Avnet loses TI’s $1.9bn distribution business – update
In a filing in the US, Avnet announced that it would no longer be carrying parts from Texas Instruments. This includes Avnet subsidiaries Premier Farnell and Silica in the UK and EBV Elektronik in Germany.
“Due to the evolution of TI’s strategy, TI plans to end its distribution relationship with the company by December 31, 2020,” says Avnet. TI’s products account for around 10 percent of Avnet’s $19.5bn sales in 2019.
“Over the past several years, we have been evolving our distribution network to better align with our strategy to establish closer, more direct relationships with our customers,” said a spokeperson for TI. “As we build these direct relationships, we won’t have as much business flowing through the distribution channel and will require fewer distributors.” TI also uses Digi-Key, Mouser, Arrow Electronics, Eastronics and Compel as distributors in Europe.
“While Avnet and Texas Instruments (TI) have had a long-standing relationship, TI made changes to its distribution strategy and is moving toward selling directly to its customer base. As a result, Avnet and TI will be ending their distribution relationship by December 31, 2020. We respect TI’s decision and we will continue to work together through this transition,” said a spokesperson for Avnet.
At the same time, last month Avnet agreed to buy embedded systems specialist Witekio, formerly Adeneo Embedded. This was part of an end-to-end IoT strategy of adding more capabilities and expertise in embedded software, edge computing and security, specifically from hardware to the cloud, that appears to put it in conflict with many of the hardware-based IoT devices from TI, but Avnet denies this is the case.
“The combination of Witekio’s embedded software and design expertise with Avnet’s already robust technology ecosystem further strengthens our overall solutions strategy, which is unparalleled in the market today,” said Pete Bartolotta, President of Business Transformation at Avnet. “[This means] we can more rapidly deliver a complete hardware, software, cloud and middleware solution that delivers insights based on the customer’s specific business case.”
