Nokia to Acquire Comptel, Furthering its Software Portfolio

Nokia agreed to acquire Comptel Corporation, a telecom software company based in Helsinki, Finland, for approximately EUR 347 million in cash.

Comptel offers solutions for catalogue-driven service orchestration and fulfillment, intelligent data processing, customer engagement, and agile service monetization. It processes 20 percent of world's mobile usage data every day, orchestrates communications and digital services for more than two billion end-users daily and its largest customer has around 300 million subscribers. In 2015, Comptel's revenue was EUR 98 million with an 8.7 percent operating margin.  The company was founded in 1986 and has approximately 800 employees. Outside of Finland its major sites include Bulgaria, Malaysia, India, the United Kingdom and Norway.

Nokia said the deal will advance its software strategy and provide service providers with a comprehensive solution to design, deliver, orchestrate and assure communications and digital services across physical, virtual and hybrid networks. Nokia's ambition is to build a standalone software business at scale by expanding and strengthening its software portfolio and go-to-market capabilities with additional sales capacity and a strategic partner network.

The combination of Nokia's Service Assurance portfolio and Comptel's Service Orchestration portfolio would enable a dynamic closed loop between service assurance and fulfillment that simplifies management of complex heterogeneous networks. When combined with Nokia's Cloudband(TM) and Nuage(TM) portfolios, Nokia would be able to provide customers with complete, end-to-end orchestration of complex Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) deployments.

"Nokia is committed to building its software business and is backing its commitment with strategic investments. The timing of the Comptel purchase is important as our customers are changing the way they build and operate their networks.  They are turning to software to provide more intelligence, automate more of their operations, and realize the efficiency gains that virtualization promises. We want to help them by offering one of the industry's broadest and most advanced portfolios. Comptel helps us do that," stated Bhaskar Gorti, president of Nokia's Applications & Analytics business group.

http://www.nokia.com
http://www.comptel.com/

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GlobalFoundries Ramps Up Manufacturing

GLOBALFOUNDRIES announced an expansion of its global manufacturing footprint in response to growing customer demand. The company is expanding its leading-edge fabs in the United States and Germany, expanding its footprint in China with a fab in Chengdu, and adding capacity for mainstream technologies in Singapore.

In the U.S., GF plans to expand 14nm FinFET capacity by an additional 20 percent at its Fab 8 facility in New York, with the new production capabilities to come online in the beginning of 2018. This expansion builds on the approximately $13 billion invested in the United States over the last eight years. The NY fab will continue to be the company's center of leading-edge technology development for 7nm and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, with 7nm production planned for Q2 2018.

In Germany, GF plans to build up 22FDX 22nm FD-SOI capacity at is Fab 1 facility in Dresden to meet demand for the Internet of Things (IoT), smartphone processors, automotive electronics, and other battery-powered wirelessly connected applications, growing the overall fab capacity by 40 percent by 2020. Dresden will continue to be the center for FDX technology development. GF engineers in Dresden are already developing the company's next-generation 12FDX technology, with customer product tape-outs expected to begin in the middle of 2018.

In China, GF and the Chengdu municipality have formed a partnership to build a fab in Chengdu. The partners plan to establish a 300mm fab to support the growth of the Chinese semiconductor market and to meet accelerating global customer demand for 22FDX. The fab will begin production of mainstream process technologies in 2018 and then focus on manufacturing GF's commercially available 22FDX process technology, with volume production expected to start in 2019.

In Singapore, GF will increase 40nm capacity at its 300mm fab by 35 percent, while also enabling more 180nm production on its 200mm manufacturing lines. The company will also add new capabilities to produce its industry-leading RF-SOI technology.

http://www.globalfoundries.com/

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Cisco Umbrella Promises Secure Internet Gateway in the Cloud

Cisco launched a secure internet gateway (SIG) in the cloud to address the new enterprise security challenges of today’s mobile, cloud-era.

Cisco Umbrella is a cloud-delivered security platform that provides a first line of defense to protect employees both on and off the corporate network. Cisco said its Umbrella stops current and emergent threats over all ports and protocols. It blocks access to malicious domains, URLs, IPs, and files before a connection is ever established or a file downloaded. As a cloud solution, there is no hardware to install and software updates are automatic.

Highlights of Cisco Umbrella:

• Visibility and protection everywhere: Umbrella provides the visibility needed to protect Internet access across all devices on a network, all office locations, and roaming users. By combining Umbrella with Cisco Cloudlock’s Cloud Access Security Broker technology, Cisco can now enable organizations to identify which SaaS apps are being used and enforce policies to block risky or inappropriate apps.
• Intelligence to stop attacks before they launch: Umbrella resolves over 100 billion internet requests every day and correlates this live data with over 11 billion historical events. This is analyzed to identify patterns, detect anomalies, and create models to automatically uncover attacker infrastructure being staged for the next threat.
• Broadest coverage for malicious destinations and files: Umbrella leverages powerful tools from across Cisco Security to obtain the most complete view to identify and stop threats earlier. This includes Machine learning models to uncover known and emergent threats, blocking connections to malicious destinations at the DNS and IP layers; Cisco Talos threat intelligence to block malicious URLs at the HTTP/S layer; andCisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) to detect malicious files and block them in the cloud.
• An open platform for easy integration: Umbrella can integrate with existing systems, including security appliances, intelligence platforms or feeds, and custom, in-house tools which enables users to extend protection for devices and locations beyond the perimeter.
• Discovery and control for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps: Umbrella, together with Cloudlock, enables organizations to discover and control sensitive data in SaaS apps on and off-network.
• Reliable and fast connectivity for a great user experience: Customers don’t experience broken or slow connections when they use Umbrella. Umbrella uses Anycast routing — every data center announces the same IP address so that requests are transparently sent to the fastest available with automated failover to maintain 100 percent uptime.     

"Mobility has changed the enterprise network. The cloud has changed applications – their development and delivery – and how we think about, access and store data. Traditional security tools that require employees to work from an office, log in to the corporate network, and use corporate-managed devices or corporate-owned applications are no longer sufficient. Our secure internet gateway, Cisco Umbrella, can protect today’s enterprise and beyond as mobility increases and new cloud services are adopted.  It provides the most comprehensive visibility and enforcement for internet traffic, and together with Cloudlock, Cisco’s Cloud Access Security Broker, it enables discovery and control for SaaS apps, both on and off the corporate network," stated David Ulevitch, Vice President, General Manager, Security Business Group, Cisco Systems

https://umbrella.cisco.com/?_ga=1.144414581.15575902.1486702410

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Cisco Offers Integrated Azure Stack in its UCS Platform

Cisco will begin offering Microsoft Azure Stack on its Unified Computing System platforms. The integrated, validated system enables organizations to deliver Microsoft Azure services from their on-premises data center.

“Cisco and Microsoft are coming together to offer a hybrid cloud solution built on the power of UCS and Microsoft Azure,” said Liz Centoni, senior vice president and general manager, Computing Systems Product Group, Cisco. “Through our joint engineering efforts, application developers and IT managers will have a turnkey solution that is easy to deploy, manage and scale.”

“Microsoft and Cisco are proven innovators and trusted technology partners, giving customers the confidence their IT environments can be supported and secure. Microsoft Azure Stack provides services and application programming interfaces (APIs) compatible with the Azure public cloud, allowing developers to do their best work while giving them the agility to deploy their applications to public, private or hosted clouds,” said Mike Neil, corporate vice president, Azure Infrastructure & Management, Microsoft Corporation.

https://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=press-release&articleId=1819842

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IBM and Ericsson Develop Silicon-based millimeterWave Phased Array

IBM and Ericsson have developed a compact silicon-based millimeterWave (mmWave) phased array integrated circuit operating at 28GHz that has been demonstrated in a phased array antenna module designed for use in future 5G base stations.

The breakthrough is a result of a two-year collaboration that set out to develop phased array antenna designs for 5G. The partnership brought together IBM's expertise in highly integrated phased array mmWave IC and antenna-in-package solutions with Ericsson's expertise in circuit and system design for mobile communications.

The unit is the world's first reported silicon-based mmWave phased array antenna module operating at 28GHz. The module, which consists of four monolithic integrated circuits and 64 dual-polarized antennas, measures approximately 2.8" by 2.8", or about half the size of a typical smartphone. Achieving this compact form factor is necessary to support the vision of this technology's widespread deployment, especially in indoor spaces and dense downtown areas.

Thomas Noren, Senior Advisor, Business Unit Network Products, Ericsson, says: "There has been a lot of encouraging progress in 5G standardization last year including the beginning of live field trials. Big efforts in research and development are key to this and our collaboration with IBM Research on phased array antennas can help operators to effectively deploy radio access infrastructure necessary to support a 5G future. New use cases and applications that span human machine interaction, Virtual Reality, smart home devices and connected cars will depend on innovative technologies that can bring the promises of faster data rates, broader bandwidth and longer battery life to reality."

"The development of this 5G millimeterWave phased array is an important breakthrough, not just because of its compact size and low cost, which make it a very commercially attractive solution for network equipment companies and operators, but its potential to unleash and inspire brand new ideas and innovations we haven't yet imagined, thanks to a fully networked society," said Dr. Dario Gil, Vice President of Science & Solutions, IBM Research.

http://www.ibm.com/research
http://www.ericsson.com

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Docker Datacenter Adds Container-Native Secrets Management

Docker Datacenter now includes container-native secrets management for API keys, encryption keys and passwords are required for applications to securely interact/

Docker said its container-native secrets management uniquely addresses enterprise requirements for “usable security” by providing a single standardized interface for all applications, making it easy to secure applications whether for Dev or Ops or for Dockerizing traditional apps or microservices. The secrets are encrypted in transit and at rest, leveraging Docker’s built in orchestration capabilities to deliver defined secrets only to the containers running the service associated with it.

“Docker’s secret management capability is the latest security enhancement integrated into the Docker platform as part of our ongoing effort to ensure applications are safer in a containerized environment,” said Nathan McCauley, Security Director at Docker. “Enterprises in the financial services and government sectors with the highest bars for security have recognized that our solution can be a cornerstone to their overall hybrid cloud security strategy. Docker secrets management, as with all aspects of security handled in Docker Datacenter, provides organizations with one security model that can be applied and managed uniformly on premise, in the cloud and across cloud providers.”

https://www.docker.com/products/docker-datacenter

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Ciena's Blue Planet Software Integrates Mgt and Planning

Ciena introduced its Blue Planet Manage, Control and Plan (MCP), a new software that unifies network and service management and planning. It provides real-time software control and advanced visualization across Ciena’s packet and packet optical portfolios.

Some highlights of Blue Planet MCP:

• Built on Blue Planet’s extensible micro-services-based architecture
• Offers open interfaces for more programmable, IT-centric operations
• By providing automated, multi-layer service provisioning and performance monitoring via a single interface, Blue Planet MCP improves service assurance and gives operators end-to-end control of network services. 
• It also provides multi-layer network management, making it possible for Ciena customers to rapidly deploy new services and increase revenue opportunities.
• Integrates management and planning in a single web-based client interface that provides advanced visualization to help network operators better understand inter-functional relationships between network elements, multiple network layers, and the services that are running across them. This greatly improves communication and coordination across departments.
• Offers open APIs that allow for quick integration with current and planned business and operations support systems (B/OSS), software-defined orchestration and network function virtualization (NFV) systems. Its elastic scalability and modular micro-services capabilities can also support operators’ internal DevOps teams that want to extend the solution and introduce additional use cases or applications.
• Blue Planet MCP software will also be accessible to customers, third party developers, and partners through the Ciena Emulation Cloud, which allows open testing of Blue Planet MCP’s REST API interfaces to third party network components, and rapid solution integration.
• Blue Planet MCP will work alongside Ciena’s existing OneControl Network Management platform, as needed, and be generally available in June 2017 for specific applications.

“Blue Planet MCP is a strategic shift from traditional monolithic network management software. Our customers are thirsty for a unifying operations solution that can bring all elements together from a network and service management perspective in order to deliver an exceptional user experience. Now with an offering that combines an easy-to-use web-based interface with field-proven Ciena platforms we advance our unique position to help operators prepare for today’s complex and evolving networks,” stated Nirav Modi, Vice President and General Manager, Blue Planet, Ciena.

http://www.ciena.com

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Trend Micro, NEC, Netcracker to Deliver Virtualized Network Security for NFV

Trend Micro is working with its long-standing channel partner NEC Corporation and NEC’s affiliate Netcracker Technology to create an effective, high-performance and comprehensive virtualized network security solution that can be used in carrier-grade NFV deployments.
The collaboration will integrate NEC and Netcracker's management and orchestration capabilities with Trend Micro’s Virtual Network Function Suite.

Trend Micro’s Virtual Network Function Suite is designed to offer flexible, reliable and high-performance virtual network security functions for CSPs from premise, to edge, to the core network. At the foundation of the Virtual Network Function Suite is Trend Micro’s innovative deep packet inspection (DPI) technology, which provides various network security functions including intrusion prevention, URL filtering and application control. It has been widely adopted in a variety of network security products, from home routers to enterprise-facing next-generation firewalls and intrusion prevention systems.

“As NFV continues to be recognized as next-generation network architecture, it brings not only opportunities, but also challenges, especially in how we design and plan security protections in dynamic NFV networks,” says Dr. Terence Liu, vice president of Network Threat Defense Technology Group at Trend Micro. “It is not enough to convert physical security function to a virtualized platform. An effective security virtual network function (VNF) needs to be natively crafted and optimized for NFV infrastructure, while also working closely with the rest of NFV components to provide the best elasticity and most efficient response. With Trend Micro’s security intelligence and the rich experience in managing carrier NFV networks from NEC and Netcracker, we will enable communications service providers (CSPs) to provide effective and agile security protections to businesses and individuals in the NFV era.”

“We are happy with our decision to team with Trend Micro, which will give our customers a broader choice of pre-integrated partners and enable them to seamlessly implement security capabilities for their virtualized infrastructure,” says Shigeru Okuya, general manager of the SDN/NFV Division at NEC Corporation. “Bringing together the power of Trend Micro and NEC/Netcracker’s SDN/NFV portfolio will provide a more robust network solution for CSPs and contribute to safe and secure networks for enterprises and consumers.”

“Virtualized and distributed NFV architectures require a ‘back to the drawing board’ approach on security. It is not sufficient to use paradigms used in legacy networks and apply them to the cloud-based and service chained networks of tomorrow. NEC/Netcracker is pleased to collaborate with Trend Micro to address this critical need for our customers,” says Rahul Chandra, vice president of NEC/Netcracker’s Worldwide SDN/NFV Business Development. “Through rigorous integration of their solutions with NEC/Netcracker’s market-leading network as a service (NaaS) solution, we are excited to offer service providers highly secure and pre-integrated orchestration capabilities that can serve as a foundational and secure platform for supporting their virtualized service portfolios going forward.”

http://www.trendmicro.com
http://www.netcracker.com

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Infinera Posts Q4 Revenue of $181 Million

Infinera reported Q4 2016 revenue of $181.0 million compared to $185.5 million in the third quarter of 2016 and $260.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2015. GAAP gross margin for the quarter was 38.1% compared to 45.6% in the third quarter of 2016 and 44.5% in the fourth quarter of 2015. GAAP net loss for the quarter was $(36.3) million, or $(0.25) per share, compared to $(11.2) million, or $(0.08) per share, in the third quarter of 2016 and net income of $12.6 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2015.

“We executed well in the fourth quarter and delivered results at the high-end of our guidance,” said Tom Fallon, Infinera’s Chief Executive Officer. “As network infrastructures rapidly evolve, our objective remains to help our customers win by delivering the highest performing solutions at the Transport Layer. Though our product transition is currently holding back revenue growth and profitability, by introducing next generation ICE4 products, my belief is that we are well positioned to begin improving our business results over the course of 2017 and for significant opportunities in the future.”

http://www.infinera.com

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Symantec Completes LifeLock Acquisition for $2.3 Billion

Symantec completed its acquisition of LifeLock, a leading provider of identity theft protection, for approximately $2.3 billion.

Symantec said the deal transforms its consumer business, helping people protect their information, identities, devices and families.

“The combination of Symantec, the leader in consumer security, and LifeLock, with more than 4.5 million members, paves the way for us to deliver comprehensive digital safety solutions for consumers who face an onslaught of new risks every day,” said Symantec CEO Greg Clark. “With the addition of LifeLock, consumers will now have a single place to get the protection services they need for their entire digital lives – from two trusted, industry-leading brands.”

http://www.Symantec.com/invest

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A10 Posts Revenue of $64 Million, up 13% YoY

A10 Networks reported record revenue of $64.0 million for Q4 2016, up 13 percent year-over-year. There was a GAAP net loss of $1.8 million or $0.03 per share.

“The fourth quarter was a strong close to the year with revenue exceeding guidance and growing 13 percent year-over-year to reach $64 million. Our record performance was driven by strong demand for our security solutions and continued expansion with cloud provider, service provider and web-scale customers,” said Lee Chen, president and chief executive officer of A10 Networks. “We also continued to drive leverage through our operating structure to make significant improvements in our bottom-line results, while at the same time, investing in key areas of our business."

http://www.a10networks.com

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OpenFog Consortium Releases its Reference Architecture

The OpenFog Consortium, whose founding members include ARM, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, and Princeton University, published its OpenFog Reference Architecture, a universal technical framework designed to enable the data-intensive requirements of the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Fog computing is the system-level architecture that brings computing, storage, control, and networking functions closer to the data-producing sources along the cloud-to-thing continuum. The new reference architecture aims to enable high-performance, interoperability and security in complex digital transactions.

In brief, the OpenFog Reference Architecture contains a medium- to high-level view of system architectures for fog nodes (smart, connected devices) and networks, deployment and hierarchy models, and use cases. It is based on eight core technical principles, termed pillars, which represent the key attributes that a system needs to encompass to be defined as "OpenFog." These pillars include security, scalability, openness, autonomy, RAS (reliability, availability, and serviceability), agility, hierarchy and programmability.

"Just as TCP/IP became the standard and universal framework that enabled the Internet to take off, members of OpenFog have created a standard and universal framework to enable interoperability for 5G, IoT and AI applications," said Helder Antunes, chairman of the OpenFog Consortium and senior director for the Corporate Strategic Innovation Group at Cisco. "While fog computing is starting to be rolled out in smart cities, connected cars, drones and more, it needs a common, interoperable platform to turbocharge the tremendous opportunity in digital transformation. The new OpenFog Reference Architecture is an important giant step in that direction."

"The OpenFog Reference Architecture is the culmination of a year-long effort from industry and university research members to ensure we address all the appropriate communications, software, infrastructure and security components of fog computing," said Jeff Fedders, president of the OpenFog Consortium. "Our goal is to help and support both the business leader and the technologist to create new applications and business models through fog computing. By developing this common framework, we're addressing the hardware, software and system elements necessary for an OpenFog architecture and a vibrant, supplier ecosystem."

http://www.OpenFogConsortium.org/RA

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Fuze Raises $104 Million for UCaaS

Fuze (formerly ThinkingPhones), a start-up based in Cambridge, Mass., closed $104 million in venture funding for its cloud-based communication solutions.

Fuze is a global, unified communications as a service (UCaaS) platform for enterprises. In 2016, Fuze grew sales by 90 percent, adding 449 new customers, including The National Geographic Society, The Rockport Group, Socotec, and John Paul with 36 percent of business coming from outside of North America. Its top ten deals of 2016 represented a combined $71 million in contract value, solidifying Fuze’s position as the leading UCaaS platform for global enterprises.

“Over 2016, we experienced tremendous growth in deal size among the large enterprise segment, with CIOs and IT leaders adopting Fuze’s unified communications platform as a central part of their strategy to drive digital transformation in their organizations,” said Steve Kokinos, Fuze Founder and CEO. “This latest round of investment advances Fuze’s aggressive pursuit of the market for our cloud-based business communications platform, accelerates geographic expansion to service our large global customers, and fuels product innovation in ways that align with our long-term growth strategy.”

The funding was led by Wellington Management Company LLP and joined by Greenspring Associates and existing investors Summit Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), and G20. Total funding to date has reached $304 million.

http://www.fuze.com

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CyrusOne Buys Two Data Centers for $490 Million

CyrusOne will acquire two enterprise-class data centers from Sentinel Data Centers for $490 million. The facilities are located in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina and Somerset, New Jersey.

In 2016, the two data centers generated revenue of nearly $50 million. As of December 31, 2016, the two properties consisted of more than 160,000 colocation square feet and approximately 21 MW of power capacity, with nearly 85% of the power capacity leased.

"We are very excited about this transaction, which establishes a presence for us in the Southeast, adds a high quality portfolio of large enterprise customers, and features an attractive long-term lease profile," said Gary Wojtaszek, president and chief executive officer of CyrusOne. "We respect the work of the Sentinel founders. Their focus on great facilities and personalized customer service matches ours. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive and provides significant opportunities to grow the combined business and create value for our shareholders."

http://www.cyrusone.com

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Dell'Oro: Cloud Data Centers Drive Toward 400G by 2019

Cloud Data Centers are forecast to drive the transition toward 400 Gbps by 2019, according to a newly published report from Dell'Oro Group.

“Cloud Service Providers (SP) are entering an expansion and mega-upgrade cycle driven by increased capacity demand and aging infrastructure,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Senior Director at Dell’Oro Group. “We anticipate at least two major product cycles by 2021. The first cycle will ramp this year and will be driven by 25 GE SERDES technology, mainly using Broadcom’s Tomahawk-based silicon. The second cycle will start in 2018 – 2019, driven mainly by 50 GE SERDES technology,” Boujelbene explained.

Highlights from the Ethernet Switch – Data Center 5-Year Forecast Report:

• The overall Ethernet Switch – Data Center market is expected to reach over $14 B by 2021.
• Data Center switching deployment scenarios are expanding to more areas, such as Data Center Interconnect.
• Disaggregation of the switch hardware and switch operating system will spread significantly beyond white box systems over the forecast period.
• Apart from Google, all major Cloud SPs are asking for 400 Gbps. We anticipate that 400 Gbps will become the next major speed after 100 Gbps, provided availability of 400 Gbps optics.

http://www.delloro.com

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Mojo Networks Raises $30M for Cloud-managed WiFi

Mojo Networks closed a combination of Series E funding and debt of $30 million to support its cloud-managed WiFi.

Mojo says its cloud-managed WiFi solution is based on a radical vision for creating networks that reach new heights in performance, security, scalability, and ease-of-use.

The investment round includes previous investors Presidio Partners, Trident Capital, and Granite Ventures, who are joined by new investors North Haven Expansion Credit, a fund sponsored by Morgan Stanley Private Credit & Equity, Walden Riverwood Ventures, and Alpha Technologies.

“With consolidation in the market, there is a slowdown of innovation in the industry that helps no one but the incumbents,” said Rick Wilmer, CEO of Mojo. “As an independent, we have the ability to drive change -- we’re elevating enterprise WiFi through the power of the cloud and open standards with a vision for creating networks that do things never seen before.”

The company is based in Mountain View, California.

http://www.mojonetworks.com

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Juniper's Pradeep Sindhu Turns Focus to Fungible

Pradeep Sindhu, founder and CTO of Juniper Networks, announced that he is turning his focus to Fungible, a start-up that he co-founded last year to pursue new opportunities in data centers.

Fungible, which is based in Santa Clara, California, has raised $32.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Mayfield, Walden Riverwood Ventures (WRV), and Battery Ventures, with participation from Juniper Networks.

Sindhu will retain the title of Chief Scientist at Juniper.

https://forums.juniper.net/t5/The-New-Network/A-Message-from-Juniper-Networks-Founder-Pradeep-Sindhu/ba-p/303614
http://www.fungible.com/

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Arista Wins Department of Defense Approval

Arista Networks announced that a number of its platforms achieved information assurance (IA) interoperability (IO) certification from the Joint Interoperability Command (JITC) and are now included on the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Unified Capabilities Approved Products List (UC APL).

Specifically, Arista’s 7150, 7050, 7250, 7300 and 7500 Series programmable platforms are now listed on the DoD Approved Products Lists Integrated Tracking System (APLITS) by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

“We are excited that our solutions received both Layer 2 and Layer 3 certification. These important certifications attest to the high level of security our cloud networking platforms provide,” said Ashwin Kohli, vice president, Systems Engineering at Arista. “Now DoD customers can utilize Arista EOS (Extensible Operating System) to ensure safe and seamless transitions to the cloud.”

http://www.arista.com

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Intel’s $7 Billion Fab 42 Targets 7nm Manufacturing

Intel announced plans to invest more than $7 billion to complete Fab 42 in Chandler, Arizona.

Fab 42 is expected to be the most advanced semiconductor factory in the world with its targeted 7 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process within the next 3 to 4 years.

“Intel’s business continues to grow and investment in manufacturing capacity and R&D ensures that the pace of Moore’s law continues to march on, fueling technology innovations the world loves and depends on,” said Brian Krzanich, Intel's CEO. “This factory will help the U.S. maintain its position as the global leader in the semiconductor industry.”

http://www.intel.com

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Avaya's Revenue Dips due to Lower Demand and Longer Procurement Cycles

Avaya reported total revenue of $875 million for its first fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2016, down $83 million compared to the prior quarter due to lower hardware and networking revenue.

The company cited seasonality and extended procurement cycles, as well as lower demand for unified communications hardware and associated maintenance and professional services.

Non-GAAP gross margin was 61.5%, a first fiscal quarter record, which compares to 61.8% for the prior quarter and 61.3% for the first quarter of fiscal 2016. GAAP operating income was $65 million, which compares to a loss of $428 million in the prior quarter and income of $91 million during the first quarter of fiscal 2016. Non-GAAP operating income was $187 million which compares to $229 million for the prior quarter and $185 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2016.

"By taking the necessary action to address our capital structure, we are better positioned to strengthen our successful software and services portfolios," said Kevin Kennedy, president and CEO. "Avaya's transformation continues as our product portfolio evolves to a richer mix of software and service platforms."

http://www.avaya.com

Avaya Files for Chapter 11

Thursday, January 19, 2017  Avaya, Chapter 11, Financials  No Comments

Citing a need to recapitalize the company, Avaya filed voluntary petitions under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

The company also announced a $725 million debtor-in-possession DIP financing facility underwritten by Citibank.

“We have conducted an extensive review of alternatives to address Avaya’s capital structure, and we believe pursuing a restructuring through chapter 11 is the best path forward at this time,” said Kevin Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer of Avaya.  “Reducing the Company’s current debt through the chapter 11 process will best position all of Avaya’s businesses for future success.”

“This is a critical step in our ongoing transformation to a successful software and services business. Avaya’s current capital structure is over 10 years old and was put in place to support our business model as a hardware-focused company, which has evolved significantly since that time.  Now, as a result of the terms of Avaya’s debt obligations and the upcoming debt maturities, we need to recapitalize the Company,” continued Mr. Kennedy.  “Our business is performing well, and we are confident that we can emerge from this process stronger than ever, as this path is a reflection of our debt structure, not the strength of our operations or business model.  Pursuing restructuring through chapter 11 will enable us to reduce Avaya’s debt and interest expense, while providing increased financial flexibility to further invest in innovation and growth to enhance our market-leading competitive position.  Most importantly, we are keenly focused on minimizing disruption to our customers, partners, and employees and do not expect to experience any material disruptions during the chapter 11 cases.”

Separately, Avaya reported Q4 2016 revuenu of $958 million, up $76 million compared to the prior quarter as demand improved for products and services, and decreased $50 million year-over-year, due to lower demand for unified communications hardware.  GAAP gross margin was 60.9% for the fourth quarter.  GAAP operating loss was $428 million, reflecting $542 million of impairment of goodwill and intangibles.  Non-GAAP operating income was $229 million which compares to $180 million for the prior quarter and $202 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015.  For fiscal 2016, Avaya reported revenue of $3,702 million, down 9% compared to fiscal 2015, or down 8% in constant currency. GAAP gross margin for fiscal 2016 was 60.6%.

http://www.avaya.com/en/about-avaya/newsroom/

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