Avaya Networking Biz Saga Ends in Acquisition by Extreme Networks

One chapter of Avaya’s long and troubled story may be coming to a close. Extreme Networks has confirmed that it will acquire Avaya’s networking business for $100 million.

The deal has been on the radar since March, but Avaya held off in the hopes of getting a higher bid in the wake of filing for Chapter 11 in January. After getting no more bites, the company agreed to the rock-bottom sale to Extreme.

Avaya has struggled mightily in recent years under the weight of private equity debts it bought in 2007, just before the Great Recession sent interest rates plummeting. It hasn’t posted an annual profit since.

We watched throughout 2016 as it tried one move after another to get out from under $6 billion in debt to no avail. Let’s take a look back at the series of events that led to this week’s announcement:

For its part, pure-play networking provider Extreme has been busy with a series of acquisitions designed to strengthen its position in the market, which is led by giants HPE and Cisco. Last October, it acquired Zebra Technology’s wireless LAN business for $55 million, and in March, it bought Brocade Communications networking arm from Broadcom for $55 million.

M&A advisory martinwolf said this puts Extreme in a position to provide end-to-end capabilities.

“Seeking to complete its end-to-end reach in a single combined platform within the next year, the Avaya acquisition would bring deployment simplicity, micro-segmentation and fabric technology with embedded security, while the Brocade portfolio would bring high-end data center networking along with visibility and automation,” it said in an email.