Petaluma, CA, June 14, 2004 -
Mahi Networks, an industry-leading supplier of multi-service metro transport and switching solutions, today announced that it has acquired Photuris, Inc., a Piscataway, NJ, based supplier of advanced optical services equipment. The acquisition combines Mahi’s leading transport and packet switching product portfolio, aimed at optimizing metro-core networks for the world’s largest telecommunications carriers and multiple service operators (MSO), with Photuris’ reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) system.
Bill Gartner, COO of Photuris, will become Mahi’s vice-president and general manager of the company’s new Transport Systems Group. Ashish Vengsarkar, co-founder of Photuris, will become Mahi’s vice-president, Global Market Development. Mahi will market Photuris’ V32000 Optical Distribution System as Mahi’s Vx7™ Multi-Service Core Transport System (MCTS). Mahi will also absorb existing Photuris customer relationships – which includes a major inter-exchange carrier, MSO's, and three of the four Regional Bell Operating Companies – giving Mahi the market presence to enable success against incumbent vendors in the carrier space.
“With this acquisition, Mahi and its investor syndicate are aggressively capitalizing on a rare opportunity,” said Chris Rust, president and CEO of Mahi Networks. “Mahi and Photuris products have been extensively validated in major carrier and MSO labs, but we believe that these service providers want to buy complete solutions from vendors that have the financial resources and market success to guarantee their long-term viability. With our combined products and resources, Mahi can offer service providers a complete metro transport and switching solution that delivers far lower first-in and operational costs than the incumbent vendors.”
"This acquisition means that Mahi has two innovative products to offer end-to-end metro transport to service providers, and we believe this will be a catalyst for some major new deployments," said Michael Howard, principal analyst at Infonetics Research, San Jose, CA. "The Mahi Networks product portfolio fits snugly together, and this, together with the new resources, should increase market traction and challenge legacy solutions."
According to Walt Magnussen, Director for Telecommunications at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, the site of Photuris' first commercial deployment: "I was delighted to hear of Mahi Networks' acquisition of Photuris. We've been very pleased with the flawless performance of the Photuris system at Texas A&M, and we look forward to our service provider, Verizon Communications, and Mahi Networks serving our transport infrastructure bandwidth needs well into the future."
Products and Teams Share Common Goals
Mahi and Photuris have both targeted the largest carriers and MSOs, and have a shared vision in helping service providers build better networks that are more efficient, cost-effective, and provide new service opportunities. Mahi now brings together two best of breed systems, silicon, software and optics to deliver a complementary portfolio of products that lower carrier costs throughout the metro transport and switching infrastructure. Mahi is focused on providing the most advanced, cost-effective, and integrated Layer 1/Layer 2 grooming and transport solutions with its Mi7 multi-service core aggregation system, and now offers leadership in dynamically configurable DWDM technology for wavelength services.
The Mi7 and Vx7’s 320 Gigabit capacities are ideal for metro edge/core applications, and provide the right mix of pass-through and local switching for both SONET and Ethernet technologies. By integrating the Mi7 and the Vx7 in a single solution, carriers can eliminate the wasteful optical transponders they now use for WDM handoff.
Market Doubles for Combined Automated Metro Solutions
The addition of the Vx7 doubles Mahi’s addressable market to $4 billion. With a combined portfolio, Mahi now addresses the entire metro DWDM, metro core SONET and Ethernet aggregation market segments. In addition, the Vx7 allows Mahi customers to increase revenues by offering new data and lambda services over a shared infrastructure.
The consolidated Mahi has focused on providing products that deliver vast savings by automating network operations. When combined, the Mi7 and the Vx7 deliver a “zero-touch” solution for end-to-end metro transport networking that gives carriers and MSOs the ability to remotely manage services, automate adds/moves/changes in transport infrastructure, eliminate manual errors, and automate provisioning.
“Mahi can now offer service providers 70 percent Op-Ex and Cap-Ex savings with complementary metro core transport, switching, and wavelength products that are currently in deployment and ready to buy,” Rust said. “We have proven products, and now we have the portfolio depth and market presence to move them quickly into broader deployment.”
About Mahi Networks
Mahi Networks, Inc. develops and markets multi-service metro transport and switching platforms that enhance the business models of service providers worldwide. Mahi's Mi7 and Vx7 products, integrated intelligent control plane, advanced network management platforms, and easy to use network planning tools provide industry-leading packet and TDM integration with fully automated optical services. Mahi couples its innovative technology with flexible applications that enable service providers to efficiently manage the transition to a simpler, lower cost, and converged infrastructure, thereby enabling accelerated service fulfillment and significantly greater value creation for the stockholders of service providers. For more information please visit www.mahinetworks.com. Mahi Networks, Mi7, Vx7 and the Mahi Networks logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Mahi Networks, Inc. in the United States and\or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
