A major bankruptcy, distress, consolidation: Some people would wonder
how much opportunity there is in the enterprise communications business, where all this is going on.
But not Mohamad Ali, who on July 15, after more than 13 years at IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM), began a new job as senior vice president for Avaya Inc., the No. 2 company in the sector. "There's a significant opportunity for Avaya to lead in the consolidation," Ali said in an interview on Monday.
Apparently so. Because it was also on Ali's fourth day on the job that Avaya unveiled a $475 million stalking-horse bid for the enterprise solutions business of bankrupt Nortel Networks Corp. The Deal Pipeline subscribers can find details on Avaya's bid
here, and on the Nortel bankruptcy
here.
Avaya, the Basking Ridge, N.J. spinoff from the old AT&T, was taken private in 2007 by Silver Lake Partners and TPG Capital in an $8.2 billion buyout. In January Kevin Kennedy, the former CEO of JDS Uniphase,
came in as CEO. With acquisitions and partnering figuring prominently in the company's plans to take on No. 1 Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in sectors such as healthcare, the company needed a top-notch corporate development exec as well, resulting in a head-hunter's call to Ali.
As The Deal Pipeline readers may recall, Ali was one of IBM's
most prolific M&A execs, which is saying something.
As vice president of business development and strategy for the information management division of the company's huge software business, he led 14 acquisitions over the last four years, including the $5 billion acquisition of Cognos Inc. announced in November of 2007.
He leaves IBM on good terms. In an e-mail sent out on Saturday, Ali described IBM as "a company, people and set of values that are among the very best on the planet." He also says that there may be opportunities for Avaya and IBM to collaborate in the future. But, he said, with a major IPO looming down the road if Avaya is successful, this is the kind of opportunity that doesn't come along very often.
The friendly parting contrasts with the state of affairs between IBM and David Johnson, the former vice president of corporate development who left IBM for Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) in May, and whom IBM is suing for violating a noncompete agreement. Readers can find a detailed account of that dispute on The Deal Magazine site.
Ali was based in the Boston area for IBM, and will continue to work there for Avaya. As Xconomy Boston reports, he'll continue to to serve on the board of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. Ali says he's also joined the board of Boston-based Ember Corp., which focuses on energy efficiency improvements for businesses, homes and utilities. -
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I can only hope that the "new" Avaya is a very different place than the poor relation of AT&T and then Lucent that I parted with several years ago. Plodding, lacking in focus and top heavy, Avaya looked more like the old, OLD AT&T than its nimble competitors.