenue increasing by 82% over 2015 to £325 million. Profits are up by 126%, reaching £12.3m.

"Our Enterprise business continued to outpace the market, driving strong growth in security, information management, storage and open source technologies, along with our Retail channels, which also delivered high growth," CEO Frank Salmon says. "As our customers continue to deliver innovation around digital transformation, the business portfolio continues to drive change and open doors to new thriving markets.”

Systemax offloads nearly all of its European Technology Products Group (aka Misco)-- outside of still profitable operations in France-- for an undisclosed sum to Hilco Capital.

The transaction sees Misco acquired by a new company formed by the management buy-in team led by Hilco and former Selection Services CEO Alan Cantwell. Hilco is a specialist in taking over ailing businesses, having acquired the Staples UK retail business in November 2016 and HMV back in 2013.