UC Experts Discuss Avaya's Acquisition of Nortel

UCStrategies.com's expert UC panel discussed the Avaya successful acquired Nortel Enterprise Solutions division by beating Siemens Enterprise Communications at the auction. Jim Burton, CXO of UCStrategies.com, led the discussion with a review of the 900 million dollar purchase. David Yedwab continued the discussion with his observations that Avaya/Nortel consolidation will reduce the major players in telecommunications.  David also discussed the implications to 3 groups: Nortel customers, including Nortel’s government contracts; Nortel channel partners; and Avaya’s Silver Lake’ pending purchase of Skype.

Dave Michels discussed Avaya's new role as a parent company of “independent” telecom reviewer Gartner. Michael Finneran predicted that Nortel’s mobility pieces would disappear since the cellular base UC is stronger in Avaya, while Avaya gains Nortel’s European Deck product line which has 95% of the overseas markets.  Blair Pleasant discussed how the acquisition is going to affect existing relationships with Microsoft, which is a direct competitor, while gaining a new relationship in Diamond Ware, with its audio conferencing and virtual reality lines.

Graciela Tiscareno-Sato classified the acquisition in terms of private equity verses private equity to increase market share. Jon Arnold then picked up that thread and discussed the trend for privatization on companies to put pressure on the public companies of Cisco and Microsoft. This discussion panel included UC experts Jon Arnold, Jim Burton, Don Van Doren, Nancy Jamison, Michael Finneran, Dave Michels, Blair Pleasant, Art Rosenberg, Grace Tiscareno-Sato, and David Yedwab.