Avnet Inc is consuming pan-European distributor Magirus Group for an undisclosed sum.

The agreement was made public today - just hours after it emerged that Ingram Micro is splashing $850m to acquire BrightPoint ($650m in cash and assuming $190m worth of debts).

Stuttgart-based Magirus offloaded its $500m enterprise hardware business to Avnet in 2007 to concentrate on high-margin segments of the tech industry including storage, intelligent networks, virtualisation and the cloud.

The vendor portfolio includes Cisco, Dell, EMC, VCE, Veeam and VMware, and services cover training, support, supply chains, marketing and finance.

"The acquisition of Magirus will significantly enhance our competitive position in Europe and the Middle East by expanding our suite of solutions in high-growth technologies," said Avnet Technology Solutions president Phil Gallagher.

Privately held Magirus, which was founded in 1981, grew sales 20 per cent in calendar 2011 to $530m. It will be folded into Avnet TS after the deal closes in October.

Ownership is split between the von Kuenheim and Magirus families in Germany and the Group Alghanim & Alkharafi, in Safat, Kuwait.

US enterprise giant Avnet has been one of the tech distribution sector's consolidators in recent years: it hoovered up Horizon, Bell Microproducts and in March reseller and consultancy Atech.

Magirus had no statement at the time of publication. ®