Avaya bought Traverse Networks on Thursday for an undisclosed amount. Traverse, a privately held software firm based in Fremont, California, makes software that hooks wireless phones and devices into corporate phone systems.
Traverse's software adds an inbox to cell phones that lets users see and hear office voice mails, send office phone calls to any phone number and block unwanted calls. Avaya expects to add these functions to its phone systems in the second half of 2007.
"There are tens of millions of workers who are operating in a mobile environment," Avaya Chief Executive Louis J. D'Ambrosio said Thursday in an interview. "It's very important to have the same feature functionality literally at their fingertips as they have in the office."
This is D'Ambrosio's first acquisition since he took over Avaya's top spot from Don Peterson in July. Since then, the value of the company's shares has increased more than 40%.