UTStarcom agreed to acquire 3Com's CommWorks division for $100 million in cash. CommWorks supplies CDMA 2000 Packet Data Serving Nodes (PDSN), softswitches, media gateways, SIP proxy servers, SS7 signaling gateways, remote access servers (RAS) and unified messaging carrier applications. Its customer list includes 17 of the world's top 20 service providers, including AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon. UTStarcom said the acquisition would add to its base of tier-one customers and accelerate its geographic diversification outside of China. UTStarcom, which supplies softswitches and broadband access equipment, claims to be the largest vendor to China Telecom. Its major customers also include China Netcom, Yahoo! BB in Japan, and Cable & Wireless. 3Com said the sale completes its transition into a dedicated enterprise networking company. A majority of the existing CommWorks employee base will receive comparable offers of employment from UTStarcom. UTStarcom will lease 3Com's Rolling Meadows facility in Illinois. The deal is expected to close in Q2 pending regulatory approval.
http://www.utstar.com
http://www.commworks.com
- Last month, CommWorks noted a milestone for its installed base of IP telephony systems worldwide -- 15 billion minutes of cumulative voice traffic. CommWorks said the milestone was reached less than three years after the first commercial deployment of its IP telephony equipment in April 2000. CommWorks IP telephony equipment is now carrying an estimated 985 million minutes of voice traffic each month for service providers worldwide.
UTStarcom recently noted that its IP-based PAS platform was supporting more than seven and a half million Chinese customers. The platform is marketed as a low-cost investment option for wireless local telephone service that replaces antiquated fixed line systems. It also features a network architecture that can be integrated with 3G and DSL.
In January, UTStarcom announced new contracts valued at more than $100 million to supply its AN-2000 IP-DSLAM in support of Yahoo! BB ADSL service. To date, Yahoo! BB has already deployed more than $130 million worth of UTStarcom IP-DSLAM equipment to support its 12 Mbps ADSL service.
