Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is once again looking for another suitor to purchase its enterprise division as part of a broader goal to cut $1.34 billion in assets, reports Reuters, citing a number of unnamed sources.
Michel Combes, Alcatel-Lucent's CEO, has appointed Lazard Ltd. to seek out potential parties interested in purchasing the unit.
This is the second time since 2011 the vendor has attempted to divest the enterprise division.
After it failed to get a buyer for all of the enterprise business, it finally sold the call center software business Genesys to private equity firm Permira for $1.5 billion in October 2011.
Although Avaya, Mitel Networks Corp and Unify, which was formerly Siemens' Enterprise Communications business, could be potential suitors, sources told Reuters that the pension obligations a buyer would have to absorb make it a hard sell.
The pension obligations that come with the business were one of the key issues that turned buyers off in 2011.
An Alcatel-Lucent spokesman would not comment to Reuters on a potential new sale of the enterprise unit, while Lazard did not respond to requests for comment.
For more:
- Reuters has this article
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