Siemens has put its Enterprise Communications division up for sale and it seems potential acquirers are Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel Networks and hedge fund Cerberus Capital Management.<\/p>\n
Alcatel-Lucent would be an interesting partner as Lucent spun off its enterprise division into Avaya about seven years ago and as I have said repeatedly, having an enterprise division allows a company to offset weak service provider sales and vice versa. The Siemens customer base would be a nice addition to the former Alcatel enterprise communications division and in theory this purchase would allow the Paris\/New Jersey-based company to have a broader spectrum of customers to help contribute to its revenue.<\/p>\n
Nortel Networks has been committed to the enterprise as well as service provider markets. Nortel is a strong technology company and so is Siemens. Both companies were early to work closely with Microsoft. This would be a nice market share grab for Nortel.<\/p>\n
Cerberus Capital Management is more interesting as the company is strong in disparate industries<\/a> but nothing in telecom. Cerberus is probably best known for its takeover of Chrysler and its hiring <\/a>of Treasury Secretary John Snow.<\/p>\n Why telecom for Cerberus? Probably the best reason is plain old diversification.<\/p>\n