Nick Pianim has a background in venture capital, running an Internet Data Center
Juniper may say it’s in no hurry to acquire companies to fill in product line gaps, but its actions speak volumes about a quickening pace.
Juniper may say it’s in no hurry to acquire companies to fill in product line gaps, but its actions speak volumes about a quickening pace…
Juniper quietly appointed a vice president of business development late last year to, among other duties, orchestrate the company’s acquisition of a wireless LAN player. Nicholas Pianim has a background in venture capital, and was a CEO and business development vice president at a now defunct Internet data center company, iAsiaWorks.
Juniper at first would not confirm Pianim’s employ: “We don’t typically comment on the hiring of employees, so (we) cannot confirm,” a Juniper spokeswoman stated in an e-mail response. “Thanks for checking with us.”
Checking with the main switchboard at Juniper headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., produced the sought-after results. Pianim did not respond to a request left on his voicemail for an interview – he instead forwarded it to the helpful spokeswoman who advised this reporter not to hold his breath:
“He’s not a company spokesperson, and we are not willing to comment on his specific role in the company,” she said.
Pianim was named CEO of iAsiaWorks, a San Mateo, Calif., Internet data center service provider with a focus on the Asian market, in October 2001. Before that he was vice president of global business development at the company since March 2000.
IAsiaWorks liquidated operations in March 2002.
From April 1999 to March 2000, Pianim served as a principal at Eureka Capital, a private investment company. From June 1998 to April 1999, Pianim served as a manager at wireless carrier Cellular One, and from September 1994 to June 1998, Pianim served as a principal at Idaho Partners, another private investment company.
Pianim’s appointment indicates that, despite Juniper CEO Scott Kriens’ statements about moving quite slowly and deliberately on the M&A front, things are progressing quite steadily as Juniper looks to counter Cisco’s recent $450 million acquisition of WLAN switch maker Airespace. Indeed, sources refer to Pianim as a “WLAN M&A director.”
These same sources say Pianim is in discussions with Juniper WLAN partner Colubris Networks, as well as WLAN switch makers Aruba Networks and Trapeze Networks. Colubris declined comment when asked if it knew of, or had conversations with, Pianim.
Aruba also declined comment when asked if it was aware of Pianim’s appointment.
“We haven’t talked to him,” an Aruba spokesman says.
Trapeze was also tight-lipped.
Sources say Juniper is conducting an internal bake-off between Aruba and Colubris gear, and that the “winner” of that evaluation could end up being bought by the company. Some observers believe the frontrunner is Colubris.
Juniper and Colubris have a two-year-old joint development and marketing arrangement for both public WLAN hot spot and secure enterprise WLAN applications. There is already a level of product integration that exists between Juniper and Colubris gear, which means that Juniper sales and engineering personnel are already familiar with it; and the two have multiple joint customer accounts, one of which is believed to be McDonald’s Canada.
