Avnet makes a cash offer of approximately £42.2 million for the share capital of Abacus. The Abacus Directors consider the terms of the Offer to be fair and reasonable and unanimously recommend that Abacus Shareholders accept the Offer. Founded in 1972, Abacus is a distributors of electronic components in Europe operating through a network of 39 local offices and five warehouses across 10 European countries and an Asian office and warehouse in Hong Kong. Business activities are broadly split between three operating areas, which are composed of 21 separate trading operations, these being: Abacus Electronic Component Distribution; Abacus Embedded (specialist distribution); and Alpha 3 Manufacturing. Abacus, which is headquartered in Newbury, UK, currently employs approximately 1,000 staff. The six months turnover 2008 of Abacus was £139.1m. Profit before tax (after exceptionals and amortisation) was £5.8m, before exceptionals and amortization: £4.5m. The 2007 revenue was £286.9m. Profit before tax (after exceptionals and amortisation) was £0.2m.