Extreme Closes Brocade Deal
By It’s a done deal.
Extreme Networks Inc. has completed its $55 million acquisition of Brocade Communications Systems Inc.’s data center switching, routing, and analytics business. The newly expanded company expects to generate more than $1 billion in annual revenues.
Having Brocade in its pocket means Extreme has a stronger position in the high-end data center space, said President and CEO, Ed Meyercord. “Today’s announcement is not only a significant milestone for our growth strategy,” he added, “but it also allows us to assist more customers around the globe with end-to-end software-driven solutions to drive their digital transformation initiatives.”
Brocade’s products are used by both enterprises and service providers. The company was one of the first to recognize and move on the software-defined networking trend through its acquisition of Vyatta, which it announced in November of 2012. AT&T recently purchased those assets.
The Brocade acquisition follows Extreme’s purchases of Avaya’s networking business and Zebra Technologies’ WLAN business.
In separate but related news, Broadcom’s $5.9 billion bid to buy the rest of Brocade continues to face delays. “Under the original terms of the deal, the parties could walk away if the transaction hasn’t closed by November 1,” SDx Central reported earlier this month. “But they’ve agreed to extend their terms to allow for the additional CFIUS review. Brocade and Broadcom now anticipate the acquisition to be completed by November 30, subject to clearance from [the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States].”
That same article noted that the Extreme-Brocade deal initially was expected to close following the close of the Broadcom-Brocade deal. However, on Oct. 3 Extreme and Brocade announced that they would not wait for the Broadcom deal. Instead, they announced that Brocade would directly divest its data center switching, routing, and analytics business to Extreme.
Edited by Mandi Nowitz
