Avaya Acquires Konftel

 The acquisition of Konftel by Avaya is most interesting, and undoubtedly of much more significance than might be represented by the tiny acquisition price ($15M). We suspect the deal signals a significant hardening of the rift between Avaya and Polycom. At one level, the acquisition gives Ayava

some significant voice technology which Avaya might embed in its overall product portfolio. Indeed, the press release states that Avaya intends to leverage Konftel’s product portfolio with Avaya’s multi-modal technologies and user experiences to deliver innovative and differentiated capabilities that reach

across Avaya’s platforms. A t another level the acquisition gives Avaya a wired and wireless voice endpoint product line and reduces Avaya’s reliance on Polycom.

One year ago, Polycom listed Avaya as one of its seven strategic partners. In the interim, however, Avaya signed an OEM agreement with LifeSize / Logitech and has now acquired Konftel, a company that has had a strong speakerphone presence in Europe and is a major Polycom competitor there. 

On another front, Polycom has tightened its relationship with Microsoft and made much ado of that strategic partnership while Microsoft has released Lync and positioned this strong UC offering as the next PBX killer –a direct threat to Avaya’s current business if not its future vision.

If the enemy of your enemy is your friend, what about the friend of your enemy’s enemy’s friend?