The VAR Guy

The 3Com Corp. you knew on September 27 is dead. A new 3Com is emerging, effective immediately. The former networking giant has been sold to affiliates of Bain Capital Partners for $2.2 billion in cash. The deal, pending regulatory approval, is long overdue, The VAR Guy believes. Here’s why.

The VAR Guy enjoys a lite beer from time to time. But Lite software? No thanks. Generally speaking, “Lite” versions of software have tanked over the years. Anybody else remember NetWare Lite?

The VAR Guy saw this coming: A new, low-cost MSP platform that could inspire even the cheapest VAR to embrace managed services. Indeed, Autotask has launched a new, low-cost managed services platform called Autotask Go! The hosted MSP platform has a fixed fee of $99 and no start-up costs. Get all the details from our new sister site, MSPmentor.

Sometimes, small acquisitions are big deals. For instance, Cisco Systems today acquired Latigent, a privately held company that sells Web-based software for call centers. The deal was so small that Cisco did not disclose financial details. However, The VAR Guy believes the Latigent deal is a sign of things to come from Cisco.

If you’re a Lenovo reseller, membership will soon have its privileges. The PC giant has rolled our Club Lenovo, a new loyalty rewards program for Lenovo SMB resellers in the U.S. and Canada. Beginning in October, the program rewards solutions providers and their sales force for selling Lenovo PCs, monitors, peripherals and services. Hmmm. The VAR Guy is in the market for a Linux-based PC. Is it time for him to get in on the Lenovo action?

You’ve saved a company from near bankruptcy. You’ve eliminated billions of dollars in debt. So what do you do for an encore? In Xerox’s case, you bang on R&D’s door and demand a product that can disrupt the traditional printer market–and you talk about real revenue and profit growth. It all sounds so simple. And the strategy just may work — if a new color printing technology from Xerox lives up to its billing.

Ingram Micro and Best Buy’s Geek Squad are teaming up to offer on-site IT services for select Best Buy business customers. The move calls for the Ingram Micro Services Network to be the “premier” on site service providers for select participants in the Best Buy for Business program in the US.

The VAR Guy landed in San Jose Sunday night. No, not to attend the Justin Timberlake concert. Rather, he’s in town to attend the MSP Alliance Fall Managed Services Conference. The VAR Guy will be blogging throughout the day, and is particularly interest to hear messaging from Dell at the event. Here’s why.

Few people realize it, but Dell is sending a Trojan Horse into Silicon Valley next week. The big hardware company–which isn’t known for innovation, software or acquisitions–will show off all three traits at a small (but strategic) conference in San Jose on September 24 and 25.

Forbes has published a list of the 400 richest Americans. Once again, a hacker (pictured above) who started a software company in New Mexico topped the lineup. It takes a minimum net worth of $1.3 billion to appear on the list, which means The VAR Guy only needs to scrape together about $1,299,500,000 to qualify for next year’s rankings. Bill Gates ($59 billion) and Warren Buffet ($52 billion) topped this year’s Fobes list.