CHANNEL NEWS

By

INGRAM'S IPO MOVES CLOSER Ingram Micro is expected to kick off a road show later this month to promote its long-anticipated initial public offering. To help augment investor confidence, the distributor has recently beefed up its management ranks in both the United States and Europe. Michael Grainger, vice president and controller of the distributor's parent, Nashville, Tenn.-based Ingram Industries, has joined th

Ingram Micro is expected to kick off a road show later this month to promote its long-anticipated initial public offering. To help augment investor confidence, the distributor has recently beefed up its management ranks in both the United States and Europe. Michael Grainger, vice president and controller of the distributor's parent, Nashville, Tenn.-based Ingram Industries, has joined the distributor as executive vice president and chief financial officer worldwide. In addition, Ingram announced that Kimmerly Strohm has joined the company as senior director of investor relations. In this newly created position, Strohm will develop and manage the company's overall financial communications strategies and interface with Ingram Micro's analyst and investment community. She will report to Jerre Stead, Ingram's newly appointed chairman. In Europe, Ingram has appointed Phil Ellett as senior vice president of the company's consumer market division. Ellett joined Ingram in January from Gates FA, where he served as president and chief executive. Ellett will report to John Winkelhaus, president of Ingram Micro Europe. In this newly created position, Ellett will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company's 11 European operations centers. Before proceeding with its initial public offering, the distributor needed to gain approval from the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS is permitting the distributor to jump over a few tax hurdles related to the company's split from its parent Ingram Industries of Nashville. The company is selling 20 million shares for a maximum price of $14 with hopes of raising up to $280 million. Separately, the distributor signed an agreement with OR Technology to distribute the vendor's a:drive, a 120MB floppy disk drive.
INGRAM'S IPO MOVES CLOSER









WANG DOUBLES CHANNEL SALES
Wang Laboratories Inc., Billerica, Mass., said it had more than doubled its channel-related software sales since last November. Wang's channel partners have largely boosted the sales of the vendor's imaging work flow, Computer Output to Laser Disk and network storage management software. In association with Wang's sales force, Wang's partners have been providing systems integration and application development support for Wang customers.

XLCONNECT IPO RAISES $39.5 MILLION
XLConnect Solutions Inc., the integration services arm of Exton, Pa.-based Intelligent Electronics, completed an initial public offering of 2.9 million shares of common stock at $15 per share.
XLConnect plans to use the net proceeds of approximately $39.5 million to reduce its intercompany indebtedness to its parent.

COMPAQ CUTS PROSIGNIA PRICES
Compaq Computer Corp., Houston, reduced prices on selected models of its Prosignia servers up to 17 percent.
This reduction follows closely on the heels of price reductions that took effect in late August of this year. In the last two months Compaq has reduced prices on selected Prosignia servers by as much as 27 percent. Meanwhile, the computer maker's aggressive server strategy received a blow earlier this month when Michael Lambert, Compaq's vice president of marketing, left to become senior vice president of Austin, Texas-based Dell Computer Corp.'s Server Group.
Lambert is credited with helping Compaq establish a strong position among mainstream server customers. Lambert's exit follows the departure of Michael Norris, who left to become president of Intelligent Electronics Inc., Exton, Pa.

NEXT STORY: IRS Imaging: Success in the Making