GTDC Announces 2008 'Rising Star' Award Winners

NEWPORT BEACH, CA--(Marketwire - September 17, 2008) - The Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) today announced the winners of its 2008 Rising Star Awards. Recipients were selected based on their year-over-year sales with GTDC members, which winners increased between 15 and 200 percent, as determined by The NPD Group in its Distributor Track(SM) service. GTDC members, representing a total of more than $100 billion in revenue, serve IT solution providers and other resellers as well as retailers with end-user customers of all sizes, including the small-to-midsize business (SMB) market. Following are this year's Rising Star Award winners, honored last night as part of the GTDC's annual Summit conference, which concludes today. HP Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd was the evening's featured keynote speaker.

                 $500 Million+

Company                                     Ranking
-------                                     -------
Seagate                                      Gold
Sony                                         Silver
Panasonic                                    Bronze
Intel                                   Honorable Mention

          $100 Million - $500 Million

Company                                     Ranking
-------                                     -------
Nokia                                        Gold
F5                                           Silver
NetApp                                       Bronze
Toshiba                                 Honorable Mention
Samsung                                 Honorable Mention
Ergotron                                Honorable Mention
Polycom                                 Honorable Mention

          $20 Million - $100 Million

Company                                     Ranking
-------                                     -------
LG                                           Gold
AOC                                          Silver
Planar                                       Bronze
ASUS                                    Honorable Mention

The NPD Group, Inc.

The NPD Group is the leading provider of reliable and comprehensive consumer and retail information for a wide range of industries. Today, more than 1,600 manufacturers, retailers, and service companies rely on NPD to help them drive critical business decisions at the global, national, and local market levels. Information is available for the following industry sectors: automotive, beauty, commercial technology, consumer technology, entertainment, fashion, food and beverage, foodservice, home, office supplies, software, sports, toys, and wireless. The NPD Group's Distributor Track® delivers the most comprehensive U.S. market research information available on product sell-through in the IT distributor market, using sales data from the world's leading IT distributors, including members of the GTDC. For more information on The NPD Group and Distributor Track, visit www.npd.com.

The GTDC

The Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) is a worldwide industry association comprised of the computer industry's top wholesale distributors dedicated to serving "the channel," a network of skilled value-added resellers and retail stores focused on providing hardware, software, and services to businesses and consumers worldwide. GTDC members include Actebis, Arrow Electronics, Avnet, Bell Microproducts, DCC SerCom, D&H, Esprinet, Ingram Micro, Magirus AG, Redington, ScanSource, Synnex, Tech Data, Westcoast LTD and Westcon.

Contact Information: CONTACT: Chuck Miller (727)939-1562