Tech Data
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Tech Data (NYSE: TECD) is a Fortune 500 technology company based in Clearwater, Florida, in the United States. It is an important distributor of information technology, with over 90,000 customers world wide. Tech Data has expanded from ten employees and $2 million in sales in 1983 to 8,400 employees and sales of over $20 billion USD in its last fiscal year, ending in January of 2006. It is the Tampa Bay area's largest public company.[1]
Founded in 1974 by Edward C. Raymund, Tech Data began by marketing data processing supplies directly to end users of mini and mainframe computers. In 1983 the company expanded its targeted markets and redirected its efforts toward servicing microcomputer resellers as a wholesale distributor. Tech Data expanded into Canada in 1989 through an acquisition, and in early 1993 the company launched an export division based in Miami to serve the Latin American market. Tech Data entered the European market in 1994 through the acquisition of Paris-based Softmart International, S.A, France's largest distributor of personal computer products. In July 1998 the company acquired a majority interest in Munich-based Computer 2000, Europe's leading provider of IT products to resellers. Its overseas performance was disappointing in the quarter ending June 30, 2006. [2] Despite this, it was the world's second greatest distributor of computer products in mid 2006. [3]
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