Google’s Certified Refurbished Phone Program highlights a growing trend of OEMs entering the secondary market to control ecosystems, brand perception, and margins. This move disrupts traditional IT asset resale channels, creating challenges for ITAD vendors while underscoring the economic potential of refurbished IT assets. ITADs must adapt by focusing on premium services like ESG reporting and secure data handling to thrive in this evolving landscape.
Understanding Market Conditions:
Preparing for Tomorrow’s Challenges & Opportunities
The ITAD
Sector Pulse
Syndicated Research & The ITAD Marketing Leadership Tracker
This series is where analysts share their latest understanding of market conditions affecting the ITAD sector. Analyses are published at minimum twice per month, with the likelihood of more as the sector gets more active, to help industry executives stay abreast of issues affecting their business. A quarterly Zoom conference call is also held for subscribing clients. Topics include industry developments, economic trends, general IT sector developments and much more.
Analysts will also share proprietary data when it is appropriate within a publish document. Data comes from CS’ primary research, and/or from open source secondary research.
The Latest Analysis:
What is Google telling us about the secondary market for IT and electronics?
Google’s Certified Refurbished Phone Program highlights a growing trend of OEMs entering the secondary market to control ecosystems, brand perception, and margins. This move disrupts traditional IT asset resale channels, creating challenges for ITAD vendors while underscoring the economic potential of refurbished IT assets. ITADs must adapt by focusing on premium services like ESG reporting and secure data handling to thrive in this evolving landscape.
First Impressions: Leadership Shift at Blancco: What Lou DiFruscio’s Appointment Signals
For as long as I’ve known Blancco Technology Group , the company has been making frequent adjustments to respond to market conditions. I started interacting with Blancco about two decades ago, when it began to penetrate the ITAD data erasure market, outshining various...
First impressions: Iron Mountain’s Third Quarter Results
Iron Mountain’s 3rd quarter results depict a strong performance for its Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM), where its ITAD operation resides. The revenue grown of 145% year over year to $102 million may be too premature to conclude that the tailwinds the company is...
Making the Case for Effective Decarbonization: Why Carbon Trading is Not Enough
In 2023 and 2024, the urgency for real climate solutions has hit us harder than ever. We’ve seen devastating storms, wildfires and floods in places like Florida, California, China, Libya, and even the mighty Sahara Desert experienced rainfalls that it has not seen in...
Recurring Compliance Issues: Walmart and Retailer Waste Disposal Challenges
In a recent issue, E-Scrap News reported that Walmart will pay $7.5 million in a settlement it reached with California's Attorney General over allegations of hazardous and medical waste disposal violations. For context, the settlement is the result of a lawsuit filed...
Analysis: Sage Expands Beyond ITAD, Breaks into the Break-Fix Market
On October 22, 2024, Sage Sustainable Electronics (Sage) issued a press release via Businesswire to announce its acquisition of an electronics repair firm called Relectro. This acquisition is somewhat unique in Sage’s context because Relectro does not operate in Sage’s traditional ITAD space. It offers board-level and post-warranty repair for devices like laptops, tablets, and mobile handsets, which means that it operates in a stage that precedes Sage’s typical involvement. As such, we perceive this acquisition as a pathway for Sage to expand upstream in the ITAM sector.
Research: ITAD & E-Recycling Industries End 2024 on Solid Note, Brace for Stronger 2025
This report provides an in-depth analysis of the ITAD market’s performance over the past two years, the key factors driving growth, and potential challenges. It also explores the strategic responses of industry leaders, including operational improvements and evolving service offerings, and assesses the outlook for 2025.
Ingram Micro’s ITAD Business at a Crossroads: 2025 Could Be a Make-or-Break Year
I was excited to learn that Ingram Micro (IM) filed for an IPO on the last day of September. Becoming a public company would give us better visibility on how the company is performing, even if its ITAD unit is small in comparison to its core business. The IPO filing by Platinum Equity would pave the way for the return of Ingram Micro to the public market after it left it in 2016. In 2021, Platinum Equity acquired it from previous owner, HNA Group, for $7.4 billion.
More Analyses
- The Climate Disclosure Laws that will Impact the ITAD, E-Waste and Recycling Sectors
- Despite AI, PC Market to Remain Dormant This Year. Implications on ITAD Sector
- Deep Dive Into the Education Sector’s ITAD
- New AI Features to Create More Data Security Risks, to Boost Onsite Data Erasure Services
- Strategic Foresight: The Future ITAD Factory is Already Here
- April Traffic to ITAD vendors’ online platforms up 16%
- Market Snapshot: Private Equity Firms Fueling ITAD’s Data Security Sector
- Regulators in Europe and US Push Against Greenwashing ESG and Sustainability in Investment Funds
- A Look at the ITAD Industry’s Evolving ESG Reporting Tools
- Dissecting Iron Mountain’s 1Q Financial Results: Is the ITAD Sector in Full Recovery Mode?
- The Politicization of ESG: How Various Business, Social & Political Groups have Divergent Views on ESG
- Prelim data shows March marketing activity in ITAD down 0.27%, as most leading vendors experience reduced visits to their sites
- ITAD Vendors Ratings Tables
- ITAD Vendor Reputation Rating Update & Assessing the Industry’s Readiness for ESG
- Questioning Lenovo’s ‘Sustainability-as-a-Service’ Offering
- February ITAD M&A and Transactions Update
- ITAD Marketing Efforts Drop in February 2024, Change in Top Leadership
- Microsoft’s new commercial laptops: Small push on the AI front, better sustainability and ITAD profiles
- ITAD’s Online Marketing Increases in January 2024, according to the ITAD Marketing Leadership Tracker
- ITAD Enterprise Trends: Discussion with Cascade’s Neil Peters-Michaud
- ITAD M&A and Business Transactions: January 2024 Update
- As predicted, the PC market ends 2023 with dismal results, and the writing was on the wall
- ITAD Sector’s 2024 Predictions
- Brief: Brace for possible weak PC sales in 4Q23, but ITAD vendors should benefit from that
- The shape of the hardware and device markets in 2024 and beyond with analyst Bob O’Donnell
- Recycling: 17% of US organizations dispose of their IT equipment as waste
- Active M&A period underway, yet assessing outlook remains unsettled
- Iron Mountain’s acquisition of Regency makes sense: it is getting a small but good reputation firm
- First Impression: Arrow Electronics’ 3rd.-Quarter Performance Confirms Weakness in the Component Sector
- A heated 2024: Intel on overdrive to get its ISV partners to join its AI PC program
- Microsoft’s message: “buckle up, 2024 is coming”
- The ITAD Sector’s Performance: Glass is Half-Full and Half-Empty
- Tech: Qualcomm’s huge ambitions in the PC market
- The AI Opportunity: How ITAD companies can leverage the AI Chips sector even before products are built
- Preliminary data shows improved ITAD industry sentiments in 3Q23, but market fundamentals remain weak
- The Analyst Corner: Tough Times for Marketers
- Market sizing: The challenges of estimating the US ITAD market
- California SB 253 and SB 261 are good news for ITAD vendors
- ITADs and the Labor Market
M&A: Iron Mountain’s ITAD Acquisitions: A Strategic Move or Risky Business?
The recent news stories of Iron Mountain acquiring the Irish firm Wisetek have created a head-scratching moment. As I spoke to a number of executives in the ITAD space, the general reaction has been: Are we seeing another Arrow in the making? However, it would be naïve to believe that the purchase of three ITAD-related entities could in itself spell doom. Iron Mountain certainly has its work cut out in terms of integration, optimization and messaging, but there are plenty of opportunities ahead to properly leverage its three ITAD units.
The AI PC Market: Slow U.S. Adoption and Dell’s Focus on AI Servers Signal a Long Road Ahead
How many times did Dell mention “AI PC” in its latest earnings conference on 29 August 2024? Not once. That was down from four mentions three months earlier. Combined with Intel’s dismal quarter, this means the AI PC is not here yet. There may be great traction for...
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