Ingram Micro Execs: Vendors, Partners Embracing Proposed HNA Acquisition

Vendors and partners support Ingram Micro's becoming part of HNA Group, according to Ingram executives, and are not worried about the deal’s impact in the U.S. federal space.

The Chinese conglomerate saw value in the intellectual property being created at Ingram Micro and believes the proposed $6.5 billion acquisition by affiliate Tianjin Tianhai will help HNA evolve from pure logistics to more comprehensive solutions, Ingram Micro CEO Alain Monie and U.S. Chief Executive Paul Bay said Tuesday.

"As far as the change, I only see positives," Monie said, in one of his few public comments since the deal was revealed in February. "We will have additional flexibility and more power to drive investment in these technologies."

[Related: Ingram Micro Exec: Proposed Chinese Ownership Won't Hurt Our U.S. Federal Business]

HNA's commitment to additional IT funding as well as the shift to a more private ownership structure further made the deal all the more appealing, Monie said at the 2016 Ingram Micro Cloud Summit in Phoenix. HNA is privately held, though Tianjin Tianhai is publicly traded.

Bay told assembled media that he has spoken extensively with partners on large conference calls as well as in one-on-one meetings and phone calls, reassuring them that the proposed HNA deal will have no impact on the Irvine, Calif.-based distributor’s robust U.S. government business.

"Once we get on the phone and have a conversation and reiterate what we've already said, people feel comfortable now," Bay said. "There's been nothing that's come back as a negative."

Bay said that after the sale closes, Ingram Micro will continue to use the same systems it does today. The distributor holds an ISO 27001 certification, which verifies that systems are managed to the highest global standards and stringent rules around data classification are in place for its public sector business, Bay wrote in an internal memo filed last month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The distributor's vendor partners have embraced the deal without hesitation, according to Bay.

"It hasn't been a long conversation because they understand that most of these [vendors] are global companies as it is already," Bay said. "So I think they understand the landscape a little bit more with a foreign entity making a potential investment."

Mark Roach, president of CEO of Carlsbad, Calif.-based Pearl Technologies, hadn't even heard about HNA's acquisition of Ingram Micro until Monie mentioned it from the main stage Tuesday morning. He was pleased to hear from Monie that the existing management team will remain in place, and is confident that if that remains the case, the proposed acquisition will have no impact on his business.