Former BBF head leaves Bluechip

Six months after the merger of distributors BBF and Bluechip Infotech shook up the local components and peripherals industry, Mike Muscat, former head of BBF, has left the company.

Muscat departed Bluechip last week. Formerly managing director of BBF, Muscat had taken the role of marketing director under MD Johnson Hsuing when the two companies merged operations in January this year.

While officially Muscat had taken extended leave until August, Hsuing revealed this week that Muscat would not be returning to Bluechip.

Speaking to SellDigital on Tuesday, Hsuing said that Muscat had decided to move on to a new venture outside IT. Bluechip had been appraised of his intention to leave "months ago," said Hsuing.

Bluechip's marketing is now being handled by Bashar Zeitoun.

The Bluechip-BBF merger has had some teething problems. Despite a six month lead time for merging operations in January, customers had complained of supply chain difficulty in dealing with the company. But Bluechip had been reassuring customers since March that its order turnaround time was back to normal.

Bluechip has seen a couple of resignations since the merger announcement in July of last year. It also cut two staff when its networking business was scaled down in November.

Muscat was unavailable for comment at time of going to press.