Extreme Networks: This Will Be a Channel-Centric Company

The acquisition of Enterasys by Extreme Networks (EXTR) will create a force to be reckoned with in the enterprise networking space. But how will the channel partners of either company be impacted?

Of course, it’s early days—after all, the announcement was just made Thursday—but Extreme is highly committed to keeping its channel profile high and provide all its partners with what they need, said Theresa Caragol, Extreme’s vice president of Global Channels and Partners.

“Our CEO, Chuck Berger, is a completely channel-centric guy,” she said. “He understands the channel and its importance. He gets it to a pretty deep degree. He has said this will be a channel-centric company.”

She added both companies’ philosophies of partnering are similar and “both are committed to our channel partners.”

That’s good news for Enterasys’ channel partners, who are for the most part fiercely loyal to the company’s networking technologies. Enterasys plays in the data center networking space, and in the past few years has brought its technology downstream into the enterprise and small-business markets. In addition, the company also has a pretty solid wireless and network management portfolio.

Extreme’s technologies almost run parallel to Enterasys’ in breadth, but as a whole they are broader than Enterasys’, incorporating just about everything from open fabric to SDN and beyond.

“We did our due diligence and the decision was that [the portfolios of both companies] are extremely complementary,” Caragol said. “Throughout the process we will continue the roadmap of both companies’ technologies,” and there may even be some cross-pollination of the technologies.

“Our SDN architecture gives us the opportunity to manage the entire portfolio under one umbrella,” she added.

Caragol was quick to note much of the groundwork still must occur before the deal is finalized. “The partner program, training and enablement, profitability incentives—all of these will need to be worked through. Our intention is to look at this event as a merger of equals and objectively look at both companies to figure out what the best technology or program is or [whether] we [combine technologies or programs] together and roll that out.”

For now, Caragol said it’s business as usual for the companies and their channel partners. Enterasys is hosting its annual partner confab next month in Ft. Myers, Fla., while Extreme has planned its channel partner conference for Miami in November. Both events occur before the sale is expected to be finalized, but it’s a safe bet the acquisition will be a main point of conversation at both events.

Meanwhile, Extreme is hoping channel partners on both sides of the acquisition get the message that the company is “extremely committed to its partners, from the top down. We will build a profitable partner program and we will invest with the partners who invest with us,” she said.