Mitel recently closed off the deal to sell its mobile division, Mitel Mobility (previously Mavenir), to Xura Inc. for a cool $385 million less than two years after buying it for a deal totalling around $560 million. The new company will resurrect the name Mavenir Systems.
Buying Mavenir wasn’t the best move Mitel has made recently. I wonder whether CEO Rich McBee sighs when he thinks about it, or is he about to pull a rabbit out of a hat for Mitel’s shareholders?
His planned $1.96Bn bid for voice and video conferencing specialists Polycom was rejected by the Polycom board of directors after they determined that new bidder Siris Capital’s proposal constituted a “Company Superior Proposal” under its merger agreement with Mitel and they received a $60m termination fee.
Mitel are a global unified communications powerhouse, what were they thinking about buying a mobile carrier network? They’ve lost a tonne of cash which will only hinder their short-term strategy to be global number 3 behind Cisco and Avaya for corporate telephony. Mind you, it might not be long before they slip into second place due to Avaya’s bankruptcy situation which is not showing great signs of recovery just yet.
Rich McBee is a sharp character, since the acquisition of Aastra Networks in 2013/14 he’s dominating Europe and the UK for marketshare. However is it all calm on the western front? We understand that Mitel is still consolidating its workforce since the Aastra deal, I can only imagine this is unsettling for the staff and very disruptive to growth and success.
Mitel failed to buy Polycom and ShoreTel, has made a loss on the Mavenir deal – what next for Mitel, a high quality acquisition or continued restructuring and consolidation of its workforce? Or does one just bring the other? There’s no smoke without fire in business I guess.
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