Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions)
Anurag Gupta
Before we begin with the Q&A I'd like to let everyone know that joining the call in addition to Bob and Tony are Mark Howell who is President of Brightpoint America and Michael Coon who is President of Brightpoint Europe, Middle East and Africa. And now we can take your questions.
Operator
Your first question comes from Ittai Kidron – Oppenheimer.
Ittai Kidron – Oppenheimer
Bob, first question to you. Can you talk about the environment right now? We haven't seen the usual holiday ramp up in the fourth quarter and it feels like we'll see a little bit weaker than typical seasonality in the first quarter, but can you comment about the global inventory levels? Are you seeing some stabilization in demand? And also, there's been a lot of discussion on distributors having problems financing. Clearly you're not in that camp, but how does that either create opportunity for you or disruption as well near term?
Robert Laiken
I'll address the last question first. We're seeing most if not all of our global competitors having financing issues and credit insurance issues which is a positive for us with our strong balance sheet and our long term leadership position in the global market.
Many manufacturers and network operators are coming to us asking us if we have an interest level in taking over a lot of distribution opportunities, and it's not just in one region, it's more globally. And the reason that we're being told is that the existing distribution partner that they have, there are concerns about their viability. So that's a good problem for us to have.
As far as global demand, I would answer that more from a visibility standpoint. In October and November there was virtually no visibility, so it's difficult for many of our logistics customers as well as for our distribution business unit to plan our business.
December visibility started coming back and I would say of this three months in the fourth quarter, the visibility was clearly the best in December. In January the visibility was still there, so we're seeing normalized demand in visibility right now, which I think makes it easier for everybody in the supply chain to plan their businesses.
As far as global inventory, we don't see any global overstock that's too high for first quarter, so I think it's normal, and I think that as demand picks up through the year, it should be good for most companies in the wireless space.
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