Ciena Networks is acquiring privately-held World Wide Packets for $200mn in cash and $90mn in shares. World Wide Packets will act as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ciena. It brings a line of Carrier Ethernet switches to Ciena’s optical expertise.
World Wide Packets delivered over 70,000 Carrier Ethernet switches for KPN, AT&T, and over 100 customers in 25 countries.
“Since the inception of the company, it has been the goal of World Wide Packets to define and provide the next-generation of Carrier Ethernet solutions, and today’s news is conclusive validation of our approach. Our expertise in True Carrier Ethernet™ combined with the power and flexibility of Ciena’s FlexSelect Architecture provides customers with a compelling and cost-effective solution for delivering Carrier Ethernet-based services.” – Matthew Frey, President and COO, World Wide Packets.
“As part of our strategy to leverage Ethernet as the vehicle for network convergence to optimize the cost and efficiency of network resources, the addition of World Wide Packets’ technology expands our ability to address the access and aggregation tiers of the network with simplified IP/Ethernet service architectures. Bringing to our FlexSelect™ Architecture these flexible, highly-scalable Carrier Ethernet service delivery platforms further advances us in the high-growth business Ethernet services market and strengthens our position in the emerging wireless backhaul space.” – Gary Smith, President and CEO, Ciena.
Press release from Ciena on the intent to acquire World Wide Packets .
