Telecommunications equipment company, Alcatel-Lucent, said Wednesday that it had sold its Genesys customer service solutions business to private equity group Permira for $1.5 billion in cash.

The deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year, will see Genesys – which had sales of $500 million in 2010 – and its 1,800 employees transferred to one of the companies owned by Permira. Alcatel-Lucent will keep its Enterprise business, which provides corporate telecommunication services. The unit will continue working with Genesys, with the two having access to each other’s product portfolios.

Ben Verwaayen, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent, said that the company had decided that selling Genesys would the that arm to "flourish further", while retaining and strengthening Enterprise would allow further growth within Alcatel-Lucent. "Our chosen direction is to leverage the natural connections that exist between enterprise and carrier customers, and proactively apply Enterprise’s strengths and momentum in unified communications and data networking with them," Verwaayen said.

The purchase is subject to review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.