"Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall..."

SURPRISE!

I was going to post this when I first found out about it last week, but I wanted to wait to make sure it was going to go through.  But, now it looks like Dell's acquisition of Sonicwall is going to happen sometime in their 2nd fiscal quarter (before the end of July) of this year.  Estimates run the price around 1-1.5 billion for Dell to now own the plucky networking company.

Much like what happened with KACE, things should only look better for Sonicwall, being able to actively sell into Dell's already large customer base is a great thing.  I know that as a sales rep, after KACE became a part of Dell, working with them became a breeze...not just for me, but for clients too!

Also, if you haven't heard, Western Digital will be buying Hitachi Global Storage...and that deal is currently in the works.  However, they have to sell off quite a bit of stuff to rival Toshiba, to make up for this near-monopoly on hard drives that WD is creating.  The Dell-Sonicwall thing I can understand...this WD & Hitachi thing may not go through...it just has screaming bad juju written all over it, because it will give them a 49% market share on all internal drives produced.

Keep your eye on the marker and what's going on here.  For those of you hoping Hard Drive prices are going to come down...there's a possibility that with this acquisition, they'll either come way down...or never will.

(Granted, I am a pundit on things like this, and this is just my opinion on the matter.)

Note:

Someone asked me "Mike, where are the deals?  Why don't you publish deals more often on this site?"  My answer is that it can take away from the information presented here.  But, I will always bow to client pressure...so here's some HP notebook deals that don't match the article.  ;)

Smart Buy EliteBook 8460p Intel Core i5-2410M 2.30GHz Notebook - 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, 14" LED-backlit HD, LS DVD+/-RW SuperMulti, 56K Modem, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, Webcam, TPM 1.2, Fingerprint Sensor, 6-cell Li-ion HP EliteBook 8460p - Core i5 2410M / 2.3 GHz - Windows 7 Pro 64-bit - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB HDD - DVD SuperMulti DL - 14" HD anti-glare wide 1366 x 768 / HD - Intel HD Graphics 3000 - Smart Buy Sku #8320737 Price $879.98

EliteBook Mobile Workstation 8560w - 15.6" - Core i5 2540M - Windows 7 Pro 64-bit - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB HDD HP EliteBook Mobile Workstation 8560w - Core i5 2540M / 2.6 GHz - Windows 7 Pro 64-bit - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB HDD - DVD SuperMulti DL - 15.6" HD+ WVA anti-glare wide 1600 x 900 / HD+ - AMD FirePro M5950 - Smart Buy Sku #8784405 Price $1,249.97

EliteBook Mobile Workstation 8760w - 17.3" - Core i7 2820QM - Windows 7 Pro 64-bit - 8 GB RAM - 750 GB HDD HP EliteBook Mobile Workstation 8760w - Core i7 2820QM / 2.3 GHz - Windows 7 Pro 64-bit - 8 GB RAM - 750 GB HDD - DVD SuperMulti DL - 17.3" Full HD WVA anti-glare wide 1920 x 1080 / Full HD - NVIDIA Quadro 3000M - Smart Buy Sku #8788770 Price $2,759.99

If you have any questions...give me a call!
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Thailand update

Two things this morning.  We're moving into our new offices here in El Segundo, CA this week...so things are a bit nutty, and that's why the lack of posts over the past week.  Should have some stuff for you today and tomorrow.

Secondly, things still are not looking good in Thailand.  The flooding hasn't abated, and those poor people are still suffering.  On the technology front with that, drive availability is still sporadic at best with WD, Seagate and Hitachi.  If you're going to need any drives over the next 2 months, I suggest getting them now before things dry up in December/January.
You can take a look at this link here from Youtube...and you can see the WD factory in it at 00:31.  Yeesh.

Update on Thailand and in regard to Hard Drives...

While I don't want to undercut the seriousness of the flooding in Thailand, but if you're paying attention here, IT IS GOING TO AFFECT IT DEPARTMENTS WORLDWIDE.

Alarmist?  Maybe.  However, understand that Seagate, Western Digital and Hitachi all have facilities in the Bangkok area.  Currently, Bangkok is under 3.5 feet of water...and the flooding is getting worse.  Data coming in tells us that they could be upwards of 5 ft. underwater by Saturday.

All of the above manufacturers above have shut down their plants in the area...and there's an unconfirmed rumor that WD has declared their facility a total loss.  I know that distribution and manufacturers are cancelling most backorders and won't take any more backorders until product becomes available.

What does this mean for you?  If you need a drive now, call your rep here at PC Mall and order NOW.  We're doing everything we can to secure stock, but there is going to be a mad rush in the coming weeks, and it's a good idea to stock up.  I can guarantee that prices will skyrocket, and supply will disappear...so take that for what you will.

Have questions?  Call us now.  Get us involved early so we can help.



Update...I actually have pictures of the WD factory and the area surrounding it...They came from our friend Mike Sullivan over at RexMoore (through his contact at WD)...