Avaya Holdings Corp. (AVYA) announced an exclusive strategic partnership with RingCentral.
Under the deal, Avaya will introduce "Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral", a new global unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solution.
RingCentral is contributing $500 million to its partnership with Avaya, including a $125 million investment of 3% redeemable preferred equity that is convertible at $16 per share, representing an approximate 6% position in Avaya on as-converted basis. RingCentral will also pay Avaya an advance of $375 million primarily in stock for future payments and certain licensing rights.
In addition, Avaya’s Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program under which it may purchase up to $500 million of Avaya’s common stock. Avaya also announced plans to pay down $250 million of the principal debt under its Term Loan B.
“Avaya and RingCentral’s joint investment and commitment to bringing Avaya Cloud Office to market creates an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate the transition to the cloud with attractive economics for our customers and partners,” said Jim Chirico, President and CEO of Avaya. “This also gives us the opportunity to unlock value from a largely unmonetized base of our business as it brings compelling value to our customers and partners. We believe this highly complementary partnership is a game changer that expands the total addressable market for Avaya and creates meaningful value for both Avaya and RingCentral.”
“This strategic partnership leverages the respective strengths of Avaya and RingCentral to provide a definitive differentiated solution,” said Vlad Shmunis, Founder, Chairman and CEO of RingCentral. “We are excited to bring RingCentral’s leading UCaaS platform to Avaya’s installed base of over 100 million users and over 4,700 partners, providing long-term growth opportunities for both our companies.”
