Tech Data makes signature acquisition

CLEARWATER — Tech Data Corp. has acquired Signature Technology Group Inc., expanding the technology wholesale distributor's data center offerings across North America.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. STG's president and CEO Charles Layne will become president of STG in Tech Data's advanced infrastructure services division.

“The data center is a strategic priority for Tech Data,” Layne says, in a release.

STG was founded in Phoenix in 1990, providing data center and professional services from its base in Arizona. The company was attractive to Tech Data because of reports that more than 60% of companies will stop managing IT infrastructure in-house, says Tech Data senior vice president Chuck Bartlett. Instead, those companies will rely on external resources like data centers in the next couple of years.

The acquisition comes two months after Tech Data sold off South American operations in Chile, Peru and Uruguay. Those countries had been difficult for Tech Data to reach into, and jettisoning those divisions allows the company to focus on Miami and Mexico.

The acquisition news didn't appear to have an immediate impact on Tech Data shares, which trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol TECD. Shares on Wednesday closed at $61.22, up a little more than 2% from the day before with average volume. Tech Data shares have traded between $52.22 and $71.31 over the past year.