AVAYA
is a privately held telecommunications company which specializes in enterprise telephony and call center technology. Formerly the Business Communications unit of Lucent Technologies, it was spun off on October 1, 2000.
Since the spin-off, Avaya has sold its manufacturing and connectivity businesses and acquired several companies to support its current product set - Vista, VPNet. Quintus, Routescience, Nimcat Networks, Spectel, and Traverse Networks.
It has also expanded in Europe through the acquisition of Tenovis and Ubiquity Software and in Asia through a majority interest in Tata Telecom (now Avaya Global Connect).
It has approximately 20,000 employees as of 2006, 40% of whom are located outside the US. The Avaya global headquarters is located in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Louis D'Ambrosio is the CEO.
Avaya was the official Converged Communication Provider for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. It also provided the communications networks for the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2003. Avaya provides solutions for 90% of the Fortune 500 companies.
On October 26, 2007 Avaya was acquired by two private equity firms, TPG Capital and Silver Lake Partners, for $8.5 billion[1]. As a result of this transaction Avaya became a privately held company, no longer traded on any stock market. On November 9, 2007, the firms completed their buy-out and Avaya shareholders will receive $17.50 per share of owned common stock.
Western Electric roots
Since Avaya is a company spun off from Lucent Technologies, itself a spinoff of AT&T, Avaya continues to sell and support well-known telephone models for businesses that were made popular in the heyday of the Bell System, including the 2554 wall phone, and the 2500 series desk phone, both popular Western Electric models.[2]
Avaya telephone production at the Shreveport Works, a former Western Electric payphone plant, ceased in 2001. All of Avaya's telephones are made outside the U.S. by contract manufacturers such as Celestica.
Much of Avaya's product and customer set today can be traced back to its AT&T legacy where it formed part of AT&T Network Systems.