Bankrupt Avaya to sell networking business assets to Extreme Networks

$100m for struggling unified comms firm's coffers as it tries to move to cloud

Bankrupt unified communications firm Avaya has entered an asset purchase agreement with software-driven networking solutions Extreme Networks, which will see the vendor purchase $100m of assets from Avaya's networking business.

The sale will take place under what's known in the US as a section 363 sale under the Bankruptcy Code, and the $100m is subject to further adjustments.

Avaya, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2017, is insisting its financial problems are merely an "optimising" process that will allow "greater opportunities" for its remaining products and services to "thrive".

"Several months ago, in the context of optimising our capital structure, we announced that we were conducting a comprehensive assessment of the various alternatives available to us, including expressions of interest in certain Avaya assets," said Avaya president and CEO Kevin Kennedy.

"After extensive evaluation, we believe that a sale of our Networking business is the best path forward for all stakeholders. It provides a clear and positive path for our Networking customers and partners and enables the Company to focus on its core, industry-leading Unified Communications and Contact Center solutions. Today's announcement furthers our overall restructuring goals as we position the rest of Avaya for long-term success."

This is just weeks after the firm's corporate treasurer John Sullivan told press that going bankrupt was "a critical next step" in becoming a "software and services" business, as opposed to its hardware origins (hence junking the assets to Extreme Networks).

Nevertheless, the transaction will be administered by the United States Bankruptcy Court for Southern District of New York (hereby referred to by Avaya, for the hard of hearing, as simply the "Bankruptcy Court") and will be governed by the United States Bankruptcy Code.

That's a fair amount of uses of the word "bankrupt", right there.

The transfer of assets is set to close by 30 June, 2017.