Avaya's Australian business will continue with business as usual in the wake of the company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US, according to a local spokesperson.
While the global chief executive Kevin Kennedy said bankruptcy was the best path for the US-based unified communications vendor to restructure and reduce its US$6 billion debt, a spokesperson for local company said Avaya's Australian business closed 2016 with its strongest quarter in the past 12 quarters, having gone through a transformation over the past 24 months.
"Avaya ANZ's position is the outcome of several significant agreements with organisations including (but not limited to) major government departments and tier one banks, and continues to work closely with partners to deliver on marketing demands," the spokesperson said.
In the past two years, Avaya went through four different Australian managing directors. First, Tim Gentry took a role at the vendor's US business in the first half of 2014. He was replaced by former Equinix boss Tony Simonsen, who then left after 16 months and went on to lead Polycom's Australian business.
Following Simonsen in the managing director role was Jeff Sheard, who headed for the exit after seven months and now works at Pure Storage. Current managing director Peter Chidiac joined Avaya in August 2016, and was previously managing director at Nuance Communications and Truphone.
"Under the continued leadership of Peter Chidiac – who was appointed managing director in August 2016 – Avaya ANZ is on track for 2017 with a strong pipeline supplementing existing momentum," the spokesperson said.
At a global level, Avaya denied it would sell its contact centre business to reduce debt, despite prior speculation, saying this would not maximise value for customers and stakeholders.
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