Clarification
Technology channel publication CRN recently ran a story headlined "Bell Micro signs AMD". Assuming this meant Bell Micro had been appointed as a new distributor for AMD, we contacted AMD to get clarification of the move.
Well it looks like CRN dropped the ball on this one. AMD gave us this official statement on the matter: "The recent CRN reporting of the Bell Micro press release is misleading. AMD has not signed a strategic agreement with Bell Micro, turning them into direct account. The scope of the agreement is that Bell Micro is an Opteron solutions provider and as a systems builder, AMD provides additional support across the Opteron product portfolio."
The CRN story appears to have been derived from a press release issued by Bell Micro entitled "Bell Micro Enhances Distribution Agreement With AMD". In the press release a strategic agreement for Bell to supply Opteron processors is mentioned and head of value-add at Bell, Matthew Quirk, is quoted as saying: "Adding AMD to our line card brings another key vendor into our portfolio."
However, the comment from Grant Barber, EMEA server channel manager at AMD, was a bit more nuanced. "We are delighted to be working with Bell Micro to bring together the strengths of both companies for the mutual benefit of the customer base," said Barber. "Our current and future roadmap complements perfectly the business opportunities that Bell Micro continually identifies."
While CRN appears to have overstated the matter, we still thought there was room for further clarification of the relationship between AMD and Bell Micro, so we spoke to Matthew Quirk today.