Brocade Completes Acquisition, Names Two New Executives

Big news today from Brocade (News - Alert), a developer of high-performance and cost- effective networking solutions, enabling complex, data-intensive organizations to better optimize information connectivity and maximize the business value of their data. The company has announced the completion of its acquisition of Foundry Networks (News - Alert), a performance and total solutions provider for switching and routing for $16.50 per share in cash.

 

The addition of Foundry's products and technologies enables Brocade to better address the needs of its customers and strengthens the company's position as a proven, high-performance networking leader.

 

"The close of the Foundry acquisition will significantly enhance our ability to deliver on our mission of connecting the world's most important information," said Mike Klayko, Brocade CEO. "Brocade will now be able to offer a comprehensive IP and data center networking solution portfolio capable of addressing emerging market technology trends while meeting the needs of the world's most demanding, data-intensive organizations."

 

Founded in 1996, Foundry has approximately 1,100 employees with operations in all major geographies. Foundry employees and the company's products and technologies will be integrated throughout Brocade according to function.

 

Below is a video from Brocade’s CEO Mike Klayko on the acquisition of Foundry:

 

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Brocade also announced today their implementation of two new executives. Marc Randall has been named Brocade’s Senior Vice President of Products and Offerings while Dave Stevens will now act as Brocade’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

 

Mr. Randall has been in the networking industry for more than 25 years. Spending eight years at Force10 Networks (News - Alert), where he served as CEO from 2003 to 2008, he led the company from less than $10 million to $150 million in annual revenues. Afterward, he devoted seven years at Cisco Systems (News - Alert) as Vice President of Engineering, where he led the development of the Cisco 7500 Series router

 

Mr. Stevens holds more than 20 years of experience in the high-tech sector and most recently was Founder and CEO of Palo Alto (News - Alert) Networks. He previously served at Brocade from 2003 to 2004 as Vice President and CTO of Brocade Transport Systems (after joining Brocade through the acquisition of Rhapsody Networks in 2003, where he was Vice President of Business Development). He holds both a BS and an MS in Electrical Engineering.

 

"With these two companies together, you will see us implement best practices from every area of the network infrastructure, from service providers to campus LANs to the data center," said Mr. Stevens. "The result will be combined technologies that leverage everything from switching architectures and ASICS to command line interfaces, routing code, and operating system services. The objective is to develop a family of converged infrastructure solutions that enable our customers to experience a consistent level of performance, quality, network services, and management interfaces from end to end."