Greenville, South Carolina-based Gates/FA Distributing Inc, which said in February that it was considering options for the company (CI No 2,351), announced late last week that it is engaged in discussions regarding possible sale of the company to a third party. No further information was disclosed, and chief Financial officer Bill Mauldin said told Dow Jones & Co that he didn’t even know the identity of the suitor. There are several American computer and electronics distributors that have been buying to get bigger – Arrow Electronics Inc, Ingram Micro Inc, Merisel Inc and the like, but a dark horse has to be Computer 2000 AG of Munich, which was saying earlier this month that a foothold in the US was top of its two-year agenda (CI No 2,435).
