Mitel: We intend to be the consolidator, not the consolidated

Comms vendor to press on with expansion plans following buyout of competitor Aastra

One of Mitel's senior management team has vowed that the vendor will continue to be the aggressor as the telecoms industry "consolidates rapidly".

Graham Bevington, executive vice president of international markets at Mitel, claimed that the vendor's recent closure of its acquisition of rival Aastra is a statement of intent that it plans on "being the consolidator, not the consolidated" in the coming years.

He claimed that recent deals - including the Mitel-Aastra merger and Alcatel-Lucent's revelation that it is set to sell 75 per cent of its enterprise telephony business to investment house China Huaxin - speak to an ongoing trend of consolidation in the market.

"[The Aastra acquisition] makes us a top-five vendor globally; as a billion-dollar company, it gives us market leadership in a number of western European countries," he said. "[Our growth plans] will be a combination or organic growth and working in an industry that is going to consolidate quite rapidly. There is no doubt that, in the mid to long term, this industry is consolidating and will continue to do so.

"There are two types of acquisition; one is based around technology, where we may look to being in more products and services. Also [in terms of volume], while we have a large business in North America and Europe, we are maybe not quite so strong as we would like to be in Asia, so that might be one area we look at, for example."

Completing the integration process is expected to take 18 months to two years. Bevington (pictured right) said the next two months or so would be spent "getting to know each other", after which time more precise decisions may be made about the integration process and future product roadmap. But the Mitel chief pledged that his firm would ensure customer and partner investments are protected.

"Our plan is to continue to sell and support both portfolios and anything we do change will be about protecting and respecting customers' investments, and channel partners' relationships," he explained.