any thoughts on recent LU acquisition affecting AINN? Need a engineer to tell me what the difference in the technologies are.
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Lucent Technologies to Purchase LANNET for $117 Million
PR Newswire - July 09, 1998 08:18
Purchase Adds Intelligent Ethernet and ATM Enterprise Switches to Rapidly Expanding Data Networking Portfolio
MURRAY HILL, N.J., July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- In another move to address high- growth opportunities in data networking related to the explosive growth in use of the Internet, Lucent Technologies today said it will acquire LANNET, a subsidiary of Madge Networks N.V., for $117 million in cash. LANNET is a leading supplier of next-generation Ethernet and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switching solutions for local area networks. The transaction is expected to be completed in the quarter ending Sept. 30, 1998.
Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, LANNET is a global provider of next-generation Ethernet intelligent switches serving small workgroups to large campus LANs, and high-capacity, multiservice ATM and Ethernet switches for campus backbone networks.
"This acquisition helps fill an important space in our growing data networking portfolio," said Bill O'Shea, president of Lucent's Data Networking Systems group. "The intelligent LAN switch opportunity is growing at better than 20 percent a year and this move will help us offer a comprehensive Lucent LAN switching solution from the desktop to the edge of the wide area network.
"LANNET offers a portfolio of award-winning, highly reliable IP and ATM networking products that are complementary to our existing offers," O'Shea said. "They have a prestigious global customer base and strong sales channels, particularly in Europe, which is a critical growth area for Lucent."
LANNET's products include the Visage family, a series of high-performance and highly reliable enterprise-class stackable switches designed for workgroup and backbone applications; the Meritage 1400 line, a family of fault-tolerant, next-generation multiservice Ethernet and ATM backbone switches; and LANswitch Plus, one of the industry's most widely deployed multilayer, multiprotocol (Ethernet, Token Ring, FDDI) switching systems.
"These products are highly complementary to Lucent's data networking product line," O'Shea said. "The LANswitch Plus and Visage workgroup switches will aggregate data from existing Ethernet, Token Ring or FDDI networks into high-speed Ethernet or ATM pipes. This high-speed data can then be fed to either our Gigabit Ethernet product family or one of our ATM switches, depending on customer needs. The LANNET Meritage multiservice ATM backbone switch is a higher-capacity partner to the Lucent AX 500 ATM Switch for the campus LAN environment. The Meritage multiservice ATM switch is particularly attractive to our portfolio because it is based on a unique distributed architecture that enables much higher fault tolerance for ultra-high reliability. There are essentially no product overlaps in this deal."
Upon completion of the acquisition, LANNET will become part of Lucent's Enterprise Infrastructure Products Group (EIPG) within Data Networking Systems. Shmuel Levy, CEO of LANNET, will join Lucent as president, EIPG Israel Technology Center, and will report to Menachem Abraham, president of Lucent's EIPG, based in Concord, Mass. LANNET's center of operations will remain in Israel.
"LANNET customers should be delighted with this purchase because Lucent is an emerging global leader in data networking," Levy said. "We look forward to leveraging Lucent's world-renowned Bell Labs, its NetCare professional services and support capabilities and its unsurpassed relationships with leading enterprises around the globe."
O'Shea noted that LANNET's people, technology and location were important assets that were attractive to Lucent.
"LANNET brings strong technology and talented managers and engineers who are skilled in developing, manufacturing and shipping leading products in the Ethernet LAN switching, ATM switching and IP routing categories," O'Shea said. "We are also pleased to have a center of excellence in Israel, which is a high-tech hot spot, to complement our data networking assets in New Jersey, Silicon Valley and the Boston-Washington corridor."
The purchase is expected to result in a one-time, non-cash charge against earnings. The charge involves an accounting write-off assigned to in-process research and development and will be taken in the quarter ending Sept. 30, 1998, assuming the transaction is closed by then. Excluding this one-time charge, the impact of the purchase to earnings in fiscal 1998 is expected to be immaterial.
LANNET, founded in 1985, employs approximately 500 people in engineering, manufacturing, operations, sales, customer support and marketing in locations around the world. It distributes its products through VARs and system integrators.
Last September, Lucent unveiled its strategy to address the data networking business and introduced an enhanced portfolio of intelligent switching, access and network management products as a part of its plan to dramatically improve data networking performance. Since then, Lucent has also acquired Livingston Enterprises, Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif., a leading provider of remote access networking solutions for the Internet; Prominet Corporation, a Marlborough, Mass.-based developer of Gigabit Ethernet local area network switching and routing products; and Yurie Systems of Landover, Md., a leading wide area network access equipment supplier.
As a part of its data networking portfolio, Lucent also offers professional support services capabilities through its NetCare(R) Data Services, a broad set of consulting, integration, management and maintenance services for multivendor data and video networks, voice systems and networks and call centers.
Additional information about LANNET can be accessed on the World Wide Web at www.lannet.com.
Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, data networking systems, business telephone systems and microelectronic components. Bell Labs is the research and development arm for the company. More information about Lucent Technologies is available on the company's Web site at www.lucent.com.
SOURCE Lucent Technologies
/NOTE TO EDITOR: There will be a media teleconference call today, July 9,
at 10 a.m., EDT, hosted by Bill O'Shea, president of Lucent's Data Networking
Systems and Shmuel Levy, CEO, LANNET. USA/Canada call 800-611-1147;
international call 612-332-1020./
/CONTACT: John Callahan, 908-953-5350 - office, or 703-758-1449 - home,
or johncallahan@lucent.com, or Bill Price, 908-582-4820 - office, or
201-823-2544 - home, or williamprice@lucent.com, both of Lucent Technologies;
or Koby Huberman, 972-3-645-9170, or kobih@lannet.com, for LANNET/
/Web site: lannet.com
/Web site: lucent.com
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