Avaya's got news for conferencing sector
Firm set to acquire vendor Spectel
Avaya is to acquire Spectel, an Irish audio-conferencing vendor, for an estimated 85.7m euros.
Spectel has been selling its conferencing software suites to enterprises and service providers through Avaya for four years.
The deal is expected to close within 60 days of the announcement.
The market for conferencing solutions owned by large firms, rather than hosted by operators, is expected to grow over the next few years. Large vendors are increasingly combining conferencing with their hybrid and voice over IP (VoIP) solutions.
"We don't have a conferencing product, apart from what we buy from Spectel," said Micky Tsui, vice-president of Avaya's communications systems division.
"Conferencing is going to change a lot, and we decided to acquire the technology directly."
Spectel sells most of its product through Avaya, so the deal will not affect UK resellers directly. Avaya plans to build Spectel software into its IP telephony products, including Communications Manager.
According to Marc Beattie, senior analyst and partner at conferencing analyst Wainhouse Research, Spectel is the latest in a line of audio-conferencing software vendors that have been snapped up by larger players.
"We're not too surprised. Last year, Polycom bought Voyant, and Cisco bought Latitude. The Avaya acquisition will allow Spectel to compete with bigger rivals such as Cisco," said Beattie.
"Pretty much the only company in this sector that hasn't been acquired is Compunetix."
Beattie added that Alcatel, Siemens or Nortel might consider acquiring Compunetix.
Jonathan O'Connell, Spectel's chief financial officer, said: "Conferencing is becoming a more important part of telecoms companies' offering. From our perspective, it makes sense to link up with a larger vendor to compete with Cisco. We've had a long-term relationship with Avaya, and know it well."