Ascend Re-aligns Business To Further Strengthen its Position as The Leading Supplier of Infrastructure Equipment to Global Service Providers
Business Editors/Technology Writers
ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 27, 1998--
Company Appoints EVP and GM of Access Switching;
Combines North American and International Sales Operations
Ascend Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: ASND) today announced a major re-alignment of its business that will further leverage the company's position as the number one supplier of infrastructure equipment to global network service providers and users of the emerging New Public Network.
Effective immediately, Curtis N. Sanford has taken the position of Executive Vice President and General Manager for the company's Access Switching business unit. Sanford was previously Senior Vice President of International Operations. Michael Hendren has taken the position of Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales. Hendren was previously Senior Vice President of North American Sales and Service. Sandford and Hendren will report to Ascend's Chief Executive Officer, Mory Ejabat.
"Ascend's largest customers are the network service providers. Their rapid global expansion and interlocking alliances require us to show one face worldwide. The revolution in world-wide network infrastructure driven by packet and cell-based technologies, which Ascend calls the emergence of the New Public Network, has no respect for borders. With Mike's new organization, we can leverage our experiences across markets," said Mory Ejabat, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ascend. "Curt knows our customers, their businesses, and our technology as well as anyone in the industry. I am counting on him to take our Access Switching business into a new phase of growth."
Pioneer in Access, Ascend Continues to Lead
Ascend is the world wide leader in Access Switching products, a market which Ascend pioneered when it began selling Remote Access Concentrators to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the early 1990s. According to leading market research firms, including Dataquest and Dell'Oro Group, Ascend is the industry's market share leader as measured by revenue and access ports shipped.
Sanford has been with Ascend for over eight years, and was responsible for building the company's International organization from its start-up phase to today, where International represents a third of the company's overall revenues. In his new role, he takes over a product line that includes Ascend's award-winning MAX(TM) and MAX TNT(TM) WAN Access Switches, as well as the True Access(TM) Operating System, the industry's only modular platform for delivering advanced services such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) and others. In addition, Sanford assumes responsibility for the company's Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) products, including the DSLTNT(TM) and DSLPipe(TM) and Access network management products, including Navis Access(TM).
"Ascend is in the business of building the service and access platforms for the New Public Network and connecting enterprises to it," said Sanford. "I am looking forward to the challenge of bringing new access technologies to our installed base and future customers. Our users rely on Ascend to provide the most advanced solutions with carrier class reliability."
Ascend's Customers are Global Players
During the past four years, Hendren has overseen the expansion of Ascend's North American sales from $40 million to over $900 million in fiscal year 1997. As Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales he will now be responsible for all Ascend sales regions, including North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Japan, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
Ascend has already forged relationships with key global network service providers including AT&T, Worldcom, GTE, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), Sprint, Telefonica and many others. These service providers are leveraging Ascend's advanced platforms to deliver leading-edge data, voice and video services to customers worldwide.
"Our customers are increasingly operating in a global economic theater, whether through joint ventures, mergers, or otherwise, and we saw the need and advantages to being organized according to how our customers are doing business," said Hendren. "We want to provide our customers with a single, consistent 'look and feel' wherever they are operating."
About Ascend Communications
Ascend Communications, Inc. develops, manufactures, sells and services wide area networking solutions for telecommunications carriers, Internet service providers and corporate customers worldwide.
Press and industry analysts please contact Kate O'Sullivan, Alexander Communications, 415/923-1660 (ext. 166), kosulliv@alexandercom.com Investors and financial analysts, please contact Kristina Graziano, 510/747-2345, kristina.graziano@ascend.com; or all other inquiries please call toll-free: 800/ASCEND4.
For more information about Ascend and its products, please visit the Ascend web site at www.ascend.com, or send e-mail to info@ascend.com. Ascend is headquartered at One Ascend Plaza, 1701 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda, Calif. 94502; phone is 800/ASCEND4 and fax is 510/814-2300.
The foregoing statements may contain forward looking statements that are based on current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from these expectations as a result of factors including, but not limited to, the Company's success in developing, introducing or shipping new products, competition, the mix of distribution channels employed, the Company's dependence on single or limited source suppliers for certain components used in its products, risks inherent in international sales, seasonality and general economic conditions. These and other factors are discussed in Ascend's 10-K, 10-Q and other filings made periodically with the Securities and Exchange Commission
--30--LS/na*
CONTACT: Alexander Communications
Kate O'Sullivan, 415/923-1660 (ext. 166)
kosulliv@alexandercom.com
or
Ascend Communications
Eric Warren, 510/747-6683
eric.warren@ascend.com
KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA
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