Avaya completes Nortel asset acquisition

Avaya has completed its acquisition of Nortel's Enterprise Solutions for $900 million (558 million).

The former rivals have sealed the deal after an initial bidding process followed by court approvals on the acquisition.

The deal, initially struck back in September, includes Avaya paying out an extra $15 million to keep on 6,000 of Nortel's employees from the division.

"The completion of this acquisition represents another major step in Avaya's evolution and growth in the communications industry," Kevin J. Kennedy, president and chief executive of Avaya, said in a statement.

"By combining our complementary technology portfolios, deep industry specific domain expertise, sales channels and customer bases, the new Avaya will redefine business communications and help customers to reduce costs, simplify operations and increase their business agility."

Nortel has spent the year auctioning off assets following filing for bankruptcy protection back in February.

In addition to selling its enterprise solutions to Avaya, it has sold off its CDMA and LTE assets to Ericsson and its Optical Networking and Carrier Ethernet business to Ciena.

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.