A New Chapter

After a tumultuous 12 months, Avaya exited Chapter 11 status and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in January, marking the second innings for the realtime communications company. Jeevan Thankappan reports from Wall Street.

- Jeevan Thankappan

“ We are a new company and we are uniquely positioned to succeed,” said Jim Chirico, Avaya’s CEO, a few minutes after ringing the opening bell at New York Stock Exchange. After a balance sheet restructuring that helped it to whittle down debt, Avaya now claims to have access to a $600 million war chest to fuel its future growth. “We are in the midst of a massive market shift brought on by digital transformation, and now we have the financial strength to invest in newer technologies such as AI and cloud. We have launched a transformation plan ourselves, and to win in the technology market today you have to go through transformation every five years.”

Chirico said that going public is a real testimony to the power of his company’s brand, and loyalty from customers and partners. “What I didn’t fully appreciate is how pervasive our brand is in the marketplace,” he said. “Our customers wanted us to win, and they are the real reason where we are here today. We have spent a lot of time over the last 12 months improving our operations to be best-in-class, and we are going to expand those operational efficiencies and productivity improvements across the company as well as our customer base.”