(Reuters) - IT solutions firm Synnex Corp said on Monday it will merge with peer Tech Data in a deal worth about $7.2 billion, including debt, creating one of the world’s biggest IT distribution companies and sending Synnex’s shares up 6.5%.
The merger comes less than a year after Apollo Global Management took Tech Data private in a $6 billion deal, at a time when both Synnex and Tech Data benefited from the pandemic-driven acceleration in digital transformation as more people worked from home.
Synnex shareholders will own about 55% of the combined company, which expects to generate $57 billion in estimated annual revenue, while Apollo will own the rest and take four board seats after the deal closes in the second half of 2021.
Apollo will receive 44 million shares of Synnex common stock, and the refinancing of existing Tech Data net debt and redeemable preferred shares of about $2.7 billion.
Tech Data approached Synnex late last year following Synnex’s spinoff of its customer experience division Concentrix Corporation, according to a source familiar with the situation.
With more than 22,000 employees, the combined company will operate in more than 100 countries.