Silver Lake and TPG Capital announced the acquisition of Avaya, a global provider of business communications applications, software, and services. Silver Lake is an investment firm focused on large scale investments in technology and TPG Capital is a private investment firm. The transaction is valued at approximately $8.3 billion.
Under the agreement, Avaya stockholders will receive $17.50 in cash for each share of common stock. Avaya’s common stock stopped trading since October 26, 2007 and will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Avaya’s stockholders accepted the merger in a special meeting held on September 28, 2007. In June 2007, Avaya entered into a definitive merger agreement with Silver Lake Partners and TPG Capital for the acquisition of the company. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of October 2007, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain closing conditions.
Today marks the beginning of an exciting new era for Avaya, said Lou D’Ambrosio, President and Chief Executive Officer at Avaya. As a private company, working with Silver Lake and TPG, we have an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate our strategy, act boldly in the marketplace, and serve our customers with even greater innovation and responsiveness.
Avaya provides communication systems, applications, and services, and approximately one million businesses worldwide use Avaya solutions for IP telephony, unified communications, contact centers and communications enabled business processes.
Avaya generated $5.2bn in revenues and $220m in profits in its last fiscal year. Avaya also accounted for about 12% of all business telephony lines (IP and TDM) installed worldwide last year, behind Nortel’s 13.4% but ahead of Cisco’s 8.5%.
