Lucent closes Riverstone buy

Lucent this week said it completed its acquisition of certain assets of metro Ethernet router maker Riverstone Networks.

Lucent outbid rival Ericsson in an auction for the Riverstone assets last month. The assets give Lucent Ethernet switching and routing capabilities it could not get from partner Juniper Networks.

The purchase price is approximately $207 million.

"We are excited to integrate the Riverstone team into Lucent. With this purchase we have created an industry leader in the delivery of end-to-end carrier Ethernet and converged Optical/Ethernet solutions, and we look forward to aggressively pursuing the expanding market for Ethernet-based business services and residential triple-play offerings such as IPTV," said Ken Wirth, Lucent president and general manager, Multimedia Networking Solutions, in a statement.

Lucent says Riverstone's carrier Ethernet platforms also augment its IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) portfolio by enabling operators to utilize end-to-end Ethernet-based architectures that support the delivery of business and residential broadband services at lower cost.

The assets purchased tangible long-lived assets. The net assets purchased do not include, among other things primarily include Riverstone products, intellectual property, certain contracts and receivables and, cash, investments and debt.

"Substantially all" of Riverstone's 400 employees are now employees of Lucent, Lucent said.