Microsoft has postponed the UK implementation of a rebate rejig in response to biting partner feedback. Large account resellers were last month warned by the software monster that it would shelve Manage and Deploy fees from January and bump up those for Renewals. Reaction from the partner base was mixed - some said the move …

Microsoft says that a planned overhaul of volume licensing pricing due in the summer will be capped at single digit percentage rises. Redmond said that Open, Select and Select Plus agreements struck in the UK after 1 July would be aligned to euro prices and charged based on the exchange rate with sterling. "Based on the …

Microsoft large account reseller COMPAREX has acquired Indian software and IT services firm IRIS Unified Technologies for an undisclosed sum. The deal follows the formation of a sub in the country's capital Delhi earlier this year and underpins the reseller's push into Asia-Pacific. "I want to stress my belief that India has …

The expected hordes of customers gathering to renew Microsoft volume licensing agreements before the planned price hike next month failed to show up, say a bunch of reseller sources. With the UK price list set to rise between 1.7 per cent to 25.9 per cent from 1 July, the software maker and partners reckoned on a mad rush from …

Surrey-based Bytes Technology Group has swallowed Security Partnerships (SP) in a bid to start reducing its software division's reliance on Microsoft licensing. Bytes has forked out for a couple of Xerox concessionaires in the past half decade, buying Xclusive in 2006 and Planflow Systems two years later, but has been relatively …

Phil Doye acknowledges that 21 years after setting up reseller Kelway, he still doesn't have a key for the exit. The London-based firm is moving to rapidly integrate new buy Equanet, the once mighty IT dealer that was taken over by Dixons in 2007 and subsequently pulled apart and bent out of shape. The transaction is expected …

Microsoft has anointed a secret guild of Large Account Resellers to service its biggest licensing customers in the UK. Under a re-classification, all 18 UK LARS will be authorised to sell to global customers, termed by the vendor as major accounts. But only a select band will qualify for the incentive programme kicking off on 1 …

A slew of management changes have swept across the channel as the silly season starts in earnest. Distie veteran Alice Smitheman, marketing director at Azlan is set to join Avnet Technology Solutions as EMEA veep of operational excellence, a role that includes fine-tuning the firm's logistics engine. Graeme Watt, EMEA president …

Former Cisco UK boss Alan Watkins has jumped the fence into the channel with the buyout of Teksys, a Microsoft LAR (large account reseller). The buy could set off a wave of consolidation in the Microsoft channel, as Watkins and his business partner Kevin Lewis look to buy further Microsoft specialists. Microsoft itself has …

PC Mall, the California-based direct marketing reseller, is to acquire Sarcom - "one of (America's) largest independent IT solution providers" - for $55m. More or less: some $19.6m of the purchase price is contingent on net assets declared by Sarcom. So the money could move up or down, depending on what the auditors find out. …

Teksys has snaffled the assets of a smaller rival reseller called Technology Made Simple, usually better known as Tech MS. Terms are undisclosed. Tech MS has a drawer full of badges: it is a Microsoft Gold Partner, an HP Platinum partner and a partner of VMWare and Citrix. The West-London based firm has been growing fast. It …

PC-WARE, the big German-owned reseller, is buying Danish reseller Ravenholm Computing Group for an undisclosed sum. Copenhagen-based Ravenholm has annual sales of €70m and is the market leader in Scandinavia for software licensing, according to PC-WARE. It has 140 staff in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Switzerland. The …

If you look it up on Wikipedia - the great reference source for people who can't be bothered trying to learn about anything - you'll find there's very little of interest about August. That's probably why so many people go on holiday during the month. Not that you'd know it from The Register. News never takes a holiday. So to …