Lucent beats Ericsson to Riverstone, for $US207m

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 23 March 2006 16:53

IT Industry - Deals

Lucent Technologies has outbid Ericsson to acquire, at auction, the business and assets of bankrupt telecoms equipment maker, Riverstone Networks with a $US207 million cash bid, a 21 percent premium over its original bid.

The terms are subject to final approval by the US Bankruptcy Court, in a hearing scheduled for March 23, 2006.

"We're excited to become a part of Lucent, and believe our customers will benefit from end-to-end solutions available from a single source as a result of the combination of our businesses," said Riverstone Networks president and CEO, Oscar Rodriguez.

Ken Wirth, president, Multimedia Network Solutions at Lucent, said: Riverstone's people and products will play an important role in advancing Lucent's end-to-end converged ethernet/optical solutions and helping us in our efforts to take share of a growing carrier ethernet market."

The parties expect the transaction to close in early April.