Avaya Wins Auction for Nortel Enterprise Unit
Despite a legal challenge from Verizon last week, Avaya has won the auction for Nortel’s enterprise-telecommunications unit and other assets with a bid of US$915 million, reports Bloomberg. It beat out Siemens Enterprise Communications to land the deal.
Avaya will pay $900 million in cash and $15 million for an employee-retention program, though its original bid was only $475 million. According to The Wall Street Journal, the combined businesses will make Avaya a more formidable competitor to Cisco.
Verizon raised alarms last week by saying Avaya is not committed to maintaining Nortel equipment used for public safety and defense in the United States.