Avaya and ConvergeOne, now branded C1, are in a federal contract dispute within the US District Court docket for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), an unprecedented public flashpoint in a vendor–channel companion relationship that has lengthy been a outstanding a part of enterprise unified communications and make contact with middle deployments.
A number of filings within the case are underneath seal, limiting what could be confirmed publicly in regards to the underlying claims and treatments sought.
An Avaya spokesperson informed UC Right now:
“We are able to acknowledge that Avaya initiated authorized proceedings in opposition to C1 within the NY courts and thru arbitration, and is dedicated to pursuing this matter.”
“The corporate has retained Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, a specialist regulation agency in enterprise litigation and arbitration, to signify Avaya in addressing the state of affairs via the correct authorized channels,” the spoksperson added. “Our precedence on this matter is the safety of our enterprise and the pursuits of our prospects. We won’t be commenting additional and don’t intend to make further public statements as that is an ongoing authorized matter.”
UC Right now has additionally reached out to C1 for remark.
What’s Occurring in Court docket?
The case, Avaya LLC v. ConvergeOne, Inc. (1:26-cv-00381), entered SDNY on January 15, 2026, after C1 eliminated the matter from New York state court docket to federal court docket. The docket categorizes the matter as a contract dispute and reveals no jury demand.
Public docket summaries point out the court docket convened a phone convention to deal with Avaya’s emergency motions. In accordance with a minute entry summarized on the docket:
“The Court docket denied the movement for a short lived restraining order, denied the movement for expedited discovery, granted Avaya and ConvergeOne’s motions to seal, Dkts. 7, 20, and denied Avaya’s movement to unseal, Dkt. 18.”
The identical docket abstract states the events “shall file a standing letter by February 9, 2026.”
With key paperwork sealed, the court docket report at present seen to the general public presents restricted confirmed perception into the industrial particulars on the middle of the dispute. Nonetheless, the early procedural alerts are clear. The court docket declined to grant a short lived restraining order or expedited discovery at this stage, whereas permitting each events to maintain delicate supplies underneath seal.
Close to-term, the February 9 standing letter deadline might present the subsequent public sign of the place the case is headed.
The Context Behind Avaya and C1’s Court docket Case
Even with out entry to the sealed filings, the lawsuit lands in a UC and make contact with middle market formed by years of monetary and strategic upheaval, notably for each corporations.
C1’s rebrand adopted a interval of balance-sheet stress. In April 2024, C1’s Chapter 11 chapter submitting acknowledged that the corporate had greater than $1.8 billion in debt and that increased rates of interest between March 2022 and August 2023 elevated curiosity on its funded debt by roughly $55 million on an annualized foundation. The submitting cited buyer buying delays tied to the monetary misery of a serious OEM companion within the interval round Avaya’s February 2023 Chapter 11 course of.
Avaya’s personal latest historical past provides one other layer of context. The corporate entered Chapter 11 in February 2023 and moved shortly via a prepackaged restructuring. In March 2023, Avaya mentioned court docket affirmation of its plan would “cut back Avaya’s whole debt by greater than 75 p.c” and “enhance its liquidity place to over $650 million.” By Could 2023, Avaya mentioned it had emerged from chapter “with roughly $650 million in liquidity.”
Since then, Avaya has additionally confronted broadly reported workforce reductions and a strategic reorientation, an effort to re-center on bigger enterprise accounts and reshape its enterprise mannequin after years of churn. That mixture of monetary restructuring, headcount modifications, and a tighter strategic focus has made Avaya’s companion ecosystem a recurring level of scrutiny amongst prospects, companions, and rivals alike.
What do the Specialists Suppose?
“Once I first noticed this, I used to be very stunned as I’ve by no means heard of a vendor submitting swimsuit in opposition to a companion,” Zeus Kerravala, Founder and Principal Analyst at ZK Analysis, informed UC Right now. “C1 has been Avaya’s companion of the yr 17 occasions, and yearly, it is among the largest. It might be akin to Cisco suing World Extensive Tech.”
Kerravala emphasised that many underlying filings are sealed and that neither firm mentioned the particular allegations with him. “In full disclosure, neither social gathering would remark to me on the small print of the lawsuit, so my information relies on third-party conversations,” Kerravala clarified.
On condition that limitation, Kerravala mentioned his impression was that disputes of this sort, after they come up, can typically relate to the industrial mechanics of channel relationships, similar to advertising exercise, companion positioning, and the dealing with of buyer migrations, fairly than purely technical points.
He added that, in his view, vendor–companion litigation can carry reputational and ecosystem dangers past the speedy case: “On the whole, I might say suing a companion is unhealthy for enterprise long run, as it’ll seemingly precipitate companions retaining their distance from Avaya.”
