Avaya takeover offers resellers an R&D lift
Channel expects vendor's growth strategy to be reinivigorated by private equity funding
Resellers are confident that Avaya’s planned takeover by two private equity firms will help re-fire the vendor’s R &D engines and return it to higher growth.
As reported by CRN, Silver Lake and TPG Capital have added to the recent wave of private equity cash flowing into the IT sector by launching an $8.2bn bid for the communications giant.
Ty Gardner, sales and marketing director at Avaya reseller Universal Office Automation, said: “As R&D has now become so crucial in the convergence market, the bigger the player, the better. That’s why Cisco is ahead of the pack.
“A huge investment is needed with the rise of presence technology and Microsoft’s entry into the voice space. If someone is prepared to put up the money then that’s great. The only danger is that [Silver Lake and TPG] might have different goals from us. We just want to sell good products.”
Richard Banfield, managing director of Echo Communications, said: “I think this is broadly good. They will be in it to increase Avaya’s value.”
Frank Dzubeck, president of analyst firm Communications Network Architects, agreed that the move would allow Avaya to kickstart organic and acquisitive growth. “There is a lot of sense in going private as firms can do a lot more and don’t have to worry about quarterly numbers,” he told CRN. “Private companies tend to focus more on growth.”