Permira Reportedly Giving Up on ALU Enterprise; Only Wants GenesysPermira Reportedly Giving Up on ALU Enterprise; Only Wants Genesys

Will the whole be greater or less than the sum of its parts?

The private equity firm Permira now is seeking to acquire only the Genesys portion of Alcatel-Lucent's enterprise division, giving up on the idea of buying the entire enterprise unit, Bloomberg reports.

Splitting off Genesys and selling it separately would complicate things for ALU; first of all, they'd have to find a buyer for the rest of the Enterprise unit, which would no longer sport a business, in Genesys, that's been described as the crown jewel of the Enterprise unit. Then there'd be the question of whether competitors that previously showed interest in ALU Enterprise would be interested in acquiring just the PBX operation. A brief line in this report suggests that Siemens Enterprise Communications' private equity owner, Gores Group, might be interested in the Genesys-less ALU Enterprise, and on No Jitter, Dave Stein has argued that this could be a decent fit.

In this post from the May G-Force event, Sheila reported that Genesys customers weren't expressing a lot of concern about the then-new reports about the ALU Enterprise unit being shopped around. It's not unusual for customers--at least those who aren't in procurement mode--to take a fairly laid back, wait-and-see attitude toward these kinds of reports--if they've even heard about them at all. But the latest reports, if true, open up a new set of potential issues for Genesys customers, especially if possible buyers include companies that already have contact center portfolios.

A Permira acquisition of the whole unit, including Genesys, would have been the least-disruptive scenario for both current customers and the business itself, which has worked hard to craft an architecture and accompanying strategy that leverages Genesys's software strengths to the benefit of the larger business unit, while keeping Genesys separate enough to continue taking advantage of its strong brand, relationships and products in the contact center.

If the deal gets done quickly and a pared-down ALU Enterprise can be sold at a reduced price, at least the period of uncertainty for all involved would be shorter. But if Permira picks off Genesys and the rest of ALU Enterprise stays on the market for an extended time, it could be the worst of all worlds for the IP-PBX unit.