Having agreed to buy the carrier VoIP assets of bankrupt Nortel Networks (NT), GENBAND “will become the largest provider of VoIP solutions to telecom service providers,” said president Charles Vogt. With not only fixed-line operators but also wireless providers migrating to IP platforms, demand for VoIP media gateways is exploding. And GENBAND is positioned as the key supplier.
According to Synergy Research Group, GENBAND boasted 23 percent of the world’s media gateway market, pre-acquisition. Adding the Nortel business, that figure rises to 31.4 percent.
GENBAND reached that pinnacle on Feb. 24, after no one else submitted bids for Nortel’s carrier VoIP unit – the last of Nortel’s properties bound for auction. Court approval is expected in early March. GENBAND will pay about $182 million for the Nortel carrier VoIP platforms, intellectual property, support operations and customers – pretty much everything except the Nortel name. According to reports, GENBAND, like other winning bidders before it, said “No, thanks” to the Nortel brand, leaving GENBAND free to assimilate the business without the public baggage from the Nortel fiasco.Now, as it awaits legal and regulatory approvals, GENBAND executives are planning their next steps. Integration sits at the top of the list. Given the number of people, processes and technologies involved, as well as different corporate cultures and low morale on the Nortel side, there is much to accomplish.
“This is not an easy transaction,” said Mehmet Balos, GENBAND’s chief marketing officer. However, he pointed out, GENBAND has taken over other, larger rivals – including the Tekelec acquisition in 2007 – and done so with success.
“We understand the challenge well and have a team dedicated to this process,” Vogt said.
That several of GENBAND’s top managers – the CIO and head of R&D included – are ex-Nortel employees should help. They’re acquainted with Nortel’s way of doing business and also GENBAND’s. The knowledge will come in handy as an unspecified number of Nortel workers make the transition to GENBAND. When that happens, these people will face at least two major changes: a different speed of decision-making and a policy of open communication.
“We are very nimble ... we make decisions fast,” Balos said.
Just 10 years old, GENBAND has had to operate that way to make its mark. Veterans of the much older Nortel are accustomed to a more bureaucratic, hierarchical approach.
In addition, while GENBAND remains privately held, it shares financial results each quarter with everyone in the company, Balos said.
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