ALU Enterprise Spinoff: Where They're Starting From

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise officially separated from the parent ALU company this week, with the closing of the unit's sale to China Huaxin Post & Telecommunication Economy Development Center for 202 million Euros ($255.95USD million). The spun-off company will keep the ALU Enterprise name for now, but a rebranding is possible later.

I sat down with Jeanne Bayerl, ALU Enterprise's analyst relations director, at the Interop New York event, and while many future directions remain unannounced, Jeanne was able to give me some key details about the new ALU-E. (For the definitive deep dive on the deal, from the period of its initial announcement, you have to read Brian Riggs' February No Jitter post.)

The spun off company has the right to continue using the Alcatel-Lucent name, but is currently exploring the possibility of a rebranding, Jeanne Bayerl told me. A final decision and announcement about whether to proceed with a new name is likely to come early next year.

Bayerl stressed ALU-E's argument that it's better positioned than many of its peers in the legacy PBX/UC world, since Huaxin is buying an 85% share of the company outright, rather than the company being sold to a private equity invester that would load the cost of the acquisition onto the fledgling company--as PE investors have done with companies like Avaya. "We start with a new company with zero debt," she said.

Read the rest of this article at No Jitter.