Avnet Technology Solutions' senior veep EMEA Gary Coburn has left the distributor following a divisional tweak designed to reduce management costs.

As part of the move, Avnet has handed Miriam Murphy - SVP of the IBM Product Business Group - control of the Business Product Group that had previously been managed by Coburn.

Coburn joined Avnet via its 2007 acquisition of Horizon. He told The Register that his departure was "amicable".

"I'm looking seriously at some opportunities in the software industry," he said, but was unable to comment further.

Sources said that putting the IBM business alongside the other enterprise vendors – including HP, Juniper and Oracle – under the control of Murphy would have no bearing on the daily running of the groups.

Others said it was normal practice that all distributors "align the cost base to the market conditions, every business has ongoing cost readjustment".

Avnet was unavailable to comment further. ®