Cross Channel: Avast & AVG Become One And Falling Fortunes For Capita

Welcome to Cross Channel, a weekly round up of the most pertinent stories from our sister site ChannelBiz, where you can find out all the latest developments, views and strategies from the world of the channel.

Avast and AVG are one company from this Monday

Avast Software has completed its acquisition of AVG Technologies following an initial share offer period of its tender for all outstanding AVG ordinary shares.

The two entities will operate as a single company as of 3 October, and Avast now holds approximately 87.3 percent of AVG’s shares.

The acquisition gives Avast the means to expand its SMB business and adds AVG’s reseller base, enabling it to support more and larger organisations, as well as gain the Location Labs cloud connectivity business.

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Outsourcer Capita posts first ever profits warning

Outsourcing company Captia posted its first ever profit warning for its full financial year, after a number of operating difficulties in the second quarter of 2016.

The company had forecast before tax profits of £614 million, but Capita now expects revenue growth for the full year to be in the range of 4-5 percent, including only “around one percent organic growth net of attrition”, and underlying profit before tax to “be in the range of £535 million to £555 million” for the full year to December 2016.

Capita attributed the profit warning to a slowdown its IT enterprise services division, notably in its technology reseller business.

“Since the half year, our expectation for profits from these businesses for the full year has reduced by around £30 million,” the company said. “Capita is taking immediate steps to reduce the cost base in the underperforming businesses, which should benefit 2017.”

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Tech Data ups Google Chrome efforts with Tom Baker

Tech Data has appointed Tom Baker as its first business development manager for Google in Education. Baker, who moves from his post as a Google sales specialist, will be looking to work with partners to raise awareness and increase the spread of Chrome-based devices across the sector.

“I’ve done a lot of work with education partners already but in this new role I’ll be able to concentrate all my efforts on supporting resellers that have a specific focus on schools and driving penetration of Chrome devices,” he said.

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UKFast wins new Oracle and Sage hosting business

Cloud services and hosting firm UKFast and Cheshire ERP specialist Percipient have joined forces to improve the way businesses their payroll, procurement and HR systems through the cloud.

“We’re delighted to bring Percipient on board and give them access to truly enterprise-grade hosting services through eCloud. They have a great business model and we are looking forward to supporting their growth as they develop over the coming years,” said UKFast CEO Lawrence Jones.

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