Avaya Acquires Embedded P2P Player

By ROBERT LIU
TMCnet Wireless and Technology Columnist

Underscoring the growing importance of peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies in the voice-over-IP (VoIP) arena, Avaya kicked off the work week today announcing it has acquired Nimcat Networks, a developer of embedded P2P communications software.

As first alluded to last night on a popular VoIP blog by INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine’s Rich Tehrani, the deal is the clearest sign that P2P technologies are creating new competitive pressures for PBX vendors. The argument is that you will not need servers let alone a central PBX if you can just plug VoIP phones with embedded P2P software into a network that auto-recognize endpoints, as Tehrani concluded back in August.

Nimcat Networks' IP communications software, currently called nimX, is designed for just that – to be embedded within enterprise IP phones. By placing the intelligence in the phone and eliminating additional hardware, such as call processing and application servers, installation is vastly simplified and start-up costs are sharply reduced, Avaya stated in its press release.

Ottawa-based Nimcat Networks was acquired for CDN $46 million in cash.

Avaya said it expects the acquisition to be one cent dilutive in the company's fourth fiscal quarter, primarily related to approximately $3.2 million of in-process research and development costs. Research and development plans include incorporating Nimcat Networks software into Avaya IP telephony offers. This process is expected to take up to 12 months, after which Avaya will release its first integrated Nimcat Networks-based product.

The acquisition follows Microsoft’s deal to acquire P2P player Teleo and, of course, the widely reported acquisition of P2P leader Skype by eBay. The latest deal leaves Popular Telephony’s Peerio as the last company in the space, leading to the speculation that larger enterprise networking companies like Nortel or Cisco could be shopping around for a P2P partner.

And the business logic reasons are compelling. Nimcat’s nimX plug-and-play software delivers low total cost of ownership for customers who want a select set of telephony features and applications. Adding users is as simple as plugging another phone into the network.

Nimcat Networks software is based on the industry standard Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), clearly demonstrating Avaya's commitment to open and standards-based solutions. Developing solutions using the SIP standard can accelerate the integration of Nimcat Networks software into Avaya and other leading industry solutions.

"The addition of Nimcat Networks' capabilities is another step in our plan to make intelligent communications applications available to all customers regardless of size," said Mike Thurk, group vice president, Global Communications Solutions, Avaya. "Peer-to-peer technology is an important emerging communications architecture, and this move clearly illustrates our determination to maintain leadership in IP telephony innovation. When peer- to-peer is integrated with the rest of enterprise networks, businesses will be able to select communications applications to match the right level of functionality and cost to address the needs of different locations."

Avaya said Nimcat Networks will be part of its Global Communications Solutions group. The company expects to continue selling Nimcat Networks' software to other equipment manufacturers and to support existing Nimcat Networks customers.

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Robert Liu is Executive Editor at TMCnet. Previously, he was Executive Editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg. For more articles, please visit Robert Liu's columnist page.

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