(WCG) (JNPR) Zaffire Adds BroadBand Office and Williams Communications as Strategic Investors.Business Editors & Multimedia Writers CHATSWORTH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 14, 2000 Zaffire Joins Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Juniper Networks Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR) is an information technology company based in Sunnyvale, California and founded in 1996. The company designs and sells Internet Protocol network products and services. in Second Round of Funding Zaffire(TM) Inc., formerly known as New Access Communications
Access Communications Co-operative Ltd. , today announced that it has added BroadBand Office Inc. and Williams Communications (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :WCG WCG World Cyber Games WCG Worldwide Church of God WCG World Community Grid WCG Wellington Caving Group (caving club in New Zealand) WCG Washington Calligraphers Guild WCG West Coast Grocery ) as strategic investors. These two leading edge service providers join Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB KPCB Kings Park Concert Band ) and Juniper Networks (Nasdaq:JNPR JNPR Juniper Networks, Inc. (stock symbol) ) in the company's second round of funding, bringing the total funding in the company to more than $26 million. The company's first-round of financing was funded by MRV Communications  OverviewMRV NASDAQ: MRVC is a company that designs, manufactures, sells, distributes, integrates and supports communication equipment and services, and optical components. (Nasdaq:MRVC MRVC Multiple Rate Voice Card ). Zaffire is developing a next-generation, service-aware optical networking Communications between computers, telephones and other electronic devices using light. An optical network is far more reliable and has far greater potential transmission capacity than networking in the electrical domain. See optical fiber. solution for metro and regional service providers. The company expects to announce products based on its breakthrough technologies in the second quarter of this year. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Vinod Khosla Vinod Khosla (born January 28, 1955 in Pune, India[1]) is an Indian-American venture capitalist. He is an influential personality in Silicon Valley. He was one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems and became a general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner, , general partner at KPCB, "Zaffire fits well with our vision of the overall build-out of public and private networks as they evolve to meet rapidly increasing traffic demands. By treating data in its native form rather than simple TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) A technology that transmits multiple signals simultaneously over a single transmission path. Each lower-speed signal is time sliced into one high-speed transmission. bit streams, the Zaffire system will allow for dramatic price reductions in transport costs as well as significant improvements in network manageability." "We are gratified grat·i·fy tr.v. grat·i·fied, grat·i·fy·ing, grat·i·fies 1. To please or satisfy: His achievement gratified his father. See Synonyms at please. 2. to have the support of such premier customers as BroadBand Office and Williams Communications as strategic investors and partners. Their deep market expertise will be crucial assets to us as we develop and deploy a next-generation system to solve the bottleneck problems, service constraints, and prohibitive costs of existing metro optical transport systems," said Near Margalit, founder and chief technical officer, Zaffire Inc. "In having these investors join KPCB, Juniper, and MRV MRV minute respiratory volume. , we feel we are very well positioned to become the leader in the next wave of optical infrastructure deployments targeted at the metro and regional space." According to Matt Bross, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Williams Communications, "Solutions such as those being developed by Zaffire will become an increasingly critical factor to the performance of the worldwide public network as the use of that network continues to grow over time. We intend to actively participate in the development of these types of solutions with an overall goal of maintaining our leadership position in the communications marketplace and continuing to deliver the best possible performance, quality and service to our customers." In October 1999, Zaffire named Anthony Lavia, Ph.D., as the chief executive officer and president of the company. Lavia, who is a veteran in the telecommunications industry, has served in executive management positions at Newbridge Networks Newbridge Networks was an Ottawa, Ontario, Canada company founded by Canadian/Welsh entrepreneur Terry Matthews. It was founded in 1986 to create data and voice networking products after Matthews was forced out of his original company Mitel. , Nortel and Bell Canada. William R. Hearst, III, general partner, KPCB, Pradeep Sindhu, founder, vice chairman and chief technical officer, Juniper Networks and Noam Lotan, chief executive officer and president, MRV Communications are members of the Zaffire board of directors. Executive board members include Near Margalit, Zaffire chief technical officer and Anthony Lavia, Ph.D., Zaffire chief executive officer and president, and chairman of the board. About Zaffire Zaffire Inc., formerly New Access Communications, is a high-technology company focused on developing a next-generation, optical services networking system for service providers worldwide. The company is recognized as an emerging leader in building optical networking solutions for metro and regional service provider applications. Zaffire's breakthrough optical technologies have been well received by new-generation carriers, CLECs, RBOCs, and IXCs. The company has headquarters in San Jose, Calif. For more information, visit its web site at http://www.zaffire.com. About BroadBand Office BroadBand Office Inc. was launched in July 1999 by KPCB and the country's largest real estate companies. BroadBand Office's core business is to enable customers within its network footprint to simply plug into a BroadBand Office wall jack and immediately have access to a full range of next generation communications/Internet services and e-business solutions. Its offerings include local, long distance, and wireless voice services, dedicated Internet access, and advanced Internet services including remote access, virtual private networks (VPN (Virtual Private Network) A private network that is configured within a public network (a carrier's network or the Internet) in order to take advantage of the economies of scale and management facilities of large networks. ), Web hosting, video, and e-business solutions. BroadBand Office's footprint spans nearly 20 percent of all the commercial office space in the United States. BroadBand Office began providing service in the fourth quarter of 1999, and is currently rolling out its services nationally. More information about BroadBand Office can be found on the World Wide Web at: www.broadbandoffice.net. About Juniper Networks Juniper Networks Inc. is a leading provider of purpose-built systems that meet the scalability, performance, density, and compatibility requirements of rapidly evolving, optically enabled IP networks. The company's purpose-built systems provide new IP infrastructure solutions for the world's leading service providers. Juniper Networks(R) service, manufacturing teams, and IP engineers work closely with customers to build and support customer networks. The company has headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. http://www.juniper.net About MRV Communications MRV Communications Inc. is a world class leader in optical network components and systems. The company has leveraged its early leadership in fiber optic transmission into a well-focused range of solutions, integrating switching, routing, access servers and optical transmission systems. As the Internet evolves into a single global communication network, MRV has launched the development of new technologies to drive the next generation infrastructures. Such developments encompass optical access systems, subscribers' management systems and Linux-based solutions. MRV has initiated and funded cutting edge start-up companies including Zaffire Inc. (formerly known as New Access Communications), Charlotte's Networks, Hyperchannel and Zuma Networks. http://www.mrv.com About Williams Communications Group Inc. Williams Communications (NYSE:WCG), through its subsidiaries, is North America's only exclusively carrier-focused fiber-optic network and the largest independent source of end-to-end integrated business communications solutions -- data, voice or video. Based in Tulsa, Okla., Williams Communications had revenues of $2 billion in 1999 and today has 9,000 employees primarily in North America, with offices in Europe and Asia and investments in South America and Australia. Approximately 85 percent of WCG stock is held by Williams (NYSE:WMB WMB Waste Management Board WMB Write Me Back WMB Wheaton Municipal Band (Wheaton, IL) WMB Waukegan Municipal Band (Waukegan, IL) WMB Websphere Message Broker ) which, in 1985, became the first energy company to harness its core competency as a builder of networks to enable competition in the communications industry. Additional information is available at www.williams.com and www.williamscommunications.com. |
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