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Technology Stocks : Newbridge Networks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zbyslaw owczarczyk who wrote (11022)	4/29/1999 9:51:00 AM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18016

April 29, 1999 09:29 IronBridge Networks Draws $33 Million to Develop New Terabit-Speed Router for Core of the Internet Start-up Venture will Enable Next-Generation Broadband Internet Services; Is Negotiating Channel Agreement With Newbridge Networks to Sell IronBridge Products LEXINGTON, Mass., April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- IronBridge Networks today revealed that it has raised $33 million in financing and it is entering the high-growth market for terabit routers, the next generation of connection devices for the core of the Internet. IronBridge is developing a terabit router that will enable telecommunications companies to offer a wide range of new, faster and more reliable Internet services. The company's products will provide the scalability, reliability, and operations management capabilities that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) must have in order to meet the tenfold annual growth in demand for services they are experiencing. "IronBridge Networks is on course to be a leader in the emerging core Internet router market," said Tony Lavia, IronBridge president and CEO. "We are the only company in this market with the combined Internet and carrier expertise required to deliver next-generation voice, video, and data services with the same reliability as the public telephone network." IronBridge has attracted $33 million in financing since its formation in 1997. Additionally, IronBridge is forming strategic partnerships with leading networking equipment manufacturers to provide sales and service channels to its carrier customers. The company has entered into negotiations with Newbridge Networks to establish it as a non-exclusive distributor for IronBridge products. This gives IronBridge access to established relationships with more than 325 of the world's largest service providers. "We've built a strong foundation for success by attracting one of the best teams of Internet experts I've seen in the industry," said Ross Callon, IronBridge chief systems architect and internationally recognized Internet authority. "This team is setting a new standard for core Internet routers." IronBridge is staffed by leading Internet and carrier equipment engineers from Ascend, Bay Networks, Bellcore, Cascade, Nortel and Tellabs, some of whom trace their roots to the US Defense Department's ARPAnet, the precursor of today's Internet. Founders Michael Hathaway and Kathleen Huber developed the first commercial implementation of a 50 gigabit per second router prior to forming IronBridge. The company contends that the core of the Internet must have unfaltering reliability, be simple for network operators to manage, and be highly scaleable to handle rapid growth. These capabilities are not available in current Internet routers and are crucial to any carrier planning to offer business networking and new consumer services via the Internet. Demand for this type of technology will drive the worldwide market for multi-gigabit and terabit routers to $2.2 billion in 2002, according to Dataquest forecasts. IronBridge's extensive market research with national and global Internet carriers has shaped the products it offers. The company is developing a scaleable product architecture that has the capacity to support over five years of projected network growth. This future-proof architecture allows carriers to rationalize purchase and depreciation costs over a longer time period, resulting in lower carrier costs and higher profits. IronBridge's focus on reliability enables a new generation of non-stop Internet services, such as voice, multimedia and virtual private networks (VPNs); allowing practical convergence of traditional voice and data networks and giving carriers a portfolio of high margin, premium quality services. IronBridge's network management technology is designed to simplify complex network operations and give carriers the tools they need to quickly deliver new services to customers, on demand. Using IronBridge intelligent network management, carriers can reduce operating costs and rapidly deliver new VPN, wholesale and premium services to market. "IronBridge is strongly positioned to satisfy market needs with a new class of scalable, configurable, and reliable systems," said Scott Bradner, senior technical consultant at Harvard University and IronBridge advisory board member. "Three fundamental requirements are emerging from backbone Internet service providers: terabit speeds are needed to keep pace with projected traffic growth, fine-grained and flexible quality of service controls are needed to support the provisioning of predictable user experiences, and reliability equal to the public telephone network is needed to support new applications." About IronBridge Networks IronBridge Networks Incorporated manufactures core Internet routing equipment for telecommunications carrier and Internet service provider networks that scale from multi-gigabit to terabit speeds. The company is a development-stage company backed by institutional and corporate investors and venture capital. IronBridge, a participant in the Newbridge(R) Affiliate Program, is based in Lexington, Massachusetts and employs over 100 people. SOURCE IronBridge Networks /CONTACT: Carl Blume of IronBridge Networks, 781-372-8116, or fax, 781-372-8090, or cblume@ironbridgenetworks.com; or Simon Dibb of Brodeur Porter Novelli, 617-587-2877, or fax, 617-587-2828, or sdibb@brodeur.com/