*NEWS*WSTORE ACQUIRES INMAC FRANCE

Toner News Mobile Forums Latest Industry News *NEWS*WSTORE ACQUIRES INMAC FRANCE

Date: Friday January 6, 2006 10:06:00 am
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    WStore Group announces the acquisition of Inmac France
    WStore,
    the leading online supplier of business IT equipment, announced today
    the acquisition of Inmac France. The announcement sees WStore Europe
    SA, the parent company of the WStore Group, become the owner of 100% of
    the capital stock of Inmac.
    Founded in 1984, Inmac is one of the
    leading players within the French IT products and services market with
    over 40,000 active customers, from SMBs to the largest private and
    public organisations, and a turnover of €208 million in 2004.
    Tony
    Price, Managing Director of WStore UK explained the acquisition is
    excellent news for WStore and gives tremendous potential for growth in
    the near future: “WStore has led the way for years when it comes to
    servicing the SMB sector, now with the addition of Inmac’s expertise in
    addressing large accounts; we see a great opportunity here for both
    companies.”
    Not only do the two businesses have complementary target
    markets but their sales and marketing strategies are also an excellent
    fit.
    WStore is one of the leading e-commerce players, having
    expanded its portfolio of more than 12,000 customers on the web, thanks
    to solutions developed by I-COM Software, a subsidiary of the group,
    allowing WStore, among other things, to work without any physical
    inventory.
    Inmac has successfully built its customer base thanks to
    the widespread circulation of its paper catalogues (some 4.5 million
    distributed each year in France). It too has extremely efficient
    internal logistics and systems.
    “The combination of our skills will
    allow our two companies to grow together,” says Guy Sakelario, CEO of
    Inmac. “This can only be beneficial to our customers, who will get
    access to a unique market proposition, covering all their requirements,
    from SMB to private or public large accounts.”
    Patrice Laureau, CEO
    of WStore Group, said: “Regarding our vendor partners, this
    announcement is good news for them too; we now cover 100% of the French
    market, both in terms of size and in terms of purchasing behaviour.
    This constitutes an absolutely unique advantage in the market.”
    The
    objective of the acquisition is clear, Laureau adds: “To become the
    number one choice for IT purchasing among businesses in France.”
    The
    Inmac deal comes with the full support of all the historical financial
    partners of WStore: Newventuretec, Ventech (Natexis), Part’Com (Iris
    Capital) and the FCJE (group Caisse des Dépôts) have all agreed to
    participate in the funding of this acquisition. The Gores Group, LLC,
    the previous owner of Inmac, also remains a shareholder of the new
    entity, convinced by the potential of this exciting industrial project.
    About WStore
    Created
    in February 1998, The WStore group (www.wstore.com) generated in 2004 a
    consolidated turnover of 73 M€. It is currently constituted of 3
    operational entities, gathering some 150 employees. WStore France
    (www.wstore.fr) and WStore UK (www.wstore.co.uk) are both on their
    market, the leaders of the IT distribution for SMB on the internet.
    I-COM Software (www.i-comsoftware.com) is a software editor company
    dedicated to IT distribution, having as customers the major players of
    the industry : HP, Xerox, Lexmark, NEC.
    About Inmac
    Created in
    1984, Inmac (www.inmac.fr) generated in 2004 a turnover of 208 M€ among
    businesses of any size, being a major player on the French IT market.
    Inmac employs 330 skilled workers. 98% of the Top 1000 French companies
    are active customers of Inmac. Over 93% of its 11500 products are
    available for a next day delivery thanks to a logistic platform,
    certified ISO 9001 and 14001, also able to provide customized
    configuration and integration services.

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