Genband to acquire Nortel assets

Genband will acquire Nortel's softswitch, media gateway and application technologies

VoIP, unified messaging, products and services

Genband has announced it will acquire assets of the Nortel Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions Business; the deal is expected to close in Q2 2010 subject to legal and regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. Genband started the acquisition process in December 2009 with a "stalking horse" bid, teaming with One Equity Partners (OEP) and other existing shareholders to secure the Nortel assets.

The rise and fall of Nortel

Once the transaction is approved, Genband will not only acquire Nortel's softswitch, media gateway and application technologies, it will also bring in the Nortel DMS (TDM voice switching) portfolio and associated customer base. Genband already has products deployed in over two-thirds of the world's top 100 service providers and it the expansion will allow it to cover broad markets including fixed, mobile, cable and broadband operators," according to the company. The company will bring R&D resources, sales and support operations -- essentially doubling in size with the additions. Genband said in its statement that it will offer continued support for "existing business partnerships with plans to expand product, service and support relationships following the . . . transaction."

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Genband has announced it will acquire assets of the Nortel Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions Business; the deal is expected to close in Q2 2010 subject to legal and regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. Genband started the acquisition process in December 2009 with a "stalking horse" bid, teaming with One Equity Partners (OEP) and other existing shareholders to secure the Nortel assets.

The rise and fall of Nortel

Once the transaction is approved, Genband will not only acquire Nortel's softswitch, media gateway and application technologies, it will also bring in the Nortel DMS (TDM voice switching) portfolio and associated customer base. Genband already has products deployed in over two-thirds of the world's top 100 service providers and it the expansion will allow it to cover broad markets including fixed, mobile, cable and broadband operators," according to the company. The company will bring R&D resources, sales and support operations -- essentially doubling in size with the additions. Genband said in its statement that it will offer continued support for "existing business partnerships with plans to expand product, service and support relationships following the . . . transaction."

Commenting on the plans in a statement, President and CEO Charles D. Vogt said, "Our vision is to fuel the industry's desired network migration path to cutting-edge IP technology by instituting open standards, open interfaces and interoperability. No other supplier will be better positioned to enable service providers a more cost effective means to optimize their existing fixed TDM networks, and transition from fixed TDM to IP and from fixed to mobile convergence."

Our observations: Nortel has long been a leader in the softswitch and media gateway market for service providers and has kept a strong relationship with carriers despite all its financial turmoil. We think the Genband acquisition is a good step for carrier customers since it resolves any doubts that may have remained about the future of Nortel's carrier voice infrastructure portfolio.

Read more about voip & convergence in Network World's VoIP & Convergence section.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.