Would a Nortel or Cisco acquisition of Avaya make sense?
The answers are probably not and definitely not, for Nortel and Cisco respectively. “I think Nortel is sort of looking to get good deal [with Avaya], and if the got a good deal, they would have taken it,” says JMP’s Wilson. “Nortel in the enterprise needs to figure out if they’re going to get bigger or give up. That’s what they’re struggling with right now.” Nortel, once a toe-to-toe competitor with Avaya, has fallen to third in enterprise telephony and IP telephony behind Cisco.
