Distie Report: Distributor is now a Jack of all games

Synnex Corp. (NYSE: SNX) has acquired nearly all of the assets of Jack of All Games, Inc., a distributor of video game hardware and software in North America, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. for $44 million in cash and a later deferred payment expected to be under $7 million.

This transaction reminds me of Beamscope and they way they just steamrollered over the market place during the decade of the nineties on the back of Super Mario and Nintendo. That business just could not sustain itself and fizzled out and eventually got acquired by Ingram Micro.

In Jack of all games, Synnex gets a company that just a few years ago laid claim to being the top video game distributors in the world. But recently, Take-Two shock things up and moved all of its titles out of Jack of All Games to another distributor named Ditan Distributing of Markham, Ont. Jack of All Games no longer carried Take-Two games such as the extremely popular Grand Theft Auto along with NHL 2K10 and NBA 2K10.

Jack of all games could get more third party games to distribute in return. Doesn’t look to me to be that great of a deal coming from your parent company.

Ditan uses the innovative Direct-to-store or retailer pick, pack and ship model. This model is built on speed and since speed is something that gamers respect it is certainly working. The Direct-to-store model allows for orders to be shipped straight to retailers bypassing distribution centres.

According to Kevin Murai, Synnex CEO, Jack of all games has a strong portfolio of major console brands and publishers to an equally strong retail and e-tail customer base. The acquisition of Jack of all games is a strategic move towards the consumer electronics space and follows a previous acquisition of New Age Electronics in 2008. Jack of all games will help to solidify Synnex as a leader in the CE distribution throughout North America.

Jack of all games will no longer have that name as it will be under the New Age Electronics division of Synnex. Adam Carroll is the president of New Age and will be tasked to integrate the two companies.

Meanwhile at Ingram Micro, the broadliner announced a new proprietary version of the Digital Signage Certified Expert (DSCE) certification aimed specifically at the the solution provider community. Currently, the SKU’d offering will be only available in the U.S. with plans to make a reality in Canada soon.

Also at Tech Data, that company introduced its TechMed Vendor Affiliate Program, which will team industry leading producers of healthcare technology solutions with resellers supporting the IT needs of medical practitioners nationwide. The first TechMed Vendor Affiliate is Sage North America Healthcare Division, which supports more than 80,000 physicians across the country with medical software, including electronic health records (EHR), diagnostic imaging, billing, scheduling, mobility, claims submission and other practice-management solutions.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Paolo Del Nibletto
Paolo Del Nibletto
Former editor of Computer Dealer News, covering Canada's IT channel community.

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