siemens is an omkt customer
Siemens and Other Vendors
Jostle for Hot Startups
Siemens AG (Munich, Germany) will hold a press conference Monday,
March 8, at which it is expected to announce plans for a new U.S.
subsidiary targeting Internet-based public networks. The vendor has
declined, however, to comment on a March 4 New York Times report
that it will at the same time announce the acquisitions of or investments in
three vendors identified as Hot Startups by Data Comm (“The Top 25 Hot
Startups of 1998,” www.data.com/issue/981207/startups.html). They are
cut-price circuit-switch maker Castle Networks Inc. (Westford, Mass.),
for which Siemens reportedly will $300 million cash; Argon Networks Inc.
(Littleton, Mass.), which is developing a gigabit router/ATM switch and for
which Siemens is said to be paying about $240 million cash; and
Accelerated Networks Inc. (Moorpark, Calif)., a maker of network
access equipment in which Siemens is reportedly investing $30 million.
Siemens also is in preliminary talks with 3Com Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.)
about buying its business unit targeted at telecom operators for about $1.2
billion, according to the New York Times. 3Com spokespeople were not
available for comment. Siemens already has partnership agreements with
3Com and Newbridge Networks Ltd. (Kanata, Ontario) under which the
three companies jointly develop and sell selected products.
Industry sources confirm Siemens' buying spree and say it's part of a trend
among network equipment vendors to buy startups that are developing
public network technologies. According to Sheryl Schultz, president of PR
firm SRS Associates (Natick, Mass.), companies like Alcatel N.V. (Paris),
Cisco Systems Inc. (San Jose, Calif.), Lucent Technologies Inc. (Murray
Hill, N.J.), and Nokia Group (Espoo, Finland) have been following one
another from startup to startup, clinching deals as fast as they can. For
example, NEC Corp. and Fujitsu (both of Tokyo) were in discussions with
startup (and SRS client) Assured Access Technology Inc. (Milpitas,
Calif.), but no deal came about. Siemens then got involved but quibbled
about price-giving Alcatel an opening to jump in and sew up an acquisition
in a matter of weeks-announcing on March 4 its agreement to buy Assured
for $350 million. “If you snooze, you lose,” sums up Schultz.
So who's falling behind? Schultz names two switch vendors that appear to
be lagging-Northern Telecom Ltd. (Mississauga, Ontario) and Ericsson
(Stockholm, Sweden).
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