INGM · NYSE Arca · United States
ingrammicro.comFinancials as of FY2025
Lets a reseller place one order that simultaneously activates a Microsoft, AWS, or Google Cloud subscription and ships physical hardware to a customer anywhere in 200+ countries.
Ingram Micro runs a platform called CloudBlue that lets a reseller place one order and simultaneously activate a cloud subscription through Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud and ship physical hardware from a regional warehouse — so the reseller's customer receives a single invoice covering the device, the licence, and support. Building that requires both live API certification with each major cloud vendor's billing system and operating distribution centres across more than 200 countries, and no competitor has assembled both legs at once, which is why mobile network operators and systems integrators use CloudBlue as the spine of their bundled device-and-service contracts rather than coordinating two separate supply chains. Channel partners who have wired their billing and provisioning workflows into the platform cannot easily leave, because reconfiguring those workflows with a different provider takes months and the customs and credit arrangements they hold with Ingram Micro do not transfer cleanly to a new distributor. The risk that mirrors all of this is that Microsoft, AWS, or Google Cloud could restructure their partner-programme API terms and cut off third-party provisioning intermediaries, which would sever the coupling instantly and leave CloudBlue as a conventional hardware distributor whose main point of differentiation no longer works.
How does this company make money?
CloudBlue earns a gross margin on physical technology products — devices from manufacturers like Dell, HP, Cisco, and Lenovo — sold to channel partners, who typically pay within 30 to 60 days. It also collects transaction fees and subscription revenues each time a cloud service is provisioned through the CloudBlue platform. On top of those two streams, it charges service fees for inventory management, financing arrangements that bridge the gap between buying and selling stock, and specialist services such as IT asset disposition.
What makes this company hard to replace?
Channel partners who use CloudBlue have their billing, provisioning, and support workflows built into its platform. Pulling those out and reconfiguring them with a different provider takes months. Partners also hold vendor credit terms and inventory allocation priorities with CloudBlue that a new distributor cannot match immediately. On top of that, cross-border customs clearance processes are tied to specific legal entity relationships that do not transfer cleanly when a partner moves to a different distributor.
What limits this company?
Adding new warehouses or signing up new resellers is relatively cheap. But every time CloudBlue wants to support a new cloud provider or a new category of cloud service, it must complete a full certification process with that provider's billing and provisioning systems before any bundled order can go through. That certification cycle is the hard ceiling on how fast the company can expand what it offers.
What does this company depend on?
CloudBlue cannot operate without vendor supply agreements and pricing arrangements with technology manufacturers including Dell, HP, Cisco, and Lenovo. It also needs its certified API integrations with Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud to stay active. Physical distribution centre leases across its four geographic segments keep the hardware side running. Credit facilities fund the gap between buying inventory and being paid for it. And customs and trade compliance certifications across 200+ countries are required to move products across borders legally.
Who depends on this company?
Value-added resellers rely on CloudBlue for daily inventory availability and same-day shipping to hit their own client deadlines. Systems integrators need coordinated delivery of products from multiple vendors for large enterprise rollouts. Mobile network operators depend on CloudBlue to bundle device shipments and service activations through a single integrated supply chain. Cloud service providers themselves use CloudBlue's partner network to reach geographic markets they cannot serve directly.
How does this company scale?
The digital side — processing transactions through the CloudBlue platform and managing inventory records — can be extended to new markets and new vendor relationships at low additional cost. The physical side does not scale as easily: running warehouses in each country requires local regulatory knowledge, country-specific commercial relationships, and physical infrastructure that cannot be automated or managed from a central location.
What external forces can significantly affect this company?
Trade tariffs and export controls between major economies can block or reroute cross-border shipments of technology products, forcing CloudBlue to rebuild parts of its supply chain. Currency swings between the countries where products are made and the countries where they are sold make it harder to predict inventory costs and profit margins. Regional data sovereignty rules — laws that require cloud services to be hosted within specific geographic borders — can force CloudBlue to change how its platform provisions those services.
Where is this company structurally vulnerable?
If Microsoft, AWS, or Google Cloud changed their partner-programme rules — for example, by banning third-party provisioning intermediaries, requiring direct billing to partners, or pulling CloudBlue's API certification — the link between the digital and physical legs of every bundled order would be cut. CloudBlue would be left as a conventional hardware distributor, and the feature that makes it different from any other distributor would stop working.
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