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Ingram Micro, Comdisco Form Leasing Pact
Ingram Micro Inc., Santa Ana, Calif., and Comdisco Inc., Rosemont, Ill., have teamed to offer government and education resellers leasing services.

Called Partnership America Leasing Solutions, the service lets resellers offer customers different leases depending on the type of procurement. It is being offered through Ingram Financial Services Co., a division of Ingram Micro.

Many manufacturers and distributors offer leasing services to make themselves more attractive to customers. The trend is driven by increased competition in the computer products industry and the need to keep up with technology.

Ingram Micro, the world's largest computer distributor, had sales of $19.3 billion over the last four quarters. It sells more than 145,000 products in more than 31 countries. Comdisco, a technology services company, had sales of $3.1 billion for the year ending June 30.

Gateway Eyes Federal Leasing Strategy
Gateway Inc. is looking into leasing its products to federal customers, according to Jim Connal, acting director of federal sales.

Leasing is now a big part of rival Dell Computer Corp.'s federal strategy. Dell, of Round Rock, Texas, announced plans to lease products off its General Services Administration schedule in early August. Big computer distributors like Tech Data Corp., Clearwater, Fla., already offer extensive leasing services to their customers.

Gateway, North Sioux City, S.D., which has three employees in Washington handling the company's federal sales, is also looking to hire additional people, Connal said. He declined to provide additional information.

Gateway is the No. 2 direct seller of computer products to the federal government. It had $231 million in sales on its GSA schedule last year.

Vista, Ericsson Seal Partnership
Vista Information Technologies Inc. of McLean, Va., added a major partnership last week to go along with the slew of acquisitions it has made in the last 18 months.

Vista signed an exclusive agreement with Ericsson Inc. of Stockholm, Sweden, to provide voice products, solutions and services to government customers. For the next 18 months, Vista will be the only company with Ericsson products on the General Services Administration's schedule. Vista also can sell Ericsson products to commercial customers.

Vista estimates the agreement to be worth about $10 million annually. It has made five acquisitions in the past 18 months to create a $95 million a year networking management and services company.

Tech Data Adds Ardelt to Board
Tech Data Corp., Clearwater, Fla., expanded its board of directors to 10 members with the addition of German businessman Maximilian Ardelt.

He is a member of the Board of Management of Viag AG, one of Germany's largest companies, and a member of the supervisory board of Computer 2000 AG. Both companies are based in Munich.

Tech Data recently expanded its European presence by purchasing a majority interest in Computer 2000, a large computer distributor in Germany.

Digital Commerce Corp., Comstor Forge Links
Chantilly, Va.-based Comstor, a subsidiary of GE IT Distribution business, is now selling products to government resellers online via the FedCenter Web site.

FedCenter is an online shopping network and subsidiary of Digital Commerce Corp., Reston, Va. In addition, Digital Commerce Corp. and Comstor plan to start several programs aimed at training government agencies to use FedCenter's services.

- Richard McCaffery

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