Can Avaya Handle Nortel?

Some interesting chatter in the blogosphere this week about Nortel and the presumed, pending Avaya takeover of the enterprise unit.

One consultant, who remained anonymous in a No Jitter opinion piece, argues the Avaya purchase would fail for a number of reasons. Another telecom insider, Jeff Wiener, head of reseller Digitcom in Canada, says the thinking is way off base.

I don’t think an Avaya takeover would be pure failure but I think there are stronger companies that could handle the enterprise division with more agility and speed. Avaya, though it’s doing better than it was before going private, is still struggling with a lot of debt and channel incorporation. Buying Nortel’s enterprise arm will require quick customer, back-office and technology integration. Avaya has a new CEO who’s said to be leading the company well. But does that mean Avaya is indeed the best acquirer for this valuable piece of Nortel?