Aastra Technologies Limited announced the acquisition of the Ericsson (News - Alert) Enterprise Communications Business, combining two market leaders in business telephony solutions, each with respected product portfolios that target small to large businesses.

 

The combined company should have a strong market presence in Western Europe, as well as other world regions where each has established footprints, including Eastern Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Africa and South America. The transaction is expected to become final in April 2008. (Following the divestiture of its PBX business, Ericsson will focus on solutions for operators and service providers, an area of growth and profitability for Ericsson.)

 

“When the merger is complete, Aastra (News - Alert) will have doubled their market share in Western Europe,” notes Susan Hobart, Vice President and Program Director at The Telecom Intelligence Group, a division of Access Intelligence (News - Alert).  “Based on third quarter 2007 shipment data, the combined entity would have 17 percent share, vying with Siemens and Alcatel for leadership.  While their relative position is unlikely to change in France, Germany or the UK, the new entity would lead Italy, Spain, and some other parts of Western Europe.”

 

Hobart adds that “Ericsson’s base in Asia Pacific, the Caribbean and Latin America will enable Aastra to build a position in those growth markets. In North America, both Aastra and Ericsson have relatively small positions, but Ericsson’s base and distributor network are attractive assets.”

 

Both Aastra and Ericsson offer solid and forward-looking communications solutions for small, mid-size and larger businesses with little overlap in channels and market presence (a complementary customer base). “People, expertise and product portfolio are also key assets of this acquisition. We want to be customer solution centric – so we can find the best solution suited for the customer needs in our product portfolio,” notes a spokesperson at Aastra.

 

TelecomTactics Takeaway: Aastra Technologies Limited, headquartered in Concord, Ontario, Canada, and its business units worldwide offer a full range of VoIP solutions (communications servers, gateways, telephone terminals and software applications). The company continues to consolidate product portfolios following a series of acquisitions beginning in 2000, including the acquisition of EADS Telecom PBX (News - Alert) system division in 2005 (the US-based Intecom became part of the Aastra group with this acquisition) and DeTeWe Business also acquired in 2005. Now, Aastra will fold in the Ericsson business telephony platforms which complement the Aastra product line, adding mid- to-large platforms such as the MX-ONE which scales to 50,000+ users and forward-looking solutions such as Ericsson’s new mobile unified communications portfolio which will interoperate with Microsoft's (News - Alert) Office Communications Server 2007 and other Microsoft unified communications offerings.

 

Below is a snapshot of currently available telephony platforms from Aastra and Ericsson. Visit www.telecomtactics.com for comprehensive reports on leading IP PBX systems currently on the market.