Cellnet cuts ties with remaining IT vendors

Cellnet is terminating its remaining IT relationships and will wind up the division this month. The news comes after the ASX-listed distributor sold its IBM business to Avnet.

Samsung printers channel manager, Greg Wallis, confirmed its printer relationship with Cellnet would end on July 1. He said the distributor had been a strategic distribution partner but wouldn’t have a material impact on its business.

Lexmark channel and SMB manager, Stephen Bell, also confirmed the printing vendor would not be working with Cellnet going forward. It will now evaluate whether it needs to find a replacement supplier to take up where Cellnet left off.

General manager for UPS vendor Eaton Power Quality, Michael Mallia, expressed surprise at the developments and said it had been undergoing joint training with Cellnet in recent weeks.

“To be honest, I am not exactly sure where we stand as to whether the Avnet guys will take our business across,” he said. “We haven’t had a chance to talk to them but we have already had calls from Avnet people to sell UPS anyway. But it is all up in the air right now.”

Asus CEO, Ted Chen, also confirmed the vendor did not expect to continue its relationship with Cellnet, but would leverage its existing relationships with other partners, including Avnet.

The news follows Cellnet’s decision to offload its IBM business to rival player, Avnet.

For more on this story, check out this week’s edition of ARN.

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