Ingram Micro

Ingram Distribution Group, a unit of Ingram Industries, acquires Software Distribution Services and renames it Ingram Software. Ingram Micro becomes a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. As the largest global wholesale distributor of computer and electronics products, Ingram Micro Inc. acts as the middleman between manufacturers and a wide range of retail outlets, value-added resellers (VARs), small businesses, large enterprises, and other customers. Originally a business unit of Ingram Industries, Inc., Ingram Micro grew through a series of mergers and acquisitions. It is a publicly traded company with annual sales in excess of $25 billion. The Ingram family retains control of Ingram Micro by owning 75 percent of its voting stock. Ingram Micro Inc. was created through a series of mergers among software distributors. In the first half of 1985 Software Distribution Services was acquired by the Ingram Distribution Group. Software Distribution Services was founded in 1982 in Buffalo, New York, and had become one of the top four software distributors in the United States by 1985. Ingram Distribution Group was a unit of Ingram Industries Inc., which PC Week described as "a small conglomerate with operations in marine transportation, energy, distribution, and insurance." Ingram Distribution Group began distributing entertainment and educational software in 1983. It started by distributing programs for the Commodore computer and later expanded into software for Apple and IBM PCs. Once Ingram Distribution Group acquired Software Distribution Services, the company was renamed Ingram Software. Ingram Software expanded later in 1985 by purchasing Softeam, a software distributor based in Compton, California. The acquisition of Software Distribution Services included a 50 percent interest in Aviva Software of Toronto, Canada. In December 1986 Ingram Software purchased the remaining half of the Canadian operation and renamed it Ingram Software Ltd. Ingram purchased another Canadian distributor, Frantek Computer Products, Inc., in March 1988 and renamed its Canadian operations Ingram Micro Canada with headquarters in Toronto. In February 1988 Ingram Software was renamed Ingram Computer. Ingram Computer was headed by CEO and Chairman David Blumstein, who joined the company in January 1988. While Ingram Computer was not profitable in 1987 and had a growth rate of about 10 percent, Blumstein was able to lead the company into profitability in 1988 with a growth rate of more than 30 percent. Blumstein was also responsible for reducing the company's workforce by about 10 percent. Ingram Micro D quickly established VAR programs for second-tier vendors, which enabled it to sell systems by the largest computer manufacturers such as IBM Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Compaq Computer Corp. Ingram Micro D subsequently established segmented business units to focus on the sale and service of specific products. The company also created the Alliance, a division focused on high-volume system sales. Ingram Micro expanded into Europe in 1989 with the purchase of Softeurop, a software wholesaler based in Brussels, Belgium, that had subsidiaries in France and The Netherlands. Ingram expanded its European presence in 1991 with acquisitions in the United Kingdom and a start-up operation in Italy. A European Coordination Center was established in Brussels in 1992 to coordinate the activities of the company's five European subsidiaries. Additional European acquisitions took place in 1993 and 1994, including House of Computers in Germany; Datateam in the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden; and Keylan in Spain. Ingram Micro entered the Asia-Pacific region in 1992 by establishing operations in Malaysia and Singapore. In January 1993 Ingram acquired a majority interest in Mexico's largest wholesale distributor and began operations in Central America as Ingram Dicom. By 1993 Ingram Micro had expanded into global distributio