Sony secretly wrote to its UK channel partners earlier this week warning them that the company planned to recall some Vaio TZ-series laptops, The Register has learned.

Computacenter shares are down more than seven per cent this morning after the firm reported a 14 per cent fall in profits in the first six months of the year.

Online retailer Dabs.com has told customers to hang fire for a few days while orders due to be delivered by Amtrak are reassigned to another courier.

Serco is to acquire SI International, an IT reseller specialising in the US federal market, for $423m cash - a 40 per cent premium on SI's closing price on NASDAQ yesterday. Serco is also asssuming net debt of $87.3m, so the enterprise value of the deal is $510m - a multiple of 12.3 on forecast EBITDA for 2008.

The founder of Dabs.com, David Atherton, has been charged with attempted rape and possession of Class A drugs.

The software outfit behind the chaotic implementation of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s box office system has gone titsup.

Customer demand for virtualisation, security and unified communication technologies has helped large UK resellers outgrow the European IT market over the past year.

Dimension Data today issued an upbeat interim management statement for the period 1 April to 18 August. 18. The reseller giant experienced “good demand”, achieved gross margin stability, kept a lid on costs and maintained a sold net cash position.

It is confident that it will deliver on management expectations of a strong financial performance for the full financial year.

DiData also thinks the outlook remains favourable, despite the economic woes. Full year results for the 12 months to 30 September are released on 12 November. ®

Maurice Healy has resigned as CEO of Calyx, the Anglo-Irish reseller group he navigated through a €104m MBO last year, ENN.ie reports. His replacement is Tara Brady, who joined the company from Getronics in June as chief operating officer.

Healy remains a shareholder.

Integralis, the German-owned, IT security services firm, pumped out a H1 statement today, showing sales up 18.4 per cent to €80.4m (H107: €68m). As it's quoted in Germany, the firm is a little spare with the profit details. But it says operating profit was up 51.1 per cent and it notes a big uplift in cash flow from operating activities to €2.6m. And the biggest order backlog to date.

A country / region breakdown of sorts can be gleaned from the company's statement (in English).

Best Buy next month becomes the first “independent” US retailer to start selling the iPhone, as Apple looks to establish the shiny device as this year’s tickle me Elmo.

Duncan McIntyre no longer works at Morse, the reseller he ran for 10 years until July 2007. That was when Morse demerged the sexier bit of the group, Monitise plc.

A strong performance from EMEA and APAC helped Insight Enterprises to raise sales nine per cent to $1.4bn in Q2.

2e2, the private-equity backed reseller group, is buying Netstore for £57m in cash.

The Mail on Sunday has run an expose on secondhand computers tipping up in Ghana, in which the intrepid reporter obtained an NCR PC containing National Health Service patient data. Worse, much worse, is the picture the article paints of PCs being sent to the developing world for supposed recycling, as opposed to re-use. The Mail visits a "toxic pollution dump" in Ghana - and it is truly shocking. So what are UK end-use organisations and resellers to do? Use reputable brokers and charities for computer disposal, for starters. Make sure that PCs are destroyed in the UK - not sent abroad. And make sure that PCs for re-use are properly data-wiped. But we all know the drill. Is it really that difficult to turn theory into practice?

The dirty secret of your NHS

Systemax shrugged off the credit crunch in Q2, with sales jumping 17 per cent to $758m for the three months ended June 30. The direct marketing IT reseller and PC builder, noted stronger demand in North America and Europe in the quarter and it held gross margins steady at 15.3 per cent.

Northgate Information Solutions has bought Anite's local government and secure information systems businesses for £54.3m - minus £3.8m owed by the parent company to Anite Public Sector, and an unspecified amount left behind to grease working capital. Northgate is owned by the private equity house Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

Press release.

BT’s reseller arm, BT Global Services, had a good Q1 on the revenue front, jumping 13 per cent to £2.052bn for the period ending June 30. But margins are under pressure - and the financial community doesn't like it, marking shares down 10 per cent in early trading.

CLP Computer Office Supplies looks set to be bought by a US company called Geo Vision International Group, for an undisclosed amount of stock and cash. The press release is somewhat ambiguous. The headline reads: "Geo Vision International Group to Acquire CLP UK". But the first sentence says GEO is "negotiating acquiring" CLP.

Sun Microsystems plans to rapidly move its entire US customer base, short of its largest accounts, to an indirect sales model.