With Nortel selling parts of the Alteon’s business to Radware, it seems timely to look back on the multi-billion dollar acquisition spree that Nortel went on during the telecom boom. Keep in mind that many of the major players were spending like a drunken sailor.
In the context of the time buying for example Clarify was a total stupidity and it was considered as such by the most employees I talked to at _that_ time.
The way Bay Networks was handled at _that_ time was an absolute stupidity as well, Just how clever was to label all the former Bay employees FDC (Former Data Company) and give it a “47″ bar-code on their forehead,o-ps, on the badge. I heard some AsiaPac execs quoting “bullshit routers”. My personal experience after a few good years at Bay was a very negative one: while native Nortel engineers were good, most of the managers and above were plain dumb if you wish. The higher the level the dumber.
It was Roth and Dunn (his CFO at the time) who started the downfall. The others just continued.
xBay
I have had first hand experience in some of the the accounts you mentioned (down to the code level). I would never claim that Bay routers were running without downtime. I would also completely disagree that the worlds vital networks in the late 90's were not running Cisco but Bay primarily.
Having said that Wellfeet/Bay routers could and should have been developed into something more innovative and competitive. But Nortel bought Bay (Dave House, do you sleep well?).
Looking Back at Nortel’s M&A Spree
With Nortel selling parts of the Alteon’s business to Radware, it seems timely to look back on the multi-billion dollar acquisition spree that Nortel went on during the telecom boom. Keep in mind that many of the major players were spending like a drunken sailor.
- Broadband Networks Inc., broadband wireless network equipment ($593-million)
- Aptis Communications, a remote access data networking start-up ($290-million)
- Cambrian Systems, Internet traffic technology start-up ($300-million)
- Bay Networks, enterprise data networking equipment, ($9.1-billion)
- Qtera Corp., long-distance optical start-up, ($3.25-billion)
- Clarify Inc., customer relationship management software, ($2.1-billion)
- Promontory Communications, high-speed DSL access platforms, ($778-million)
- Xros Inc., optical switch maker, ($3.25-billion)
- CoreTek, fiber-optics laser technology, ($1.43-billion)
- Alteon WebSystems, content network technology, ($7.8-billion)
- Sonoma Systems, integrated access devices, ($540-million)
- Shasta Networks (US$340-million)
- JDS’ Swiss optical business (US$2.5-billion)
If you add up all these acquisitions, they total a staggering $29.5-billion $32.3-billlion, much of it paid using super-priced stock.
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