Avaya is one step closer to officially buying Nortel Enterprise Solutions. The reason: The Canadian Minister of Industry has approved Avaya’s buyout of Nortel Enterprise Solutions. Next up, Avaya expects the deal to close by the end of December. But will unified communications VARs welcome the wedding?

Nortel’s implosion has been well-documented by folks like Network World. And a blog called All About Nortel has offered up timely, tireless coverage of Nortel’s dismantling.

But this blog entry is potentially about new beginnings  – for Nortel’s Enterprise Solutions team, which Avaya apparently will own before the New Year arrives. The VAR Guy thinks there’s a lot to like about the Avaya-Nortel combo.

In the unified communications market, Avaya and Cisco Systems each posted double-digit Q3 revenue gains over Q2, according to Dell’Oro Group, a market research firm. That same report says Nortel ranks among the top eight providers of PBXes and IP desk phones. In theory, Nortel could help Avaya to further accelerate its IP telephony business.

Avaya is already showing Nortel partners some love. But the Avaya-Nortel combo is fraught with potential challenges. In recent months, a range of networking companies have reached out to Nortel solutions providers — prompting some former Nortel VARs to embrace alternative solutions. Plus, Cisco Systems has a habit of crushing competitors while they’re busy merging (examples: Alcatel-Lucent and Wellfleet-SynOptics).

By most accounts, the Avaya-Nortel Enterprise wedding bells are just around the corner. But how long will the honeymoon last? That depends on how fast Avaya gets cozy with Nortel’s channel partners.

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