Avaya has returned to the New York Stock Exchange today. With the opening bell being rung by Avaya’s CEO Jim Chirico, they launched the new stock AVYA 0,31 -0,04 -11,02%, marking the end to a 10-year stint in the hands of venture capitalists TPG Capital and Silver Lake Partners.
Avaya pre-emptively released an announcement to the press (Avaya to Ring Opening Bell, Begin Trading on the New York Stock Exchange) yesterday. During the last ten years, Avaya has managed to restructure. They have removed $3bn of debt, emerged from Chapter 11 protection. They have managed to launch new products, as well as acquire patents from Nortel. However, some of that cash was raised with the disposal of Avaya’s networking assets to Extreme Networks EXTR 16,81 +0,13 +0,78%.
“On behalf of our entire team, our customers and partners, it is an honor to mark this first day of trading on the NYSE for the new Avaya, which is more focused than ever on leading the industry’s digital transformation. Building upon our history of innovation and expertise in deploying globally scalable solutions, Avaya sits today at the strategic nexus of connectivity for the enterprise—with more than 130,000 customers in 220,000 locations worldwide, 90% plus of the Fortune 100, and more than 100 million users.” – Jim Chirico, President and CEO, Avaya Technologies
Jim is also keen on making sure investors in Avaya see the potential for growth. He states:
“Avaya is also the largest pure play Unified Communications and Contact Center provider in the cloud. We have unparalleled opportunities ahead of us. For example, only about 10 percent of our contact center customers have migrated to the cloud. We are passionate about providing the flexibility, open architectures, and deployment options that our customers need to exceed expectations, move ahead of the competition, and quickly take advantage of such new technologies as artificial intelligence, blockchain and the Internet of Things.”
The NYSE footage of the opening bell is in the video below. There is also an Avaya version, which appears to have used a jostled mobile phone. It is somewhat longer, and shows the traditional “signing of the wall“. The stock opened at $21.70, higher than the close of $21.00, but lower than the peak of $22.00 reached yesterday. (Although they rang the opening bell today, trading has been occurring on the OTC Market since December 19, 2017).
