Viglen's financial performance has improved, meaning chief exec Bordan Tkachuk and chairman Claude Littner will avoid Lord Sugar's fearsome finger - which is usually waved about when numbers are down or Apprentice wannabes get the boot. For the year ended 30 September, the public-sector-focused provider of PCs, storage and …

Oracle is claiming victory in a case of alleged grey market trading against a US business that sells network, software and services management support to the enterprise. ServiceKey and its CEO Angela Vines inked a settlement deal with Larry's lot at the end of last month. The lawsuit was filed by Oracle in February 2012, with …

Carl Fiorentino, a former president at reseller Systemax, has been charged with accepting bribes worth millions of dollars in return for directing $230m worth of business to certain components suppliers. He was arrested yesterday and released on a $1m personal surety bond. If the name sounds familiar, that's because it is: his …

An updated Windows 8 from Microsoft will NOT be the "miracle cure" for traditional PC makers in need of a sales and profits injection. And that's according to IT biz analysts Context. This is the second technology distribution channel watcher in a week to warn that Redmond's touch-friendly operating system tweak, namely version …

HP has snatched the reins of its bogged-down global PC and printer biz from exec Todd Bradley, just a year after stitching the units together, as it struggles to compete in the mobile slablet world. Confirmation came from HP HQ this afternoon that Bradley is being put out to pasture installed as exec veep for Strategy Growth …

Biz broadband and comms giant Daisy Group has faced a challenging 12 months as its operating losses widened and organic growth stalled. In its financial year to 31 March 2013, the company-gobbling Lancashire-headquartered firm recorded revenues of £351.5m - up less than one per cent on the previous year. It also completed two …

Quadrant Visual Solutions (QVS) has shut up shop after 25 years in business, having succumbed to the oldest business-killer of all: it ran out of cash. The Derbyshire-based AV integrator and IT reseller ceased trading on 7 June and a credit meeting has been called for the 28 June. Former XMA IT Solutions director and QVS …

Former G-Cloud supremo Denise McDonagh was handed a CBE in Her Maj's birthday honours list at the weekend for services to the IT services industry. McDonagh climbed onto the cloudy bandwagon roughly 14 months ago as programme director for the G-Cloud framework, replacing her rather more outspoken predecessor Chris Chant, who …

British comms provider Azzurri has rejected suggestions that its finances are so precarious it has been forced it to tap up fellow resellers for product. Azzurri provides various well-known UK firms and government departments with comms and data services, reselling a range of vendor products in the telecomms, networking and …

HP will axe workers in Sheffield and shunt their roles to Renfrewshire in Scotland to bag a £7m grant from the Scottish government, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) trade union claims. It's understood the multimillion-pound grant from the public purse is a reward for boosting local employment. About a third of support …

The founder and former owner of telco integrator QiComm has been acquitted of money-laundering charges brought by HMRC - but said this came too late in the day to keep his biz afloat. Thuraisamy Pathmanabhan, also known as Pat Nabahm, was charged with conspiracy to conceal, disguise, convert, transfer or remove criminal property …

Tech suppliers wading through the government's latest bizarre 150-page online questionnaire are asking if the folks in the public sector are smoking something – other than taxpayers' money, anyway. The Supplier Information Database (SID) for Government is designed to give buyers across public sector access to information on …

Firms paid by Microsoft to sell its products are still waiting a brand-spanking-new business intelligence and analytics tool that the Redmond giant promised to deliver by February. The resellers had hoped the once crash-prone Microsoft's Partner Sales Exchange (PSE) would be improved by the addition of the new sales-tracking and …

Security biz AVG has put its hand in its pocket to buy remote monitoring and management (RMM) software player LPI Level Platforms as it tries to appeal to a wider bunch of channel firms. AVG shifted all its wares into the cloud late autumn and to date has signed up just 1,500 of the 5,000 channel partners it has in the UK and …

Hosting and managed services players are about to face a heated battle as comms bigwig Vodafone prepares to jump into the market later this year, sources close to the vendor are claiming. The telco acquired Cable & Wireless Worldwide in the spring of 2012 and sucked up a load of hosting and management service capability that is …

The federal probe into the alleged book-cooking at Autonomy prior to its acquisition by HP could take years to play out, according to reports. This will not be music to the ears of Mike Lynch, former CEO of Cambridge-based Autonomy, who stands accused, along with his fellow directors, of deceptive accounting irregularities that …

Microsoft's Windows 8.1 update and the rise of tablet-cum-laptop PCs may boost sales for the software titan and its hardware-making pals - but it won't happen anytime soon. Or so predicts IT distribution channel beancounter Canalys in its global shipment forecast for 2013: the analysts estimates little more than 493 million PCs …

Channel veteran Sam Kazerounian has climbed back on the daily treadmill after breaking his self imposed employment exile to become MD at Centreprise. Kazerounian sold Compusys to Stone Group back in 2006 to create a £100m turnover biz and then hung up his boots when the business was integrated. Well practically. He set up Ziboo …

Slogging it out in the licensing sales game is a tough business. Scale is a requisite to compensate for thinning margins, and vendors are constantly chopping away at back-end fees. Microsoft large account reseller (LAR) Comparex typifies the challenge facing software resellers, and the net margin strain can be seen in their …

Tech Data has warned it will fail to report its fiscal first-quarter financial numbers to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on time due to a continuing investigation into its accounting errors. The channel biz has 45 days from the end of April to file the paperwork, but says it will sail through that deadline. The world …

Enta Technologies has claimed that a judgment given at the Royal Courts of Justice (RCJ) last week ordered HMRC to compensate it over a gaffe related to a winding-up petition. As revealed by El Chan, the London Gazette erroneously stated on 29 May that HMRC had issued a winding-up petition against the tech distie, to be heard at …

Management at Trustmarque Solutions (TMS) have completed a buy-out of the business for £43m with the financial backing of mid-market private equity specialist Dunedin. The MBO was headed by CEO Scott Haddow and sales and marketing director Angelo di Ventura, a pair that were brought on board by previous VC partner Lloyds …

If flat is the new growth in the channel then comms services provider Kcom turned in a reasonably steady performance for fiscal '13 ended in March. Turnover dipped 3.7 per cent on the previous fiscal to £372.9m, and operating profit came in nearly five per cent down year-on-year to £54.9m including £2.2m of personnel …

The tech distribution channel knew the first quarter of 2013 was tough on UK server sales - but until now it was not apparent exactly how bad it was: it was a bloodbath. And what's more worrying, it isn't going to get markedly better over this year - i.e a return to growth - with analysts forecasting a single digit decline. …

IT reseller giant Computacenter has smoked out a bunch of squatters who took up residence at its former offices in London. The rent-freetards had set up camp after finding a way into the building, which is next door to the company's headquarters in Blackfriars. But the vagabonds spent just a few nights in the premises before …

Services-based reseller Keltec has reported a double digit drop in sales and profits for 2012, amid claims from management that some of its customers remain jittery about the economic recovery and are refusing to sign off new projects. The reseller, headquartered in Bracknell, has filed full calendar year results at Companies …

Network Fail Rail has canned more than 260 IT suppliers after wrapping up all its tech requirements in a single framework with five hefty integrators. Places within the agreement were handed to Accenture, BAE Systems Detica, Cognizant, CSC and TCS, allowing them to bid for contracts as they are tendered. Network Rail operates …

Government Digital Services is evaluating the level of resources set aside for the G-Cloud after taking control of the framework. To date G-Cloud has been running thin on the ground with just five bods in the team tasked with leading the supposed revolution in public sector tech procurement. A Cabinet Office spokesman informs …

Michael Dell may have to hold off on those gold taps for the bathtub in the corporate jet, or set his sights on a slightly less horizon-girdling Texan ranch after seeing his total compensation tumble at the company which bears his name. The founder and CEO at Dell, the firm he plans to take private again, saw his package shrink …

Managers at the beleaguered Phoenix IT group haven't had much luck in fiscal '13, with personnel changes, accounting woes and the flatlining economy all weighing heavily on them. The meagre fruits of their labour were laid bare yesterday. Phoenix made an underlying profit from operations of £19m in the twelve months to 31 March …

Ingram Micro has parted with Jon Bunyard, the director of its Advanced Solutions Division (ASD) in a management rejig. Channel veteran Bunyard ran Computacenter's distribution (CCD) wing and transferred with the business when it was acquired by Ingram in 2009, and later rebranded as Ingram Micro Value. The unit underwent …

Microsoft's senior UK OEM director Gary Fowle is transferring to the same role in the firm's Singapore operation. Fowle rocked up at the software titan in September 2009, with a remit that included working with big PC players and what was left of the local builder community. He replaced Alison Dodds, who was once tipped for the …

Telford-based distributor Enta Technologies is taking legal advice after Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs incorrectly notified the London Gazette that it had issued a winding-up order against the company. The official journal of record yesterday listed the distributor as facing a petition from HMRC, supposedly to be heard on 10 …

A raft of government reforms, including eight major IT projects, are at risk of failure, according to a report from the Major Projects Authority (MPA). The MPA was formed within the Cabinet Office's Efficiency & Reform Group (ERG) in 2011 to help government get a better handle on the multi-billion pound contracts handled by …

Cisco is running a pilot with Gold-accredited channel partner Logicalis to ascertain the impact that sales programmes designed in the US have had on the operation in Britain. Vendors invariably construct schemes for channel players in their homeland and then distribute them globally without making any adjustments for local …

The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) - which investigates whistleblowers' allegations of organisations and individuals using pirated software - said half of the copyright-infringement claims it dealt with last year that were settled out of court involved Microsoft wares. The federation today disclosed its stats for the …

Tens of thousands of UK retailers will go pop over the next five years, leaving hundreds of thousands of their employees scratching about for work, says the Centre of Retail Research (CRR). In a particularly bleak forecast, the sector-watcher says close to 62,000 of the near 282,000 outlets currently open for business in Blighty …

Top brass at print consultancy the Danwood Group axed 200 staff as part of an operational review following the discovery of systemic accounting errors relating to services contracts. The details of the job cuts were laid bare in a Companies House filing today for the Lincoln-based HP, Xerox and Canon sales biz, covering results …

Charl Snyman, a senior figure in HP's European PC wing, has left the company, The Channel can reveal. Snyman landed at HP in 1999 as EMEA sales development manager, and rose through the ranks to regional veep for category management at the Printing & Personal Systems (PPS) unit. Sources close to the company claimed HP CEO Meg …

One of Europe's largest resellers, London-based Computacenter, has helped investors get the Bank Holiday weekend off to a good start by confirming plans to return £75m to them. Computacenter said in a statement to the City that it is proposing a one-off "return of value" to shareholders of 48.7 pence per ordinary share. The £ …

Total Computer Networks (TCN) booked another double-digit sales hike in calendar 2012 on the back of a surge in consolidation projects from mid-market customers. The Northampton-based HP- and Microsoft-Gold accredited partner saw turnover bounce 22 per cent, year on year, to a little over £20m - during the worst recessionary …

Westcon has waved goodbye to long serving chief abacus stroker John O'Malley who resigned after nearly 14 years service The industry veteran was made CFO in 1999 and added exec veep to his title in 2006. He leaves on 3 June to "pursue other business opportunities", parent company Datatec has confirmed. Group president and CEO …

US managed services provider ServiceKey has walked away from legal action brought by Oracle over an alleged "grey market conspiracy" without having to cough a bean in compensation. The software titan's legal eagles filed a lawsuit against two US channel firms in February 2012, including Georgia-based ServiceKey and Delaware- …

Northamber's audio-visual general manager Allan Mack has left after less than three years at the shrinking tech distributor, The Channel can reveal. According to company insiders, Louise Honeywill - a product manager at the Surrey-based wholesaler - is filling in for Mack until a full-time successor is found. Mack, a channel …

PC maker Lenovo appears to drawing ever closer to its goal of seizing the global box-shifting crown from giant HP. The Chinese dragon's momentum, built up over the last few years, shows no sign of slowing. The company had to sort out some small integration issues of swallowing IBM's PC business in 2004, but after six years of …

Ditching dodgy software can rescue not just the UK from its financial worries, but the entire world, or so says the latest study from the Business Software Alliance. The BSA, comprising vendors including Microsoft, CA, Adobe, Apple and others, commissioned biz school INSEAD (once known as the Institut Européen d'Administration …

The wait is almost over for any Brit wanting to take a punt on a homegrown cloud services firm: the UK-based Outsourcery is poised to list on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM)* this Friday. The Manchester-headquartered business is placing a little more than 11.5 million Ordinary Shares at 110 pence giving it a market …

It's all change in the upper echelons of IBM's UK and Ireland Systems Technology Group: its vice-president Shaun Coulson has handed control of the unit to Tosca Colangeli amid channel talk of collapsing server sales. Colangeli is a ten-year-plus IBM veteran who most recently served as veep for Big Blue's Computer Services …

CCS Media is laughing all the way to the bank after reporting soaring profits for calendar 2012 in spite of rocketing costs and biting economic conditions. The Chesterfield-headquartered reseller reported operating profit of £1.38m compared to £669,000 in the previous year, and net profit moved up to £1.07m from £468,000. Sales …

Flash array startup Violin Memory has hired Steven Rose to head up both the EMEA and Latin America operations. Rose's appointment was announced on 16 May, and he will, Violin said, "lead regional market awareness [and] go-to-market strategies". Rose comes to Violin from Informatica, where he was the SVP for EMEA and LATAM. …