Bangalore April 14 2014: Recent acquisitions  of  Premier Farnell, the global leader in the distribution of electronics technology products and solutions under the brand name of element 14, have enabled it to  broaden its offerings and services to the engineering community.
The March 2014 acquisition of  US-based design services company AVID, coupled with the 2012  buy of Chinese embedded systems and boards player Embest, now allow element 14 to go beyond the distribution of  components and devices -- to  offer complete development and prototyping solutions, said  Laurence Bain, CEO, Premier Farnell.  "The acquisition is a key step in our strategic evolution to  provide our customers with a wealth of new services and solutions", he added. He was speaking to IndiaTechOnline on his visit to India last week.
With 48 transactional websites, in 34 languages, element 14  is a leader in online distribtution of electronics products, stocking the range of 6000 suppliers, with 4 million products available on demand.  Three of their biggest distributorships are Tektronix, Fluke and TE.
The company has been largely responsible for the  galloping demand and iconic status of  products like the Rasberry Pi  the credit card sized computer-in-a-kit that  has been embraced by  designers as  young as 8 years.
The element 14  information portal, recently announced that  the number of registered members in its online Community has reached 250,000. India has emerged as the third largest participant in the Community  with  12, 670 members.
Indians have been enthusiastic participants in all of element 14's  contests ans reachouts to the design community, added Ravi Pagar, Regional Director for India and ASEAN.
The ‘Rocking Raspberry Pi Challenge’ , an initiative by element14  in India, to provide an opportunity for young design enthusiasts to develop a consumer device on the very popular Raspberry Pi by creating the ultimate karaoke machine has just ended after garnering a huge response. The Grand Prize winner will receive an Apple iPhone 5S and the runner up will receive a Sony PlayStation 4. See our story here
Among the 12 finalists in  element 14's global  “Beyond the Phone” Wireless Power Challenge are two Indians: Maneesh Sharma who submitted an Emergency light pathway with wireless charger base for senior citizens; and  Kevin Jose  whose entry was a Smart  ID card that stored and automatically d personal information including schedules, appointments, etc.  They have time until June 27, 2014 to complete their projects using the Wireless Power Solution Transfer Kit, which is produced by both Texas Instruments (TI) and Wurth Electronics