PC CONNECTION INC (CNXN)

Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

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CAUTIONARY NOTE CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

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This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or our future financial or operating performance and include statements concerning, among other things, our future financial results, business plans (including statements regarding new products and services we may offer and future expenditures, costs and investments), liabilities, impairment charges, competition, and the expected impact of current macroeconomic conditions on our businesses and results of operations. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “could,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “believes,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans or intentions. These statements reflect our current views and are based on assumptions as of the date of this report. Such assumptions are based upon internal estimates and other analyses of current market conditions and trends, management expectations, plans, and strategies, economic conditions, and other factors. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from expectations or results projected or implied by forward-looking statements.

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Such differences may result from actions taken by us, including expense reduction or strategic initiatives (including reductions in force, capital investments and new or expanded product offerings or services), the execution of our business plans (including our inventory management, cost structure and management and other personnel decisions) or other business decisions, as well as from developments beyond our control, including:

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Additional factors include those described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, including under the captions “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and “Business,” in our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, including under the caption “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and in the other subsequent filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time.

A forward-looking statement is neither a prediction nor a guarantee of future events or circumstances. You should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. We assume no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated, to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the statements are made except as required by law.

Unless the context otherwise requires, we use the terms “Connection”, the “Company”, “we”, “us”, and “our” in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q to refer to PC Connection, Inc. and its subsidiaries.

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OVERVIEW

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We are a Fortune 1000 Global Solutions Provider that simplifies IT, guiding the connection between people and technology. Our dedicated account managers partner with customers to design, deploy, and support cutting-edge IT environments using the latest hardware, software, and services. We provide a wide range of IT solutions, from the desktop to the cloud—including computer systems, data center solutions, security, artificial intelligence, software and peripheral equipment, networking communications, and other products and accessories that we develop internally and secure from manufacturers, distributors, and other suppliers. Our Technology Solutions and Services Organization, or TSSO, and state-of-the-art ISO 9001:2015 SOC 2 Type 2 certified Technology Integration and Distribution Center offer end-to-end services related to the design, configuration, and implementation of IT solutions. Our team also provides a comprehensive portfolio of managed services and professional services. These services are performed by our personnel and by third-party providers. Our GlobalServe offering ensures worldwide coverage for our multinational customers, delivering global procurement solutions through our network of in-country suppliers in over 150 countries.

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The “Connection” brand includes Connection Enterprise Solutions, Connection Business Solutions, and Connection Public Sector Solutions, which provide IT solutions and services to enterprise, small- to medium-sized businesses, and public sector markets.

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Financial results for each of our segments are included in the financial statements attached hereto. We generate sales through (i) outbound inside sales and field sales contacts by sales representatives focused on the business, educational, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and government markets, (ii) our websites, and (iii) direct responses from customers responding to our advertising media. We offer a broad selection of over 460,000 products at competitive prices, including products from vendors like Apple, Cisco, Dell Inc., HP Inc., Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft Corporation, and VMware by Broadcom, and we partner with more than 1,600 suppliers. We are able to leverage our state-of-the art logistic capabilities to rapidly ship product to customers.

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As a value-added reseller in the IT supply chain, we do not manufacture IT hardware or software products. We are dependent on our suppliers—manufacturers and distributors that historically have only sold to resellers rather than directly to end users. However, certain manufacturers have, on multiple occasions, sold or attempted to sell directly to our customers, and in some cases, have restricted our ability to sell their products directly to certain customers, thereby attempting to and, in some cases successfully, eliminate our role. We believe that the success of these direct sales efforts by manufacturers will depend on their ability to meet our customers’ ongoing demands and provide solutions to meet their needs. We believe more of our customers are seeking out comprehensive and integrated IT solutions, rather than the ability to acquire specific IT products on a one-off basis. Our advantage is our ability to be product-neutral and provide a broader combination of products, services, and advice tailored to our customers’ individual needs. By providing customers with customized solutions from a variety of manufacturers, we believe we can mitigate the negative impact of continued direct sales initiatives from individual manufacturers. Through the formation of our TSSO, we are able to provide customers complete IT solutions, from identifying their needs, to designing, developing, and managing the integration of products and services to implement their IT projects. Such service offerings carry higher margins than traditional product sales. Additionally, the technical certifications of our service engineers permit us to offer higher-end, more complex products that generally carry higher gross margins. We expect these service offerings and technical certifications to continue to play a role in sales generation and gross margin improvements in this competitive environment.

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The primary challenges we continue to face in effectively managing our business are (1) increasing our product and service revenues while at the same time improving our gross margin in all three segments, (2) recruiting, retaining, and improving the productivity of our sales and technical support personnel, and (3) effectively controlling our selling, general and administrative, or SG&A, expenses while making major investments in our IT systems and solution selling personnel, especially in relation to changing revenue levels.

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To support future growth, we have invested and expect to continue to invest in our IT solutions business, which requires the addition of highly skilled service engineers. Although we expect to realize the ultimate benefit of higher-margin service revenues under this multi-year initiative, we believe that our cost of services will increase as we add additional service engineers. If our service revenues do not grow enough to offset the cost of these headcount additions, our operating results may be negatively impacted.

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Market conditions and technology advances significantly affect the demand for our products and services. Virtual delivery of software products and advanced Internet technology providing customers enhanced functionality have substantially increased customer expectations, requiring us to invest on an ongoing basis in our own IT infrastructure to meet these new demands.

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Our investments in IT infrastructure are designed to enable us to operate more efficiently and provide our customers enhanced functionality.

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The ongoing global memory shortage (DRAM and NAND) could result in increased inventory costs, which may reduce our margins or require us to raise prices. The memory shortage could additionally result in a lack of availability of products, which could negatively impact our results of operations. As a result of these ongoing and anticipated shortages, we may purchase product in advance of customer orders, while customers may accelerate or delay purchasing depending on their capital resources.

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The U.S. administration has announced

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

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The following Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, or MD&A, is intended to promote an understanding of our results of operations and financial condition. MD&A is provided as a supplement to, and should be read in conjunction with, our consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes thereto included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This section discusses the results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2025 and year-to-year comparison between the year ended December 31, 2025 and the year ended December 31, 2024. Discussion of the year ended December 31, 2024 and the year-to-year comparison between the year ended December 31, 2024 and the year ended December 31, 2023 can be found in Part II, Item 7 “Management’s Discussions and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024. Our MD&A also includes discussion of certain forward-looking trends and other statements that predict or anticipate future business or financial results that are subject to important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated. See “Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements” and “Item 1A. Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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OVERVIEW

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We are a Fortune 1000 Global Solutions Provider that simplifies IT, guiding the connection between people and technology. Our dedicated account managers partner with customers to design, deploy, and support cutting-edge IT environments using the latest hardware, software, and services. We provide a wide range of IT solutions, from the desktop to the cloud—including computer systems, data center solutions, security, AI, software and peripheral equipment, networking communications, and other products and accessories that we develop internally and secure from manufacturers, distributors, and other suppliers. Our TSSO and state-of-the-art ISO 9001:2015 SOC 2 Type 2 certified TIDC offer end-to-end services related to the design, configuration, and implementation of IT solutions. Our team also provides a comprehensive portfolio of managed services and professional services. These services are performed by our personnel and by third-party providers. Our GlobalServe offering ensures worldwide coverage for our multinational customers, delivering global procurement solutions through our network of in-country suppliers in over 150 countries.

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The “Connection” brand includes Connection Enterprise Solutions, Connection Business Solutions, and Connection Public Sector Solutions, which provide IT solutions and services to enterprise, SMBs, and public sector markets.

​

Financial results for each of our segments are included in the financial statements attached hereto. We generate sales through (i) outbound inside sales and field sales contacts by sales representatives focused on the business, educational, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and government markets, (ii) our websites, and (iii) direct responses from customers responding to our advertising media. We offer a broad selection of over 460,000 products at competitive prices, including products from vendors like Apple, Cisco, Dell Inc., HP Inc., Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft Corporation, and VMware by Broadcom, and we partner with more than 1,600 suppliers. We are able to leverage our state-of-the art logistic capabilities to rapidly ship product to customers.

​

As a value-added reseller in the IT supply chain, we do not manufacture IT hardware or software products. We are dependent on our suppliers—manufacturers and distributors that historically have only sold to resellers rather than directly to end users. However, certain manufacturers have, on multiple occasions, sold or attempted to sell directly to our customers, and in some cases, have restricted our ability to sell their products directly to certain customers, thereby attempting to and, in some cases successfully, eliminate our role. We believe that the success of these direct sales efforts by manufacturers will depend on their ability to meet our customers’ ongoing demands and provide solutions to meet their needs. We believe more of our customers are seeking out comprehensive and integrated IT solutions, rather than the ability to acquire specific IT products on a one-off basis. Our advantage is our ability to be product-neutral and provide a broader combination of products, services, and advice tailored to our customers’ individual needs. By providing customers with customized solutions from a variety of manufacturers, we believe we can mitigate the negative impact of continued direct sales initiatives from individual manufacturers. Through the formation of our TSSO, we are able to provide customers complete IT solutions, from identifying their needs, to designing, developing, and managing the integration of products and services to implement their IT projects. Such service offerings carry higher margins than traditional product sales. Additionally, the technical certifications of our service engineers permit us to offer higher-end, more complex products that generally carry higher gross margins. We expect these service offerings and technical

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certifications to continue to play a role in sales generation and gross margin improvements in this competitive environment.

​

The primary challenges we continue to face in effectively managing our business are (1) increasing our product and service revenues while at the same time improving our gross margin in all three segments, (2) recruiting, retaining, and improving the productivity of our sales and technical support personnel, and (3) effectively controlling our SG&A expenses while making major investments in our IT systems and solution selling personnel, especially in relation to changing revenue levels.

​

To support future growth, we have invested and expect to continue to invest in our IT solutions business, which requires the addition of highly skilled service engineers. Although we expect to realize the ultimate benefit of higher-margin service revenues under this multi-year initiative, we believe that our cost of services will increase as we add additional service engineers. If our service revenues do not grow enough to offset the cost of these headcount additions, our operating results may be negatively impacted.

​

Market conditions and technology advances significantly affect the demand for our products and services. Virtual delivery of software products and advanced Internet technology providing customers enhanced functionality have substantially increased customer expectations, requiring us to invest on an ongoing basis in our own IT infrastructure to meet these new demands.

​

Our investments in IT infrastructure are designed to enable us to operate more efficiently and provide our customers enhanced functionality.

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Trends and Key Factors Affecting our Financial Performance

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KEY OPERATING METRIC

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Gross Billings

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We utilize key operating metrics to track and assess the performance of our business, including gross billings. Gross billings is the total dollar value of goods and services billed during the period, net of customer returns, credit memos, and any applicable sales or other taxes and includes agency fees, and freight. As certain transactions are recognized on a net basis, gross billings include amounts not recognized in net sales.

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We use the gross billings operating metric for planning, forecasting, and evaluating the sales performance of our operating segments by providing insight into the total value of our business transactions. We believe that gross billings provides the same insight to investors.

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The following table sets forth the gross billings for each of our operating segments and our consolidated entity (in millions):

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RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

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The following table sets forth information derived from our statements of income expressed as a percentage of net sales for the periods indicated (dollars in millions):

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Net sales of $2,872.7 million in 2025 reflected an increase of $70.6 million compared to 2024, which was driven by higher net sales for our Enterprise Solutions and Business Solutions segments as shown

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