Avnet Talks 2010, Cisco and Oracle
Avnet executives converged on New York last week — meeting with Wall Street analysts to recap 2009 and preview 2010. Our blog team caught up with Philip Gallagher (pictured), president of Avnet Technology Solutions. Gallagher offered some broad industry thoughts, but we also asked him some specific questions — about Avnet’s new relationship with Cisco Systems, plus Avnet’s thoughts on the pending Oracle-Sun Microsystems business combo. Here’s what Gallagher had to say.
First, the big picture: Avnet feels relatively upbeat about 2010 and recently raised its revenue and income guidance for its current quarter. Now, a closer look at Avnet Technology Solutions. The FastChat video below covers some of our key conversation points with Gallagher. Then, further below you’ll note some additional analysis.
The video includes:
0:00 – Introduction
0:15 – Surprises and key learnings from 2009
1:36 – Key priorities for 2010
2:19 – Avnet’s views on the pending Oracle-Sun combo
3:16 – Avnet’s new relationship with Cisco Systems
4:30 – More information
4:46 – Conclusion
Worth Noting
No doubt, Avnet Technology Solutions continues to evangelize its Path offerings. Gallagher says GovPath and HealthPath are big Path program successes — though he certainly didn’t want to downplay the other options. “Some path solutions are at a different maturity level,” Gallagher noted. And as far as any new path solutions on the way? “We’re evaluating new ones, but to date, there’s nothing officially announced that isn’t already out there.”
Also last week, Avnet announced a new relationship with Cisco Systems. Ironically, Avnet already has close working relationships with IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems. But Gallagher was quick to downplay any potential concern about Avnet shifting focus from established hardware partners to Cisco. “[We have a] continued commitment to current supply base. [We] don’t plan on taking investments away from any supplier base…and there’s no compromise to our current relationship and commitments.”
With additional reporting by Contributing Associate Blogger Matthew Weinberger.