Avaya has found a buyer for its networking business: Extreme Networks will buy the division for about US$100 million as part of Avaya’s bankruptcy process.
The venerable enterprise voice, collaboration and networking company filed for bankruptcy in January and said it would shift its focus from hardware to software and services.
Extreme, based in San Jose, California, makes wired and wireless enterprise network products, including an SDN (software-defined networking) controller based on the OpenDaylight platform. Last September, it acquired the Zebra Technologies wireless LAN business for $55 million to flesh out its own Wi-Fi division.
Avaya has been around since 2000, when it was spun off from Lucent Technologies as a supplier of enterprise phone gear, call-center systems and network equipment. It was taken private in 2007.
The rise of smartphones and cloud-based communication has squeezed the collaboration business, and enterprise networking has become a tight market. When it declared bankruptcy last month, Avaya said it would hold on to its call-center business but sell off other, unnamed assets.
The deal with Extreme has to be approved by the court overseeing Avaya’s bankruptcy and go through other reviews. It’s expected to close in three to four months.