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The telecom and contact center sectors are particularly susceptible to change: startups are purchased by giants every few years, divisions are spun off into independent companies, and mergers and partnerships come and go. The only constant about the enterprise telecom and contact center sectors is regular change. Right now, the industry seems to be in a particularly turbulent period.

Telephony giant Avaya (News - Alert) would appear to be looking to rid itself of its contact center business in order to managing its spiraling debt. If the company does jettison its contact center interests, it will likely make one of the existing contact center giants even more formidable. Rumors at this time indicate that Avaya may choose Genesys (News - Alert) as the buyer of the contact center division, and Avaya is hoping for a price tag about $4 billion.

Reuters is reporting that confidential sources indicate Genesys is one of many companies and private equity firms interested in Avaya’s contact center business. But Daly City, California-based Genesys is uniquely placed to purchase Avaya’s contact center resources. Its existing portfolio contains workforce management and workforce optimization solutions, self-service technologies, SIP communications platforms and customer experience management solutions.

“A deal for Avaya's contact center business, which powers the customer care and sale operations of some of the world's biggest companies, would come on the heels of a $900 million investment by buyout firm Hellman & Friedman LLC in Genesys last month,” according to Reuters (News - Alert). “That deal, which saw Hellman & Friedman join Permira Advisers LLP and Technology Crossover Ventures as investors in the company, valued Genesys at $3.8 billion, including debt. Genesys has more than 4,700 customers in 120 countries.”

At the same time, Reuters is also reporting that Indianapolis-based Interactive Intelligence (News - Alert) is considering some changes, up to and including the possibility of a sale.

“A sale of Interactive Intelligence would be the latest sign of the consolidation sweeping the telecommunications software and equipment industry, as rapid technological change and fierce competition force companies to seek more scale,” according to Reuters.

Interactive Intelligence’s core product is its Interaction Center Platform, which was designed to foster multichannel business interactions and integrate business processes. The company had a net loss of $13.2 million in the first quarter of 2016, compared with a loss of $3.46 million a year earlier. The company has said that it has posted operating losses in recent quarters while it shifts its business model to the cloud.

Analysts interviewed by No Jitter had differing opinions on whether the sale was likely to become reality, given Interactive Intelligence’s history.

“This is an interesting development in a rapidly changing market,” Blair Pleasant (News - Alert), president and principal analyst of COMMfusion, told No Jitter. “Interactive Intelligence did a nice job of moving to the cloud with PureCloud, but this 'restart,' as the company calls it, came at a cost in several ways. Just like other contact center and UC vendors that have to continue to support existing premises-based customers while focusing resources and attention on the cloud, Interactive Intelligence is basically at a crossroads.”

Dave Michels, principal analyst at TalkingPointz, told No Jitter that it’s unlikely that Interactive Intelligence’s founder and CEO, Don Brown, will want to sell the company.

“He owns something like 18 percent, and the company has plenty of cash,” said Michels. “However, the contact center-as-a-service space is really heating up, and there's no doubt several companies may be interested, especially since the stock has been around two times revenue -- lower than peers and much lower than other software-as-a-service companies.”

Unnamed sources within Interactive Intelligence have told Reuters that Interactive is meeting with boutique investment bank Union Square Advisors on a sale process that reportedly has attracted other telecom software companies and private equity firms.