EMC: Latest Acquisition Bid Will Not Cause Conflict

EMC has looked to quell any VARs' fears over its continuing services acquisition spree. 

The storage giant’s latest acquisition bid for U.K.-based Microsoft consultancy Conchango is the fourth consultancy acquisition in two years as the firm looks to boost its services business. However, the storage giant has insisted that the services it will provide through the purchase will not compete with the services offered by its solution provider partners. 

“We have absolutely not bought any EMC resellers and we will not be buying any EMC resellers,” said Tom Roloff, senior vice president, Consulting and Solution Integration Services at EMC. He said the acquisitions that the firm has made over the past two years of Business Edge Solutions, Geniant and Interlink Group have been centered around the Microsoft consultancy space. Conchango, for example, offers high-level consulting around e-commerce, retail and financial services, which Roloff said are services offered by “very, very few” of EMC’s VARs in Europe.

“We have built up our consulting business in the U.S. by buying consultancies similar to Conchango in North America and we have done that with no channel conflict. We don’t anticipate that Europe will be any different,” he said.

EMC has offered £42 million for the London-based Microsoft gold partner, which has around 300 employees and counts Tesco, Virgin Atlantic and McLaren among its customer base. Lorraine Branch, head of marketing at Conchango, said the company will be rolled into EMC Consulting to provide services to end-users in the United Kingdom and around Europe. 

“Since we listed on AIM last year our strategy has been to grow, and under the EMC brand we will be able to offer services to our clients on a global level,” she told Channel Insider.

One U.K. VAR was unconcerned by the Conchango bid, saying it was a good move for EMC. “It makes sense, EMC has been desperate to extend its services and it has been constrained in the U.K. for services skills,” said Jason Rabbetts, founder of storage VAR Union Solutions.   

He said he did not feel threatened by the move. “EMC has been making lots of effort and we’ve seen the execution around its channel lately,” he added.