Avaya

Spinoffs & name

In 1996, Lucent Technologies was spun off from AT&T. Lucent spun off units of its own in an attempt to restructure its struggling, unprofitable operations. Avaya (formerly referred to as Lucent's enterprise communication group) was spun off in 2000, Management chose the name Avaya "to set the company apart and capture what it was doing – focusing on communications solutions for business customers." Management thought "Avaya" sounded open and fluid—"reflecting a company that’s open-minded and that provides seamless, effortless interconnections among people and businesses."

Growth

2007

In October 2007, Avaya was acquired by two private equity firms, TPG Capital and Silver Lake Partners, for $8.2 billion. The company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange after the acquisition was completed.

2008

2009

The integrated communication offering Avaya Aura was launched. In December 2009 Avaya acquired Nortel Enterprise assets for $900 million.

2010

2011

2012

On April 30, 2012 the shareholders approved the acquisition of Radvision by Avaya for about $230 million. The deal closed in June 2012.

2013–2015

Explored sale and bankruptcy (2016–2017)

According to news articles citing "internal sources" in May 2016, Avaya's Private Equity owners Silver Lake Partners and TPG Capital are considering a sale of telecommunications equipment company Avaya Inc that could value it at between $6 billion and $10 billion, including debt. CEO Kevin Kennedy on the company's earnings call in May 2016 had earlier confirmed that Goldman Sachs was helping Avaya evaluate expressions of interest that have been received relative to specific assets, as well as in exploring other potential strategic opportunities. As of November 2016, Avaya was weighing chapter 11 bankruptcy filing while trying to sell off its call center business. On January 19, 2017 Avaya filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11, however stated that its foreign operations would remain unaffected. In its petition, Avaya listed $5.5 billion in assets and $6.3 billion in debts.

Acquisitions

Since 2001, the company has sold and acquired several companies to support its current product set, including VPNet Technologies, Inc., VISTA Information Technologies Inc., Quintus, RouteScience, Tenovis, Spectel, NimCat Networks, Traverse Networks, Ubiquity Software Corporation, Agile Software NZ Limited, Konftel, Sipera, Aurix, Radvision and Esnatech.

Purchase of Nortel's Enterprise assets

Through Nortel's bankruptcy proceedings, certain assets related to their Enterprise Voice and Data business units were put up for auction. Avaya placed a $900 million bid and was formally announced as the winner of these assets on September 14, 2009.

Corporate information

Avaya's headquarters are located at 4655 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara, California. The company had offices located in over 145 countries worldwide in 2011. The company also sponsors a user's group.

Training

Avaya sponsors training programs for IT professional certifications and training for use of Avaya's products.

Government business

In 1985, Performance Engineering Corporation (later PEC Solutions Inc.) was formed to offer technology services to government customers. On June 6, 2005, Nortel Networks Inc. completed the acquisition of PEC Solutions, Inc. to form Nortel PEC Solutions Inc. On January 18, 2006, Nortel PEC Solutions was renamed Nortel Government Solutions. On December 21, 2009, Avaya acquired Nortel's government business as part of Nortel's asset sale.

Patents

Avaya bought Nortel Enterprise and acquired its patents, including the following:

Sports sponsorships

In 2001, Avaya become an official partner of FIFA tournaments from 2001 to 2006. The contract includes the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea & Japan and 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.