Tarantella and Avnet Sign UK Distribution Agreement

Tarantella Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Santa Cruz Operation Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOC), announced Wednesday (Jan 10) that Avnet Computer Marketing, Hall-Mark Division has become an authorized U.K. distributor for Tarantella Enterprise web-enabling software.

Avnet Hall-Mark is a leading worldwide value-added distributor of enterprise computing products, software, storage and services that focuses on the IBM mid-range market in the U.K. and is IBM’s largest customer worldwide for server-based products. It is the largest RS/6000 distributor in Europe and a major distributor of both AS400 and Netfinity systems. Avnet Hall-Mark also holds IBM storage and software franchises.

“Our goal at Avnet is to enable our customers to add the full range of e-business solutions to their offerings across all markets — helping them to achieve rapid business growth,” said Marlene Yeoman, general manager, Avnet Hall-Mark UK. “Offering complete solutions will play an important part in both driving customer retention and winning new customers for our partners. We are excited by the potential of Enterprise 3 and believe that a strong relationship with Tarantella will enhance our overall value-add and open new market opportunities for our business partners.”

In the e-business arena, Avnet Hall-Mark is developing Alliance Partnerships with companies able to work with resellers to offer complete solutions to their customers. Tarantella software clearly compliments this e-business strategy, providing a cross-platform solution for web-enabling applications. Enabling rapid deployment of Windows, mainframe, UNIX, AS/400 and Linux applications, users of the Tarantella Enterprise 3 software can gain secure online access to any server-based application, from anywhere.

“Avnet’s expertise and reputation in the IBM mid range market, coupled with their strategy of delivering real added-value to their partners makes them an ideal choice for Tarantella,” said Charlie Stewart, VP European Sales for Tarantella. “Avnet has signed a framework agreement, which over time will enable it to distribute in strategic markets throughout Europe. Avnet clearly understands the business and has aggressive growth plans for the future. We are extremely excited about the relationship and we are confident that it will be a very successful partnership.”

Headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, Avnet Computer Marketing, Hall-Mark Division is an industry leading, value-added distributor of enterprise computing systems, software, storage and services, marketing exclusively to the reseller channel. With locations in North America, Austria, Australia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, the Hall-Mark Division is a division of the $1.85 billion Avnet Computer Marketing Group of Avnet Inc. (NYSE: AVT), a global distributor of electronic components and computer products and services from leading manufacturers.

The Tarantella product line includes Tarantella Enterprise 3 for large companies and organizations, Tarantella Enterprise 3 ASP Edition for Application Service Providers, and Tarantella Express web-enabling software for workgroup and departmental environments. Tarantella products provide access to Microsoft Windows system, mainframe, AS/400, Linux and UNIX applications, and are available today for all popular RISC and Intel processor-based UNIX servers and selected Linux servers.