Extreme Networks poised for further acquisitions as it closes in on Avaya's networking business
VP hints that there is more to come this year as Extreme moves towards completing Avaya and Brocade deals
Extreme Networks is set to continue its acquisition streak after getting closer to snapping up Avaya's networking business, according to global marketing vice president Norman Rice.
Extreme has been confirmed as the successful bidder for Avaya's networking business in a deal set to be worth around $100m (£77.5m), after being named the preferred bidder in March, which triggered a stalking horse bidders process.
The acquisition is part of a trio of Extreme deals, with the vendor acquiring Zebra's wireless LAN arm and expecting to complete a deal for Brocade's networking business in August.
Rice told CRN that Extreme's acquisition spree is far from over and did not rule out further additions this year.
"It's possible [there will be more acquisition activity this year]," he said. "We're going to continue to be opportunistic. My view is that there is more to come.
"We're continuing to shore up our portfolio. We think scale matters so we're continuing to look in the switching space and continuing to look at tangential capabilities to strengthen areas that we need to build on and that our customers and partners are looking for us to deliver."
Extreme expects the addition of the Avaya network to add around $200m revenue a year to its wider business, while the Brocade and Zebra deals will add $230m and $115m respectively.
Rice said that the additions of Brocade and Avaya alone will see Extreme double its customer base and partner base.
He added that the response to the Avaya deal has been positive from partners in both camps.
"We've reached out to the Extreme partners and the Avaya team have reached out to the Avaya partners, and the feedback has been very positive," he said.
"The partner programme that Extreme has is one of the most lucrative in the marketplace and we expect to expand that to onboard the partners because we believe there is a unique opportunity for us to expand our footprint.
"Secondly we believe, from feedback with partners, that there is a lot confusion in the marketplace with all the changes going on at Cisco, HPE changing focus, and Juniper changing focus.
"We believe we have a great opportunity to focus on the enterprise, offer our partners a broader set of capabilities and offer them a lucrative programme so they're incented to expand practices around our portfolio."
Focusing specifically on Avaya partners, he said that the announcement should provide them with a degree of reassurance after an uncertain few months with Avaya.
"With the Avaya partners that we've talked to, relief is probably the best term," he explained.
"There's relief that the technology is going to a networking company and there's relief that there is a resolution. They put a lot of time, effort and investment to train people and become experts in Avaya technology and there was concern [about] what was going to happen to those assets. In the end, being awarded to a focused company on the enterprise and networking is a great outcome for partners."
The sentiment was echoed by Avaya's senior vice president of networking Marc Randall who said in a statement: "This is great news. The Avaya networking business will become part of a company exclusively focused on networking and addressing the needs of our networking customers.
"By combining Avaya Networking's innovative products and solutions with Extreme's industry-leading portfolio, we will enable customers to compete in new ways with more advanced and competitive solutions.
"We will work closely with our customers, partners and stakeholders while continuing to meet their needs for secure, high-performance networking solutions.
"We will ensure our customers can fully leverage their existing Avaya investment as they benefit from the complementary capabilities of Avaya and the Extreme portfolio of products and services."