Company plans to expand its professional services and resources.

Avnet, Inc. has announced it has agreed to acquire Ascendant Technology LLC, a leading international IT consulting firm with operating units in North America, Europe, Brazil and India. Ascendant Technology specializes in developing end-to-end IBM solutions that help organizations optimize their information technology investment and achieve business results. As a trusted advisor in the definition and design of strategic software applications, Ascendant has helped businesses large and small develop and deploy e-commerce, enterprise portal and collaboration, Web content management, infrastructure automation and cloud computing solutions. The company generated revenue of approximately $90 million in the 2011 calendar year.

"Avnet’s acquisition of Ascendant Technology is expected to accelerate our global solutions distribution model," said Phil Gallagher, global president, Avnet Technology Solutions. "It supports our strategic focus on enhancing our services and software capabilities to drive growth for our suppliers and value-added resellers. Because of Ascendant’s international footprint, Avnet’s ability to identify new services and solution business opportunities for our partners will greatly expand."

Founded in 2003, Ascendant Technology has more than 500 business and technical professionals that help partners and clients design and deliver IT solutions that achieve business results in less time, with reduced risk and expense. By utilizing Ascendant’s proprietary IDEA (Insight Driven Engineering Approach) Solutions Framework, organizations can bridge the gap between business objectives and technical execution to deliver improved performance and exceptional web experiences.

Jeff Bawol, president, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas, adds, "Ascendant Technology’s expertise in services delivery, complemented by their software offerings, aligns with Avnet’s strategy to provide our business partners with the support they need to succeed in high growth vertical markets. Avnet partners primarily focused on providing infrastructure solutions will now be able to leverage their distributor relationship to expand the overall business value they can offer to their customers. Our unique SolutionsPath value proposition, which prepares and enables our business partners to deliver complete hardware, software and service solutions to their customers using a vertical market focus, will be further supported by Ascendant’s expertise in software application integration and services support."

This acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the next 45 days and will be integrated into the operations of Avnet Technology Solutions.