Avanet is now a public limited company 🎉
Between all the blog posts about Sophos, we finally have some news of our own to share again. To make it clear from the outset: Avanet will remain exactly as it is, and nothing will change for you.
Increasing trust in Avanet
When we founded Avanet GmbH on 12.12.2012, we would never have imagined that one day we would be thinking about transforming our small two-man operation into a public limited company. Our dream was always to build a company on our own terms, to be our own bosses, and to be solely responsible for our successes and failures.
So what made us decide to convert our GmbH into an AG? The main reason is, quite simply, our customers’ trust. Looking back to the early days, Sophos and the whole security side of the business were more of a sideline for us. By now, however, they have become one of the most important pillars of Avanet. We sell Sophos hardware, licences and our own services to companies whose value exceeds our equity capital by a factor of 1,000. This has never really been questioned, but for us the change was the right step to show that we ourselves stand 100% behind what we do. Since an “AG” in the company name is hard to miss, you could also say it is pure marketing. ;-)
What will change?
As already emphasised at the beginning, nothing will change in the way we operate. We are neither planning an IPO nor selling our shares (although we are, of course, flattered to be asked).
Where you might notice a difference is in the size of our e-mails, which will now be a few bits smaller because our e-mail signature has shrunk by two characters. If we still printed and posted our invoices, we might also have saved a little toner. But since day one of Avanet we have been running a digital office, so that does not come into play either.
Number of printed sheets in 2016: 22 black and white, 12 in colour
We like looking back
Whenever we take the time to look back, we are always amazed by everything we have experienced over the past four years. We have been able to build so many good and valuable relationships, gain unique experiences and win over incredibly kind customers. Without these people, we would not be where we are today. So a big thank you to everyone who has supported us and believed in us so far!
Conclusion
We are far from the end of our adventure and there is still a lot to do. Our day-to-day work is just as much fun as ever, and we do not regret for a second having taken the step into self-employment. There is still plenty on our roadmap for this year that you can look forward to. As long as you keep diligently reading our blog, you will not miss any of it.
