Avaya aims to decide cabling unit's fate this spring

NEW YORK: Avaya Inc., a provider of voice and data networks, hopes to decide

this spring what to do with its cabling business, which it said earlier this

month it might sell, the chairman said on Friday.

"It will hopefully be (completed) this spring," Don Peterson, who

is also Avaya's chief executive, told Reuters in an interview. "We have a

number of parties interested in the business."

The Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based company said it approached three to four

dozen parties and more than 12 signed nondisclosure agreements regarding the

cabling business, or Connectivity Solutions unit, which provides cabling mostly

for large corporations and central offices of telecommunications carriers.

Peterson said Avaya, spun off by Lucent Technologies Inc. in 2000, is still

open to several options for the business including selling it or partnering with

another firm. He said the interested parties included both small and large

firms, as well as leveraged buyout firms.

"We don't have any preconceived notions," he said. We want to get

value for the business." A structured cabling system is designed to connect

phones, workstations, personal computers, local area networks and other

communications devices through a building or across one or more campuses.

In addition to cabling systems, the unit makes electronic cabinets, which

provide secure environments for electronic equipment and devices, both outside

and inside buildings. Avaya said on Feb. 11 it hired Salomon Smith Barney to

explore alternatives for the cabling business, including a possible sale.

Analysts liked the move as it would allow the company to focus on its

higher-growth voice business.

The company's voice system business sales fell 5 per cent from the fourth

quarter to its fiscal first quarter, while the weaker cabling business sales

declined 30 per cent.

The cabling unit employs -- mostly in Omaha, Nebraska -- about 2,400 people,

or about 11 per cent of Avaya's total workforce of 22,500 people. The cabling

business posted sales of $135 million in its fiscal first quarter, about 10 per

cent of the total $1.3 billion.

Peterson added that Avaya is open to acquiring technologies that would

improve the company's performance, but said nothing is imminent.