Avnet broadens Horizons with $156M acquisition

The Phoenix-based electronics supply chain giant plans to buy Horizon Technology Group, an Ireland-based IT products distributor, as it expands its Technology Solutions business in Europe.

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- Electronic News, 4/21/2008

Avnet Inc plans to acquire Horizon Technology Group plc, an Ireland-based IT products distributor, in an all cash offer for $1.87 (1.18 Euros) per share or approximately $156.1 million (98.5 million Euros).

The Phoenix-based electronics supply chain giant is doing so through its wholly owned subsidiary Avnet (Holdings) Limited and plans to integrate Horizon into its Technology Solutions (TS) business arm as it continues to expands Avnet TS in Europe.

Horizon’s distribution business markets enterprise server, storage, networking, and security products from vendors including Sun Microsystems, EMC, F5 Networks Juniper, IBM, and Nortel throughout Ireland and the UK. In addition to the traditional distribution business, its client solutions business unit partners with software vendors including BMC, Microstrategy, and SAP to provide a range of development and implementation services.

“The acquisition of Horizon will substantially strengthen Technology Solutions’ position in the UK IT distribution market and expand its geographic coverage into Ireland,” Roy Vallee, Avnet’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement today. “Horizon’s leading position with tier 1 vendors and growing services practices offer an opportunity to bolster Avnet’s current product and services offerings in Europe. This acquisition creates exciting cross-selling opportunities and adds scale to our TS business in the region.”

In 2007, Horizon had total sales of $458 million (288 million Euro). The transaction, valued at $149.6 million (94.4 million Euros) assuming a net cash position for Horizon of $6.52 million (4.1 million Euro) as of December 31, 2007, is subject to, among other things, the completion of a tender offer under the Irish Takeover Rules and EU merger control clearance, and is expected to close by the end of June.

The Horizon acquisition is Avnet’s second Europe-based IT-products-distributor buy in recent months. In December, Avnet completed its acquisition of the IT solutions division of Acal plc, a European value-added distributor for storage networking (SAN), networking, security, and electronic document management that has offices in the UK. Acal was also integrated into Avnet TS.