Avaya Reports Positive Business Momentum Post Emergence

 Avaya, a global leader in customer experience solutions, reported strong market momentum for the months since the company’s successful completion of its financial transformation in May 2023. Avaya has driven strong innovation for products actively in demand by customers, delivered financial progress, added key executives, and garnered third-party recognition of its business and leadership.

Avaya’s market momentum is built on a foundation of its global breadth, scale, brand, and ecosystem, with more than six million contact center agents utilizing Avaya solutions; greater than 90 million unified communications seats; an extended ecosystem of 4,000+ partners and 120,000 developers; and an unparalleled customer base that includes 90 percent of the largest US companies, including more than 90 governments, as well as each of the top 10 global airlines, auto manufacturers, and banks. Avaya added 599 new logos in the three-month period from April through June, along with 39 deals over $1 million total contract value, and four deals over $5 million.

“Avaya is executing every day to take full advantage of the hard work done over the last year to transform our operations, business strategy, culture, and balance sheet, which is now a genuine competitive advantage,” said Alan Masarek, CEO, Avaya. “We set the foundation for growth and have already seen our focus pay off. The revitalized Avaya is investing in and delivering next-gen technology with an ‘innovation without disruption’ approach embraced by customers and attracting the best talent as a destination place to work. Today’s leading companies and organizations see the opportunity to differentiate and lead their respective industries through differentiated customer experiences by tapping into AI-powered cloud solutions from Avaya, and this is fueling customer momentum that we expect will only grow stronger in the months and years ahead.”

Financial Performance Indicators Demonstrate Positive Momentum

Upon completing its financial restructuring in May, the company emerged in a position of financial strength, having eliminated the vast majority of its debt and significantly recapitalizing with fresh investment. Key financial metrics as of September 1, 2023, include:

• Cash and cash equivalents of greater than $600 million.
• Debt of approximately $830 million, which is 75 percent lower than pre recapitalization, and with no maturities due until 2028.
• An adjusted pro forma net leverage ratio of less than 1x.*

In another major step forward, today, Avaya filed the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2022 and quarterly reports for the third quarter of FY22 and the first quarter of FY23 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result of emergence from its financial restructuring, and as noted in the footnotes of today’s filing, Avaya alleviated the substantial doubt that had previously existed regarding the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.

“We are extremely pleased to have fulfilled our remaining SEC reporting obligations, with no material impact to previously disclosed financial results for fiscal 2022 or prior periods,” stated Amy O’Keefe, Chief Financial Officer, Avaya. “The recent recapitalization has positioned Avaya well with the financial flexibility to execute on our strategic growth plans.”

AI-Powered Innovation, Customer Experience, and Cloud are Driving Customer Demand

Enabling cloud-based innovation deployed on top of existing communications investments is powering interest in Avaya among global customers, as many companies are migrating solutions to cloud but want to do so without disrupting proven, successful on-premises systems. Avaya’s approach to help customers move “at their pace” is resonating with customers and partners. Companies are increasingly seeing their contact centers at the tip of the spear for driving differentiating experiences for their customers. With AI innovation super-charging CX solutions, customers are turning to Avaya to help them bring massive innovation into their contact centers. As more customers are looking to ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies, they are seeking an integrator to bring it all together, with Avaya well-positioned to play that role often as the contact center incumbent.

This interest was evidenced by strong customer and partner attendance at Avaya ENGAGE, the company’s global customer conference held in June in Orlando, Florida. The event marked a successful return to in-person exhibitions of Avaya innovation, solutions, and its partner ecosystem, with almost 2,000 in-person registrants and approximately 3,500 virtual registrants, representing 104 countries attending 90 breakout sessions. At ENGAGE, Avaya made a series of solution and services announcements, including:

• Avaya Enterprise Cloud Enables Global Organizations to Future-Proof Communications
• New Avaya Integrations, Capabilities, and Alliances Empower Enterprises to Adopt Cloud “Their Way”
• Avaya Unveils Reimagined Professional Services, Prioritizing AI, Cloud, and Digital Transformation Through Avaya Customer Experience Services

Customer interest in these solutions is driving new client engagements and renewals, including: Victory Auto Group’s 50 locations across the US, Acadia University in Canada, BNEXT, a fintech company in Spain; G-Star RAW, one of the most renowned clothing brands in the world; GRUPO LOMAS, a tourism services and property company in Mexico, the National Social Security Fund of Uganda; Ignite Telecom in Australia; select Canadian Tire stores, 28 locations of St. Mary’s County Public Schools in Maryland, Walmart Mexico; TELMEX, a telecom leader in Mexico; Group Estrella Blanca, a leading Mexico transportation company; and Kura, a leading outsourcer of contact center solutions in the United Kingdom, among many others.

Key Executive Hires and Industry Recognition Among Avaya’s Quarterly Accomplishments

During the quarter, Masarek refreshed his executive leadership team, part of his efforts to drive Avaya’s strategy and operations, and an indicator of success in efforts to establish Avaya as a destination place to work. The company announced three C-suite executives in key roles joining with extensive experience at leading brands, including Amy O’Keefe, Chief Financial Officer; Omar Javaid, Chief Product Officer; and Josh Mueller, Chief Marketing Officer. The company also announced Sagi Dudai as a Board Advisor to bolster its cloud engineering efforts.

A variety of third parties have recently recognized Avaya’s momentum and leadership:

• In June, Avaya received two Stevie Awards (American Business Awards) for both Emerging Technology (for Avaya’s media processing core) and for its Avaya Experience Platform for the Customer Service Solution category.
• In July, CEO Masarek was named as the UC Leader of the Year for leading Avaya’s business and financial transformation by UC Today.
• In July, the NORNS Awards highlighted Avaya for its work with AI in the Contact Center.
• In July, Avaya was given the Readers’ Choice Award for the Avaya Cloud Office from Connect Professional: Cloud Telefonie Awards.
• In July, Avaya was awarded Gold in Brandon Hall Group’s Human Capital Management  awards in the category of Best Use of Video for Learning for the Avaya Experience Platform™ for Agents and Supervisors.

In this quarter, the company also announced:

• Avaya has been awarded a unified communications and contact center contract with Sourcewell, one of the leading purchasing consortiums in North America.
• In August, Journey.ai, a cybersecurity software company, announced it would expand its suite of capabilities with Avaya Hybrid Cloud Services to offer Avaya premise-based contact centers to authenticate agents using biometrics, providing more robust security, and enhancing agent experience.
• In June, Avaya announced it was powering guest experience communications for the Give Kids the World Village.

*“Adjusted pro forma net leverage ratio based on last twelve months EBITDA adjusted for non-recurring items and pro forma cost savings initiatives.”

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About Avaya

Businesses are built by the experiences they provide, and every day, millions of those experiences are delivered by Avaya. Organizations trust Avaya to provide innovative solutions for some of their most important ​ambitions and ​challenges,​ ​giving them the freedom to engage their customers and employees in ways that deliver the greatest business benefits. Avaya contact center and communications solutions power immersive, personalized, and unforgettable customer experiences that drive business momentum. With the freedom to choose their journey, there’s no limit to the experiences Avaya customers can create. Learn more at https://www.avaya.com.

Businesses are built by the experiences they provide, and every day, millions of those experiences are delivered by Avaya. Organizations trust Avaya to provide innovative solutions for some of their most important ​ambitions and ​challenges,​ ​giving them the freedom to engage their customers and employees in ways that deliver the greatest business benefits. Avaya contact center and communications solutions power immersive, personalized, and unforgettable customer experiences that drive business momentum. With the freedom to choose their journey, there’s no limit to the experiences Avaya customers can create. Learn more at https://www.avaya.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements discussed in this release as well as in other reports, materials and oral statements that the Company releases from time to time to the public constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “PSLRA”). Generally, words such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “expect,” “could,” “intend,” “believe,” “plan,” “target,” “forecast” and similar expressions or the negative thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect management’s current expectations, strategic objectives, business prospects, anticipated economic performance and financial condition and other similar matters. Forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or expected by the management of the Company. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual events or results may differ significantly from these statements. Actual events or results are subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the Company’s control. It should be understood that it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors. Given these risks, investors and analysts should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of the document in which they are made. The Company disclaims any obligation or undertaking to provide any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. These statements constitute the Company’s cautionary statements under the PSLRA. 

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