Polycom pickup boosts voice
Conferencing provider Polycom Inc. has agreed to pay about US$100 million for Voyant Technologies Inc., a privately held company that develops voice communications products and services. Polycom says the deal will enable it to strengthen the voice offerings of Polycom Office, which provides companies integrated voice, video, data and Web communications. Polycom has a history of strengthening itself through acquisitions, such as when it purchased rival PictureTel in 2001 and network equipment maker Accord Networks in 2000 to fill gaps in its voice, data and video collaboration products.
Carriers consider MPLS
North American service providers are getting serious about IP and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) technology, says Infonetics Research Inc. The San Jose-based consultancy last month reported that global IP/MPLS traffic will have grown 118 per cent by the end of 2003, and 86 per cent of carriers plan to do data convergence via IP/MPLS in 2004. Directing Analyst Kevin Mitchell said telcos reap cost savings from IP/MPLS infrastructure, which allows them to operate a single data network, yet maintain legacy services like Frame Relay. Visit www.infonetics.com for more information.
Sun strengthens identity
Sun Microsystems Inc. recently announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire identity management software vendor Waveset Technologies Inc. for an undisclosed price. Sun said Waveset’s Lighthouse suite of products has some capabilities, such as user provisioning, not found in Sun’s identity management software. Sun said it intends to integrate some portion of Waveset’s software suite into its portal server and identity management products, but has no plans to phase out support for Waveset’s 50 or so customers.