Alcatel-Lucent looking to sell PBX arm, say reports

WSJ claims vendor's telecoms kit unit may undertake IPO or sell up to HP or Microsoft

Alcatel-Lucent is looking to cash in on its telecoms equipment division by selling it off or taking it public, according to reports.

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the Franco-American manufacturer has set about contacting possible buyers for the unit, with HP and Microsoft being likely candidates.

The former would certainly be a logical choice, as HP and Alcatel-Lucent have been engaged in a 10-year strategic partnership since 2009. The hardware giant has also thrown its weight – and its money – behind its HP Networking comms division in recent years.

Its portfolio has been boosted by the acquisitions of wireless vendor Colubris and SMB networking player 3Com. But HP lacks a voice platform to compete in an enterprise telephony market dominated by arch rival Cisco.

The Alcatel-Lucent unit would offer buyers a well-established PBX offering, as well as switching and call centre wares and other assorted telecoms products. Its sale could net the vendor more than $2bn (£1.2bn), according to WSJ.

The division reportedly chips in about $1.5bn to the vendor's total top line of $21.2bn. Alcatel-Lucent is also rumoured to be considering undertaking an initial public offering of stock in its PBX business.

The vendor is yet to comment on the reports.