IN an effort to provide a complete switching solution, Madge Networks has announced it will acquire Teleos Communications, a privately-owned start-up company specialising in WAN access switching products.
The deal, worth US$165 million to be paid for in Madge shares, will be the company's first move into the wide area.
Nigel Terry, Madge Networks Asia's vice-president for marketing and new markets, said: 'We regard this as a major landmark for us, its the first time we have stepped out of the LAN.' Although a relatively new market, many industry insiders regard WAN access switching to be a major growth area in the future. 'I think there's a huge potential for it,' James Kennedy, director of marketing for Cabletron Asia Pacific, said.
Mr Terry agreed. He said: 'We like WAN access switching, it's going to be a fast-growing market.' According to Mr Terry, Madge intended to add its ATM technology to the Teleos product as soon as possible to allow desktop multimedia across the WAN.
Being a small company, Teleos has only two staff members in the Asia Pacific region. Both are based in Singapore and are currently working on getting approvals for the products and doing some general prospecting.
Approval to use the Teleos product has been granted in several countries, including Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand, while it is pending in the rest of the region.