Determine what the channel landscape will look like after the acquisition.

With one less vendor available, some solution providers will find more competition awaiting them and may be forced to look elsewhere to make up for potentially lost revenue.

If, in the case of Dell and EMC, you're a "pretty well established" EMC partner, "now, all of a sudden, you have eight or 10 other Dell channel partners suddenly able to have access to the product," Brown, of OPUS Consulting Group, said.
"How are you going to feel about that [with] more competition coming into your market space?" he asked.