Bay Networks, Inc. plans to buy upstart New Oak Communications, Inc. and its Internet virtual private network (VPN) hardware for $23 million in cash and $133 million in stock.
Bay plans to ship Acton, Mass.-based New Oak's NOC 4000 Extranet Access Switch in the second quarter.
NOC 4000 combines authentication, bandwidth management, routing, firewall and directory-enabled access in a single box. It is designed to give each remote user customized access to corporate network resources that New Oak called personal extranets.
New Oak said the box can serve 200 to 2,000 users, and claims it will save $1 million per 1,000 users over other dial-up access schemes.
"This is a new class of product," said Craig Johnson, analyst with consultancy Dataquest, Inc. He said the NOC 4000 is a less expensive alternative to the mulitple-box solutions it would replace.
A smaller version, the NOC 2000, is expected to be announced this month.
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