General
Wayside Technology Group, Inc. (the “Company,” “us,” “we,” or “our”) is an information technology (“IT”) channel company. We resell software and hardware developed by others and provide technical services directly to customers in the United States and Canada. We also distribute software through resellers indirectly to customers worldwide. We offer an extensive line of products from leading publishers of software and tools for virtualization, networking, software development, database modeling, security, and other technically sophisticated domains.
Wayside Technology Group, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in 1982. Our Common Stock is listed on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “WSTG”. Our main web site address is www.waysidetechnology.com, and the other web sites maintained by our business include www.lifeboatdistribution.com, and www.techxtend.com. Reference to these “uniform resource locators” or “URLs” is made as an inactive textual reference for informational purposes only. Information on our web sites should not be considered filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and is not, and should not be deemed to be, a part of this report.
The Company operates through two segments, Lifeboat Distribution (“Lifeboat”) and the TechXtend (“TechXtend”) segment (formerly the “Programmer’s Paradise” segment). The Lifeboat segment distributes technical software through a worldwide network of corporate and value-added resellers, consultants, and systems integrators. The TechXtend segment sells technical software, hardware, and services for microcomputers, servers, and networks to individual programmers, corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions primarily in the United States and Canada. For each of our segments, revenues from unaffiliated customers, income and total assets, among other financial information, is presented in Note 10 in the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements.
Competition
The software market is highly competitive. Pricing is very aggressive in both software distribution and reselling. The Company expects pricing pressure to continue. The Company faces competition from a wide variety of sources. In the Lifeboat segment, we compete against much larger broad-line distributors, as well as specialty distributors and, in some cases, the direct sales teams of the vendors we represent also sell directly to the end-customers. In the TechXtend segment, we also compete against vendors who sell directly to customers, as well as software resellers, superstores, e-commerce vendors, and other direct marketers of software products. In both segments, some of our competitors are significantly larger and have substantially greater resources than the Company. Many of our competitors compete principally on the basis of price, product availability, customer service and technical support.
There can be no assurance that the Company can compete effectively against existing competitors or new competitors that may enter the market or that it can generate profit margins which represent a fair return to the Company. In addition, price is an important competitive factor in the personal computer software market and there can be no assurance that the Company will not be subject to increased price competition. An increase in the amount of competition faced by the Company, or its failure to compete effectively against its competitors, could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, financial condition and results of operations.
The Company competes to attract prospective buyers and in sourcing new products from software developers and publishers, as well as in marketing its current product line to its customers. The Company
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