Comments on: Avaya-Nortel Merger: Why It’s Likely to Succeed

By: Gus Henderson

Gus Henderson — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:24:08 +0000

Aspect has superior Voice over IP contact servers and solutions and will be taking mad customers from Avaya-Nortel over the next few years. Book it.

By: Avaya-Nortel: The Push-back ~ Sealckers.org - Internet Security

Avaya-Nortel: The Push-back ~ Sealckers.org - Internet Security — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:50:26 +0000

[...] the auction. The piece drew quite a few detailed and insightful comments, as well as at least one point-by-point rebuttal on another [...]

By: The Forum for Business IP Telephony - VoiceCon Conference & Events 2009 - Enews

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:52:57 +0000

[...] As we count down to the September 11 bankruptcy court auction that will determine the buyer of Nortel Enterprise Solutions, No Jitter recently ran a compelling and controversial writeup from an industry observer arguing against the likelihood of a successful combination should Avaya capture Nortel in the auction. The piece drew quite a few detailed and insightful comments, as well as at least one point-by-point rebuttal on another blog. [...]

By: Simon Harris

Simon Harris — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:13:40 +0000

Nortel has been uncompetetive vs Avaya and Cisco for a while. In EMEA where I spent most of my career (long time with Avaya and sligthly less with Alcatel) I never found Nortel to be the really serious competitor in most serious tenders. On the other hand, Avaya needed to stop being so schizophrenic about their channel strategy. It looks like they are preparing to do that and move to a truly indirect model. If thats the case then this would make sense. Acquiring reseller and customer base should help to get a more sure footing in place. This all makes alot of sense to me as far is it goes. My only question would be profitability and the long term value add. A big part of the success of Avaya product came from the services provided around the core product. Avaya’s service organisation was key to this. However much of the Avaya services revenue came from direct accounts. This seems to leave a gap, revenue provides the resources to drive services capability. In the current climate not many organisations can take revenue to invest in longer term gains. So if Avaya move to a truly indirect model and the direct service revenue tails off how are they going to replace the services with revenue generating value add services which dont simply amount to a tax on partners, effectively driving away the potential new partner base obtained during the acquisition.?

By: Twitter Trackbacks for Avaya-Nortel Merger: Why It’s Likely to Succeed | The Telecom Blog [thetelecomblog.com] on Topsy.com

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 08:03:55 +0000

[...] Avaya-Nortel Merger: Why It’s Likely to Succeed | The Telecom Blog http://www.thetelecomblog.com/2009/08/20/avaya-nortel-merger-why-its-likely-to-succeed – view page – cached I’ve just read Eric Krapf’s post titled: Avaya-Nortel Merger, why it’s likely to fail. In it Eric sites many reasons why he believes, as the title — From the page [...]

By: Jeff Wiener

Jeff Wiener — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:50:06 +0000

@NEXsplor: Thanks for the comments. I do agree with you on most fronts, except the Microsoft / Cisco CPE point. Microsoft’s voice solution hasn’t managed to capture the corporate market as many expected it would. It seems that they are floundering, especially with their SMB Response Point plans. Cisco has been, and will continue to be a contender although they also have a lot of work to do in the SMB space. 36 months is a long time, and I expect to see more Cisco, and less Microsoft.

By: NEXsplor

NEXsplor — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:52:13 +0000

I read the “why it won’t work” piece before reading this one. I have to share that I fully agree with your positions here. I was part of Nortel with a high level function within the channels and have had many conversations with the new brass at Avaya. I DO think the price will go up, I do think that ultimately The Gores Group will attempt to out bid Silverlake / TPG, but the better fit is Avaya. The folks at Nortel are hoping the Gores pulls it out because of the smaller overlap in North America, but the best impact for the end users would be Avaya. The products mix and match better, the cultures are more alike, channel strategy (at least now it is with Avaya) is very similar and they will benefit instantly from access to a data portfolio. The broader question in the UC space is what is going to happen with Microsoft comes out with wave 14 (next year) of thier OCS (unified communications) offering. Thereby eliminating the need for a PBX or 3rd party gateways altogether. It eventually becomes a 2 horse race between Cisco and Microsoft anyways. If Gores doesn’t get Nortel, they become irrelevant almost immediately. If Avaya gets them there is a chance with proper execution they can do well. That said, my money is still on the Cisco / Microsoft battle. I think the herd of CPE voice players will thin quickly in the next 36 months.

By: JC

JC — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:10:45 +0000

Anybody ever stop to think that 1+1 doesn’t always equal 2?

Especially when you talk about Executives. You can’t have 2 VP’s of Sales, you can’t have 2 CTO’s, when you merge two companies you are going to keep one and fire/demote the other.

That means that you have a management structure that only understands half of the business.

Or worse, you keep both and have a company that competes against each other.

Either way, you lose…..

By: insider

insider — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:10:47 +0000

ACE is vaporware? No confidence in the R&D leadership team? Designers demoralized? Clearly ‘George’ is clueless – when I joined the ACE development team it was like leaving Nortel for a small, aggressive startup. Our R&D management is the best I’ve worked for. And the only thing demoralizing this team is having our product referred to as “vaporware”. Whoever ends up with Nortel Enterprise not only gets a great product with ACE, but a highly productive, experienced, motivated and agile design team as well.

By: tom tucker

tom tucker — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:14:13 +0000

A small part of the Nortel Enterprise package is the Iran Litigation project which has been on-going for over 30 years. This project was passed from PEC to Nortel in 2005. It has nothing to do with the Avaya primary mission, will it be retained or sold to the highest bidder. The U.S. Navy is the primary client?

By: Sam R...

Sam R... — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:33:47 +0000

Hmmm Georg, I would say its is you does not know what he is talking about else you would know that Nortel’s ACE is not vaporware. Its is designed and tested by highly motivated and skilled people ie the people that have survived 75000 layoffs…the cream of the crop. Also CS2000 is not part of Enterprise its part of Carrier (CVAS)…number one in market share.

By: Jeff Wiener

Jeff Wiener — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:46:33 +0000

George – Just as a point of clarification, Avaya is a privately held company and has been since Silver Lakes and TPG took them private in 2007.

By: Why the Nortel-Avaya Deal is a Bad Idea

Why the Nortel-Avaya Deal is a Bad Idea — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:17:01 +0000

[...] The Telecom Blog has a counter-argument on why the Avaya-Nortel deal is likely to [...]

By: George

George — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:17:41 +0000

If AVAYA is buying Nortel Enterprise for ACE then I will sell all AVAYA shares as soon as this deal is done, watch and then short AVAYA at the earliest opportunity. Acquisition is about getting people as well as existing product lines (market shares and revenue). To me, ACE is vaporware (concept is good, but very poor execution) and I have no confident of this R&D leadership team (designer demoralized….is this the fastest and most cost effective way to build an UC team?). However, I do like CS2000 with it’s large customer base (existing revenue, market shares) and it’s leadership and design teams. So, for AVAYA’s future, this deal must be about other products/people.