Update on Avaya Networking and Brocade Data Center Networking Acquisitions

The last eight months have been a busy time for Extreme, and we’re not slowing down. In March we announced two major acquisitions:

• Avaya Networking: An asset purchase agreement to acquire Avaya’s networking business.
• Brocade Data Center Networking: An asset purchase agreement to acquire Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.'s data center switching, routing, and analytics business from Broadcom following Broadcom's acquisition of Brocade.

We are pursuing both of these acquisitions with one thing in mind: solidifying our vision to become the only true pure play, end-to-end wired and wireless enterprise networking company in the world. What that means for customers and partners of Extreme, Avaya and Brocade is that you will benefit from our hyper focus on enterprise networking, our dedication to delivering industry leading services and support, and our high quality management, control, automation and analytics software platforms which allow you to simplify and secure complex networking environments.

Why Extreme?

In partnering with Extreme, Avaya Networking and Brocade Data Center Networking customers and partners will learn very quickly what the Extreme Difference really means. Our customer care programs are the highest rated in the industry. Every team member is responsible for customer success. We have 100% insourced support with the industry’s highest first call resolution rate of 94%. We believe in candor, transparency and teamwork and we live those values not only internally, but also bring this culture to our customer and partner relationships. We look forward to welcoming you to our family and continuing to earn the right to be your networking solutions provider. Together we will win!

Where We Stand

As we continue to navigate the acquisition process with both companies, we are working collaboratively across all product teams to ensure a smooth transition. We understand that the continuity and evolution of your existing technology platforms is paramount. We are working closely with the product teams from Avaya Networking and Brocade Data Center Networking to continue to support the current and planned offerings to ensure continuity for our current and future customers. With this in mind, our guiding principle is to protect and support your existing investments and execute the current Avaya Networking and Brocade Data Center Networking technology roadmaps. What does that mean for you as a prospective customer or partner? It means that it’s business as usual.

Next Steps & Timing

As a company, we are not new to integrating technology assets and teams. In fall 2016, we rapidly assimilated the Zebra WLAN assets and teams and have delivered results ahead of our expectations. We plan to do the same with Avaya Networking and Brocade Data Center Networking. We are excited about the opportunity the innovative technologies, combined talented work forces, and loyal customers and partners present for our future and we will continue to focus on delivering results.

Extreme, Avaya and Brocade will be communicating consistently with current and future customers, partners and employees during this entire process. We are committed to delivering a combined post-closing roadmap for all of our current and future customers within the next 30 days. At the close of each acquisition we will reach out to all of our current and newly acquired customers and partners to ensure our continuity of support, warranties, technologies and culture.

The timelines to close these acquisitions are currently:

Avaya Networking

If our asset acquisition is approved at the Sale Hearing before the Judge at the hearing on May 25, we look forward to communicating with customers, partners and employees that we are moving forward together as Extreme upon closing. We anticipate the Closing to occur in early July.

Brocade Data Center Networking

We are working closely with Brocade and Broadcom to plan for closing the asset purchase for Brocade’s data center assets following Broadcom’s acquisition of Brocade. We anticipate a closing within 30 days of Broadcom’s acquisition of Brocade, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. We anticipate that the transaction will close in August 2017.

I look forward to communicating openly with you in a series of acquisition related blogs in the weeks and months to come. Please check back regularly for additional updates on our acquisition and integration planning with Avaya Networking and Brocade Data Center Networking.