What happens to your existing US operation that you’ve built up and the people there?
That will be a very important and useful bridge between the two organisations, so those people will stay with us. It gives them huge opportunity now. It puts into their hands the exact sort of capability they need to execute for our UK customers, so this is terrific news for them. I know when I’ve spent time with them in the past, and we talked about this possibility, they have been really hoping that we can find something to allow us to take this step. There are no restructurings or redundancies planned on either side as a result of this. It’s new opportunity for everyone.
If you look at Computacenter, Softcat or CDW’s recent results, you all enjoyed a small bounce from the pull forward in the earlier part of the year due to the memory crunch. How is that dynamic playing out as we approach the tail end of 2026?
It was a good stimulus for business in the first half, and we’re now in that new steady state where it’s still a factor, but pricing and lead times have settled down.
I think it’s pretty neutral on our business at the moment, and across our second half, and projected to stay broadly in that way.
Is there anything else you’d like to emphasise?
Our business is about 40% bigger now than it was two years ago. So, we’re doing this acquisition from a position of strength.
This makes Softcat stronger, makes GDT stronger, and creates an offering together that neither business can offer to customers alone.
For large complex customers, we’re in the top echelon of capability for that on a global basis now.
We’ve been on quite a journey, but as I’ve said many times we are just getting started, and I mean it.
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
