Cabletron Systems Inc. announced yesterday that it has sold its network infrastructure consulting unit, GlobalNetwork Technology Services, to a private company, current GlobalNetwork executives and two Cabletron subsidiaries.
GlobalNetworks' business ranges from enterprise network analysis and design to outsourced network implementation and management. It is one of four companies that have until now made up Cabletron, a former network equipment maker that last year reorganized itself as a holding company.
The sale of GlobalNetworks is the latest in a series of spin-offs that will see each of Cabletron's component companies become independent and the parent company fold on Aug. 6.
The outsourcing business of GlobalNetworks, along with parts of its implementation and installation practice, are being acquired by a group of GlobalNetworks executives along with a private firm, according to a Cabletron statement issued Monday. Cabletron did not name the private firm.
The company's consulting and network management practices for small enterprises are being acquired by two other Cabletron companies: enterprise network equipment vendor Enterasys Networks Inc. and Aprisma Management Technologies Inc., which sells the Spectrum network management software originally developed by Cabletron.
The purchase of part of GlobalNetworks will allow Enterasys to provide ongoing support to its customers, according to the statement. The two Cabletron subsidiaries have worked together on a number of projects, the statement said. For Cabletron, disposing of GlobalNetworks helps the holding company to continue simplifying its business.
As a network equipment vendor, Cabletron boasted a rich list of large enterprise customers but was a perennial underdog against Cisco Systems Inc., which built on its domination of the traditional router business to additionally capture much of the market for data switches. Early last year, Cabletron was transformed into a holding company with four major businesses: GlobalNetworks, Enterasys, Aprisma and metropolitan area network equipment vendor Riverstone Networks Inc.
According to its plans for dissolving the parent company, Cabletron will spin off Enterasys and Riverstone to Cabletron shareholders on Aug. 6. Aprisma will temporarily become a division of Enterasys before it, too, is spun off by year's end, either to Cabletron shareholders or through an initial public offering.
Cabletron, in Rochester, N.H., can be reached at +1-603-332-9400 or via the Web at http://www.cabletron.com. GlobalNetworks, in The Woodlands, Texas, can be reached at +1-281-465-5600 or via the Web at http://www.globalnts.net.
