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To: jhild who wrote (14490)	3/18/1998 4:08:00 PM
From: Mang Cheng	Respond to of 45548

"Northern Telecom to Acquire Aptis for About $290 Million" March 18, 1998 Dow Jones Newswires BRAMPTON, Ontario -- Canadian telecommunications-equipment maker Northern Telecom Ltd. Wednesday said it agreed to acquire data-networking startup firm Aptis Communications Inc. for about $290 million in stock and cash, the latest deal spurred by the rapid convergence of the voice and data networking industries. Companies in both industries are stockpiling promising technology and forming key alliances to develop gear that can handle voice, video and data simultaneously. Lucent Technologies Inc., NorTel's archrival in telecom equipment, has been very active in recent months. Chelmsford, Mass.-based Aptis makes remote-access and other switching gear used by telecom and Internet carriers. Remote-access equipment helps computer users connect to Internet service providers and corporate networks. Closely-held Aptis last month announced plans to ship a switch this spring that lets Internet service providers deliver virtual private network, or VPN, services to their large business customers. The switch will support all types of access to public data networks, including dial-up dedicated lines, frame relay, asynchronous transfer mode, or ATM, and digital subscriber line, or DSL. NorTel which is 51.2%-owned by Canadian telecom giant BCE Inc., said it will try to preserve Aptis's entrepreneurial spirit. Aptis President Paul Gustafson will remain in that post and will also become a NorTel vice president. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter Wall Street has been waiting for computer-networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. to announce a partnership with either Lucent or NorTel. But some analysts say Cisco may be prepared to attack North America alone if necessary. There have been a slew of convergence-related announcements from telecom-equipment companies. Earlier this month, Lucent and DSL-technology company Westell Technologies Inc. announced a tie-up to provide DSL equipment to telecom carriers. Lucent also unveiled WaveStar BandWidth Manager, a system to manage voice, data and video traffic. A few months ago, Finnish telecom-equipment company Oy Nokia announced plans to acquire Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Ipsilon Networks Inc., the pioneer of a networking-technology effort called IP switching, for $120 million. Mang