x
Optical/IP

Unisphere Close to $200-300M Deal?

ATLANTA -- Unisphere Networks Inc. is close to landing an edge router contract valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars with Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), according to sources close to both companies.

Such a contract would provide yet another reason why router maker Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR) got hungry to buy Unisphere -- and was willing to part with $375 million in cash to do so.

But Unisphere adamantly denies the story. "There is no deal to announce," says a Unisphere spokesperson. "Your information is wrong."

Talk of such a deal was circulating on the show floor here at Supercomm 2002. One source, citing contacts at the large East Coast RBOC, says it's a serious deal and very close to happening.

”The contract could be big enough to pay for Juniper’s purchase of Unisphere,” says the source, who requested anonymity. A separate source at Unisphere confirmed that a hefty RBOC (regional Bell operating company) contract would be announced shortly but wouldn’t name the customer.

If the deal is real, it could earn back some of the cash that Juniper will expend if its planned purchase of Unisphere goes through. It would be especially helpful, of course, if such a deal amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. Juniper announced late last month a deal to buy Unisphere in a deal worth about $740 million, with $375 million of that coming in the form of cash (see Juniper Nabs Unisphere for $740M). The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

A big contract with Verizon would also give Juniper another beachhead in an RBOC, the most coveted of carrier customers.

Verizon had not returned calls at press time.

— R. Scott Raynovich, US Editor, Light Reading
http://www.lightreading.com
<<   <   Page 3 / 3
lvezz 12/4/2012 | 10:17:58 PM
re: Unisphere Close to $200-300M Deal? Anyone remember Arrowpoint? Cisco had to be in talks w/them before IPO but waited, much to their dismay. Deal or no deal: Unisphere is cheaper a few weeks ago than than will be. Juniper may have bet at the perfect time; just ask John C.
russ4br 12/4/2012 | 10:17:53 PM
re: Unisphere Close to $200-300M Deal? AAL5 wrote:

I hate to be put in the position of defending the "Big C", but how exactly are Juniper's products better than Cisco's?
(...)
- Perhaps it is the fact that when you turn any sort of feature on the M160 (ACLs etc.), your performance goes to hell? OC-48/192 line rate with loads of edge features, not a chance in hell.


Well, I hate to be put in a position of defending the "Big J", but a.f.a.i.k. Cisco doesn't even _claim_ to support access-list input/output or rate-limiting at all in their "high-performance" Engine 4 cards ... let alone claiming "line-rate" with features ... unless they've finally got their 3rd - or is it 4th? - version of the Engine-4 card right this time ... oh, yes, I've almost forgot ... they have those "powerful" STM-4 ISE cards, my goodness!!!

- russ

asmo 12/4/2012 | 10:17:49 PM
re: Unisphere Close to $200-300M Deal? E4+ does Extended Access Lists, CAR rules, packet coloring and Traffic shaping at line rate.

The ISE cards are OC-48 cards (STM-16) that perform similar features at line rate. All these cards are shipping NOW. What hardware does Juniper have that performs these features at line rate?

I keep reading all the FUD about Juniper having a better core router, show me the figures and IGÇÖll believe it.

As much as some people like to avoid the fact but building a core router is a really difficult thing to do. I give every credit to Juniper and the people that work for them to where they have got today. I donGÇÖt mean to disrespect the guys that have managed to create a competent core router.

In the cold light of day compare the figures to see which router has better line rate performance when multiple features are turned on, and doesnGÇÖt scramble your video stream by re-ordering packets.

Juniper was the first to bring out 10G line cards, a great accomplishment by their engineers! Cisco came out later with a better solution that didnGÇÖt require a forklift and ate JuniperGÇÖs lunch. Check the latest OC-192 market ownership figures if in doubt.

Juniper came out with a 40G per slot solution, a great accomplishment, no buyers yet but great from an TTM engineering perspective! Cisco came out later withGǪGǪ

Hey I know this GÇ£mine is bigger than yoursGÇ¥ conversation is a bit childish, but it's just a bit of fun after all ;)

Asmo
mbledug 12/4/2012 | 10:17:49 PM
re: Unisphere Close to $200-300M Deal? Which RBOC is using Cisco's edge router?

Mbledug
stavvmc 12/4/2012 | 10:17:44 PM
re: Unisphere Close to $200-300M Deal? Morgan Stanley analyst David Jackson had a note out on June 3 about the Unisphere contract win, so that's one source. Since the note doesn't mention a size, it's safe to say that LR had at least one other source, or else the $200-300m amounts to thumb sucking, which is an unlikely scenario given its prescience on other matters Unisphere related. Jackson reckons the contract is for SMS, so a negative for RedBack and a "non-event" for Cisco.
Lancelot Lightwave 12/4/2012 | 10:15:30 PM
re: Unisphere Close to $200-300M Deal? Heard that Unisphere is replacing Cisco 6400s and Redbacks in Verizon...
<<   <   Page 3 / 3
HOME
Sign In
SEARCH
CLOSE
MORE
CLOSE