5 December, 2005: WStore, the leading online supplier of business IT equipment, announced today the acquisition of Inmac France. The announcement sees WStore Europe SA, the parent company of the WStore Group, become the owner of 100% of the capital stock of Inmac.

Founded in 1984, Inmac is one of the leading players within the French IT products and services market with over 40,000 active customers, from SMBs to the largest private and public organisations, and a turnover of €208 million in 2004.

Tony Price, Managing Director of WStore UK explained the acquisition is excellent news for WStore and gives tremendous potential for growth in the near future: “WStore has led the way for years when it comes to servicing the SMB sector, now with the addition of Inmac’s expertise in addressing large accounts; we see a great opportunity here for both companies.”

Not only do the two businesses have complementary target markets but their sales and marketing strategies are also an excellent fit.

WStore is one of the leading e-commerce players, having expanded its portfolio of more than 12,000 customers on the web, thanks to solutions developed by I-COM Software, a subsidiary of the group, allowing WStore, among other things, to work without any physical inventory.

Inmac has successfully built its customer base thanks to the widespread circulation of its paper catalogues (some 4.5 million distributed each year in France). It too has extremely efficient internal logistics and systems.

“The combination of our skills will allow our two companies to grow together,” says Guy Sakelario, CEO of Inmac. “This can only be beneficial to our customers, who will get access to a unique market proposition, covering all their requirements, from SMB to private or public large accounts.”

Patrice Laureau, CEO of WStore Group, said: “Regarding our vendor partners, this announcement is good news for them too; we now cover 100% of the French market, both in terms of size and in terms of purchasing behaviour. This constitutes an absolutely unique advantage in the market.”

The objective of the acquisition is clear, Laureau adds: “To become the number one choice for IT purchasing among businesses in France.”

The Inmac deal comes with the full support of all the historical financial partners of WStore: Newventuretec, Ventech (Natexis), Part’Com (Iris Capital) and the FCJE (group Caisse des Dépôts) have all agreed to participate in the funding of this acquisition. The Gores Group, LLC, the previous owner of Inmac, also remains a shareholder of the new entity, convinced by the potential of this exciting industrial project.