**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting merger and acquisition news from April.**
Extreme Networks is the winning bidder to acquire Avaya’s networking business for about $100 million.
Avaya filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in January. It entered into an asset purchase agreement with Extreme for the networking business in a section 363 sale under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
The final agreement has been approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and is expected to close on or shortly after July 1, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
“This strategic acquisition will be another milestone in the execution of Extreme’s growth strategy and clearly establishes Extreme as the third-largest competitor in our enterprise markets and the only company in the world exclusively focused on delivering the highest quality end-to-end, wired and wireless enterprise IP networking,” said Ed Meyercord, Extreme’s president and CEO. “The conclusion of the auction process signals a big step forward in making this transaction a reality. Avaya’s networking business complements our existing portfolio and will significantly broaden Extreme’s enterprise solutions capabilities across our vertical target markets. We are moving forward with our integration planning for both Avaya Networking and the Brocade Data Center Networking business.”
Extreme expects to generate more than $200 million in annualized revenue from the acquired networking assets from Avaya. Extreme said the announcement builds on its strategy to expand the company’s portfolio of data center, core, campus and edge networking offerings through a series of strategic acquisitions.
Extreme also is acquiring Brocade’s data-center networking unit. That deal is expected to close in August.
