MERLION acquired the distribution business of Verysell companies Group, having considerably strengthened its competence in the field of Enterprise VAD. The transaction allowed MERLION to attract 20 direct vendor agreements in the field of software and hardware Enterprise solutions into its portfolio, a team of highly-qualified specialists in the field of complex solutions promotion (over 70 employees), 5 regional branches in Russia and an office in Kazakhstan.
July 6, 2011. Russian leading IT-distributor MERLION informs about completion of the transaction on acquisition of the distribution business of Verysell Group of Companies, known in the market under the trademark “Verysell Distribution”, started at the end of January.
For MERLION this transaction is aimed at building up the VAD-constituent of the distribution business in the field of Enterprise solutions (both software and hardware), being a strategic activity of the company: this area has made a breakthrough for the last three years, having risen from the 10th to the 3rd line in Top-10 of commodity areas with a 5% share in the distributor’s turnover.
“Having set the course to the accelerated development of such an important area as VAD, we paid our attention to Verysell Distribution – one of the fathers of VAD-business in Russia and historical leader of this market. Acquiring the required competence in this field by acquisition of Verysell Distribution business, we count on the synergetic effect from the merger – our plans are to triple the turnover of VAD-area in the distribution business of our company by the end of 2012”, - Vyacheslav Simonenko, General director of MERLION notes.
This transaction is unique for the Russian IT-market both by the scale of the companies taking part in M&A and by the complexity of businesses, involved into the transaction. Within acquisition of Verysell Distribution MERLION got 20 direct vendor agreements into its portfolio: Acronis/ Parallels, Alcatel-Lucent, Allied Telesis, Eaton, Enterasys Networks, Fujitsu Technology Solutions, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), Huawei Technologies, Microsoft FG and OEM, NetApp, Nokia Siemens Networks, Oracle, Quest Software, Siemens Enterprise Communications, Symantec, Tripp Lite, Veeam Software, VMware, ZTE.
The transaction also allowed MERLION to expand the geographical presence at the expense of getting regional offices of Verysell Distribution not only on the territory of the Russian Federation (in Bryansk, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Rostov-Don and Samara) but also in the near-abroad countries – Kazakhstan (the city of Almaty).
MERLION intends to ensure intensive development of the VAD-constituent of its business, using the best performances of the merged company in the field of distribution, preserving the formed team of Verysell Distribution, business with vendors and clients.
Roman Sychev, who earlier held the position of the vice-president of The Sputnik Group investment company, acted as the financial advisor.
The financial part, as well as the other aspects of the transaction, are not disclosed.
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