Genesys Sale Official; ALU to Retain and "Strengthen" Rest of Enterprise UnitGenesys Sale Official; ALU to Retain and "Strengthen" Rest of Enterprise Unit

The PBX and related product portfolios stay put, as the parent company promises to "leverage natural connections" between its Enterprise and Carrier lines.

Alcatel-Lucent has accepted an offer from a company owned by the private equity firm Permira to acquire the Genesys business unit. As was predicted last week, the price is $1.5 billion, and the sale includes only Genesys; the rest of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise will be retained by the parent company.

The key portion of ALU CEO Ben Verwaayen's statement:

"Permira's intended acquisition of Genesys would enable this profitable business to flourish further; with Enterprise, we have reached the conclusion that retaining it and strengthening it further serves Alcatel-Lucent and our customers best. Our chosen direction is to leverage the natural connections that exist between enterprise and carrier customers, and proactively apply Enterprise's strengths and momentum in unified communications and data networking with them."

ALU didn't give any details about what it actually plans to do to "strengthen" the Enterprise unit, or what exactly it sees as the "natural connections" between its Enterprise and Carrier units, and how these connections will be leveraged.

As for the going-forward relationship between ALU Enterprise and an independent Genesys, the company's statement says, "Genesys and Enterprise would continue to enjoy a strong commercial relationship, with a joint development agreement and the two businesses continuing to have access to each other's product portfolios."

ALU says the Genesys sale is expected to close near the end of this year or early next.