"
David Dicker, the boss of the largest Australian-owned distributor was less surprised. "The price is in line with what you'd expect."
By way of comparison, Ingram Micro paid A$700 million to acquire Tech Pacific in Australia in 2004 – roughly US$500 million a decade ago or nearly US$650 million when accounting for inflation.
Distribution Central's managing director, Nick Verykios, said the deal "raises a thousand questions".
"We are all going to learn a hell of a lot over the coming year as this all plays out," he said.
Dicker suggested that the Chinese ownership is "probably not going to go down to well in many circles in the US".
The US government, for instance, has banned Chinese vendors such as Huawei and ZTE from major wireless contracts. The Australian government imposed a similar ban on Huawei.
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