Dell acquires thin client giant Wyse

Tech giant Dell today confirmed plans to acquire Wyse Technology, in a move to beef up its virtualisation portfolio.

The deal has been approved by directors of both companies and, subject to the normal regulatory green lights, should be completed by the second quarter of Dell's 2013 financial year.

While this announcement is exciting for Dell on the computing side, it holds just as much promise for our datacentre and enterprise businesses.

The monetary terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed as yet.

Dell is acquisition-hungry when it comes to companies that can help it butterfly away from being perceived as just another PC vendor. Indeed, just over a month ago, at the end of February, the company acquired app backup firm Appassure, again for an undisclosed sum.

Wyse is in good shape financially, having reported double-digit margin growth in the last 12 months, despite a backdrop of economic uncertainty.

IP features quite heavily in the deal. By acquiring Wyse, as well as obtaining a number of cloud-focused client, software and service solutions, Dell takes ownership of more than 180 patents.

Virtualisation, specifically on the desktop, affords business many benefits, particularly around streamlined IT management, productivity and security, according to Jeff Clarke, president of Dell's end user computing solutions division.

"While this announcement is exciting for Dell on the computing side, it holds just as much promise for our datacentre and enterprise businesses. A desktop virtualisation instance often includes a significant sales drag of datacentre technologies such as server, networking and storage, and complemented by deployment and implementation services. The expanded desktop virtualisation capabilities will create potential new market opportunity for the full range of Dell's enterprise solutions and services," Clarke said in a blog post.

"We also look forward to welcoming all of Wyse's existing channel partners into our PartnerDirect programme. As we have done through previous acquisitions, we will leverage the best of their programme to strengthen ours. An additional benefit to Wyse's channel members is that they will now have access to all Dell products, which we expect to open up new opportunities."