All About Nortel is reporting that Siemens Enterprise will bid in the auction of Nortel Enterprise Solutions. Bids for the Sept. 11 auction are due in by noon tomorrow (Friday).Assuming it's true, this is no big surprise. SEN is widely understood to have submitted an offer for Nortel Enterprise during the Stalking Horse phase, only to be outbid by Avaya's $475 million ante. Enterprise Network Holdings (ENH), which comprises SEN's owners, the Gores Group and Siemens AG, has also filed objections to the bankruptcy court's sale process in the Avaya acquisition.
SEN could really use Nortel's North American installed base. As Allan Sulkin reported in his recent market numbers for 1H09, SEN is slipping from an already small position in the North American market, falling behind ShoreTel, among other smaller players, in market share.
Besides the big question of who walks away with Nortel Enterprise--which will be determined a week from tomorrow--the next-biggest parlor game is guessing the price tag. Specifically, how much higher can Avaya go? Silver Lake Partners, one of Avaya's private equity owners, just sank almost $1.5 billion into the purchase of Skype, according to Om Malik. And how much higher will Siemens go?
UPDATE: Post updated to clarify that it was ENH, not SEN, that filed the objection in bankruptcy court, and to specify that the objections were to the sales process, not the Avaya acquisition per se.
