CRN Network
Digilink unveiled its new brand identity and also laid out the strategy for the new company with its de-merger from D-Link nearing completion.
“We are almost through with the de-merger process, and are waiting for certain legal approvals which could take 60 more days. After that, Digilink will formally operate as a separate publicly-listed company,” said Jangoo Dalal, CEO and MD, D-Link India, who after the de-merger will be heading Digilink.
Dalal informed that starting April 1, 2009, D-Link and Digilink have started working as two separate and independent entities.
It may be recalled that in October 2008 D-Link India announced that it would be spinning off its passive networking business into a separate company where K R Naik will own a majority stake.
D-Link India, on the other hand, will become part of D-Link Corporation that will hold a controlling 62 percent stake and will focus on the active components business. D-Link India will be headed by Gary Yang from D-Link Corporation based in Singapore.
On the impact of the de-merger Dalal said, “D-Link and Digilink will continue to harness synergies and work in a coordinated fashion to ensure that our partners can maximize business opportunities. The unique regional distribution model will remain the same for both companies.”
Digilink also outlined the company’s strategy after de-merger. “With the formation of Digilink, we will look at the export market in a big way for our cabling products, and will be working with D-Link distributors in international markets to sell these,” said Dalal.
Presently, nearly 10 percent of Digilink’s cabling business comes from international markets, and the company plans to increase this to 15 percent over the next 12 months. Further, Digilink plans to strengthen its R&D center, its contract manufacturing business, and its technical assistance center. “The R&D centers in Goa and Bangalore have been doing good work and have designed IPRs for VoIP products. We have an agreement with D-Link to manufacture and sell these products globally. We plan to boost our contract manufacturing business as well. We manufacture motherboards for Gigabyte in India, and the plan is to add more vendors,” added Dalal.
Digilink also has a 70-seat technical assistance center in Goa backed by 25 level-3 warranty support and repair centers across 20 cities. “From this year, the TAC has been spun off into a profit center, and apart from supporting D-Link and Gigabyte products, it will sign up new vendors to boost its third-party services portfolio,” informed Dalal.
When asked if Digilink will get into the active networking business Dalal said, “There exists no non-compete agreement between Digilink and D-Link. This allows us to enter the active components space whenever we wish to. However, that’s not on our mind at present. Our focus is to expand our current line of businesses.” |