The Nortel Auction: Blow by BlowThe Nortel Auction: Blow by Blow
Bidding against the Siemens group, Avaya won it in the sixth round, very early Monday morning.
September 16, 2009
Bidding against the Siemens group, Avaya won it in the sixth round, very early Monday morning.
The latest Ernst & Young Monitor's Report, filed in bankruptcy court today, confirms that Enterprise Networks Holdings (ENH), the combination of Siemens AG and the Gores Group, was the only other entity bidding against Avaya for Nortel Enterprise in this past weekend's auction. The filing also states that a third, unnamed entity, gained status as a qualified bidder but was ultimately unable to submit a bid and withdrew before the auction began on Sept. 11.The report gives an almost blow-by-blow account of the auction, albeit transmuted into dry legalese. The upshot is that ENH topped Avaya's bid, then Avaya bid ahead; after this third round, the minimum bid amount was upped from $2.375 million to $25 million. Then, after "the auction continued over the next several days":
In the Fifth Round of Bidding, ENH was declared to have the leading bid. The Sellers then asked that both parties submit their best bid in the next round. Avaya was advised that, as it was not the lead bidder, it was required to submit a bid in the sixth round in order to remain in the process. ENH was advised that it could either stand on its fifth round bid or submit a new bid.... The Sellers further advised that, from that point forward, the Sellers would require that further bids be submitted without any further adjournment of the auction (although the Sellers noted that bidders would be permitted to step out of the room briefly to formulate their bids.
Then, on Monday (presumably very early in the morning/late Sunday night), in the sixth round of bidding, Avaya submitted a bid, while Siemens announced it would stand on its fifth round bid, and that this would be its final bid. "Accordingly, the auction was reconvened and the sixth-round bid submitted by Avaya was announced as the Leading Bid as well as the Successful Bid."Bidding against the Siemens group, Avaya won it in the sixth round, very early Monday morning.
