OTTAWA and MADRID, Spain -- Meriton Networks today announced the acquisition of Mahi Networks, Inc. Uniting Meriton’s industry-leading portfolio of high-speed optical networking systems with Mahi’s award-winning Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) solutions, this combination delivers to telecom service providers and network operators worldwide a truly unified, end-to-end Agile Optical Networking solution. Designed to give network operators mission flexibility and operational simplicity with the lowest total cost of ownership, Meriton’s Agile Optical Networking portfolio brings together a series of ‘best-in-class’ products under a unified management system.

According to industry analyst firms such as CIMI Corporation and Infonetics Research, as high-speed consumer broadband (e.g. IPTV and VOD) and business Ethernet and SAN services continue their explosive growth, they are creating unprecedented pressure on metro networks. To alleviate this pressure, network operators must rethink their architectures. In the face of future uncertainties, such as unpredictable traffic patterns, changing service mixes, and an evolving regulatory environment, network operators must ensure they put in place an inherently flexible, lowest total cost solution. To successfully deliver high-speed broadband services, network operators need a ‘future-proof’ infrastructure capable of multi-mission, multi-topology (ring and mesh) support that will grow and change along with their businesses. Factoring in today’s competitive market, this Agile Optical Networking infrastructure must also support rapid service deployment with one-time node engineering and zero-touch, automated provisioning, while reducing capital and operational costs.

The combination of Meriton and Mahi gives network operators a single source for all their Agile Optical Networking needs. The combined company will be known as Meriton Networks, and will be led by a seasoned management team. Michael Pascoe, Meriton’s president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), continues in that role, with Bill Gartner, Mahi’s former president and Chief Operating Officer (COO), assuming the COO position at Meriton. These executives will lead a world-class technical design team comprising experts in switching and optical technologies, and an expanded sales team fluent in the business and technical needs of global service providers.

“The growth of triple-play and business Ethernet services has created new dynamics in metro networks,” said Michael Howard, principal analyst at Infonetics Research. “This combination makes sense for Meriton and for their service provider customers, as it delivers a next-gen product portfolio, with end-to-end optical transport from the edge of the network to the core of the optical infrastructure.”

“Meriton already has a major, established role in the metro-optical plans of network operators looking to converge their infrastructures for broadband services,” said Michael Pascoe, president and CEO of Meriton Networks. “Our newly combined best-in-class product portfolio allows us to significantly expand our offering and better meet network operators’ changing needs.”

The company’s comprehensive Agile Optical Networking portfolio includes the following:
9500 Network Planning Tool (NPT)
8600 NMS and 8300 EMS (Integrated Management Systems)
7200 Optical Switching Platform (OSP)
6400 Optical Transport Platform (OTP)
3300 Optical Services Multiplexer

The 6400 OTP is the former Vx7 Multi-service ROADM system from Mahi, the industry’s first Versicolor™ WSS-based ROADM that has been carrying live traffic in service provider networks for over two years. The acquisition is scheduled to close in 30 days.

Meriton Networks Inc.