This was a good match. Ingram Micro is the 'does it all' distributor and had to compete on two sides: one with high value only companies like Avnet and Arrow, and other the other with box pushers like Synnex and Tech Data. IM had to be low price to compete with box pushers and high value to compete with the As. This basically meant they had to undercut the margin they should have gotten on the high value stuff, pulling the industry down.
By joining Avnet and Tech Data, there is another 'do it all' distributor out there to steady the market a bit. Ideally Arrow and Synnex would also merge, so there are three players of roughly equal shape.
Hopefully the consolidation will put a damper on the excessive price wars we've seen on top of the commoditization of IT.
/anon because former insider in this industry