Ericsson today announced that it would buy router start-up Torrent Networking Technologies for $450 million in cash.
The deal, which was expected (NW, Nov. 9, 1998, page 6), gives Ericsson a high-capacity edge router for ISP networks that can aggregate thousands of circuits and feed them to a router in the Internet core, such as Juniper Networks' M40 that Ericsson distributes. In addition, the Torrent IP9000 router line will serve as a Label Edge router to complete Ericsson's MultiProtocol Label Switching offering for IP over ATM.
Torrent has an installed base of 50 routers in field trials and production networks at more than 25 companies, including service providers Concentric, Texas GigaPOP and Exodus in the U.S., and VAS-Net, France Telecom and Sonera overseas. Torrent's 1998 revenue was about $200,000, according to company officials.
Torrent's IP9000 routers are optimized for traffic aggregation applications, which combine interface density and system resiliency with service management capabilities. They feature 20G bit/sec of throughput with 24.8 million packet/sec performance per shelf and over 3,000 T1s per rack and 120 to 360 T3s per rack.
Torrent employees will become part of the Ericsson Datacom organization and remain in the Silver Spring, Md., and Research Triangle Park, N.C., facilities.
Ericsson also acquired Touchwave, a California-based developer of IP PBXs. Ericsson's Touchwave acquisition follows similar acquisitions by Cisco and 3Com. Cisco acquired packet PBX vendor Selsius Systems and 3Com acquired NBX.
Ericsson paid $46 million for Touchwave.
