Report: Alcatel-Lucent makes deal to sell Genesys unit to Permira

Rumors that Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) has agreed to sell its call center business to London private equity firm Permira Advisers pushed the firms stock priced up to its highest level in the past eight months.

The Financial Times reported Alcatel-Lucent has agreed to sell its Genesys division, a business it acquired in 2000, for $1.5 billion, and will make an announcement that the deal has been finalized in coming weeks.

Alcatel-Lucent and Permira have been negotiating a deal for Alcatel-Lucent's enterprise phone business for several months. In September rumors surfaced that those negotiations had broken down over price squabbles, and the focus had changed to a Genesys-only deal.

A deal for Genesys, instead of for the entire enterprise phone division, struck some analysts as problematic, since it's arguably the crown jewel of the unit. Selling the entire unit would have been more in-line with Alcatel-Lucent's needs.

The FT said Alcatel-Lucent now would likely invest more in its enterprise phone unit to make it more attractive to other bidders, foremost Siemens Enterprise Communications, which had been mentioned as one of its suitors earlier this autumn.

For more:
- see this FT report

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