Avaya has received court approvals from the US and Canada on the Nortel deal. It still needs court approvals from France and Israel. The transaction is also subject to customary closing conditions, including necessary regulatory approvals.


Avaya has indicated that they will support current Nortel solutions over the next 18 months. We should all be keeping an eye out for the road map of products and solutions that Avaya will be presenting soon. It will be interesting to see if any Nortel products or migrations will be carried forward in their vision.


The other buzz going around concerns FairPoint and the possibility that the company may be facing bankruptcy protection. It’s been reported that the company is now more than $2 billion in debt and cannot make its interest payments.


The New York Post reports that there are some big names eyeing the troubled company. Traders of distressed assets are positioning themselves and the rural carrier Windstream may be purchasing FairPoint debt. Windstream currently has 3.2 million access lines compared to FairPoint’s 1.7 million.