“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” Or in this case, the creditors knocking on the door. That was the underlying message of Avaya’s December 15, 2022, Strategic Product Update webinar.
The session kicked off with a 20-minute speech by CEO Alan Masarek. To be fair, speech may not be the right word. It wasn’t a presentation, and it wasn’t a disclosure. It was more like a one-way fireside chat over video. And it was well done.
Masarek started off by explaining the “thesis” of why he joined Avaya. Namely, Avaya has 90,000 global customers across 190 countries, more than 4,000 channel partners, a huge patent portfolio, an “iconic” brand, lots of technical knowledge, and more (see the slide from Avaya’s presentation below).
Fair enough. We agree – at least from a 10,000-foot view. We’re Avaya fans and have been for decades. That said, we believe the company’s brand has fallen from grace in recent years. A bankruptcy and a deal that inhibits a future cloud UC business can do that to a brand.
Next, the CEO asked us to put the company’s capital structure issues aside so he could explain the five steps of Avaya’s transformation. He then started on step #1, the Product Strategy.
Seriously? The company’s share price had declined by more than 80% in the last five days, the vultures were circling, and …
