FRAMINGHAM (03/03/2000) - Cisco Systems Inc. is buying Atlantech Technologies, a Glasgow-based company that makes software to help configure and monitor network hardware. San Jose-based Cisco said the stock deal, valued at about $180 million, will expand its offerings of network management products for integrated data, voice and video networks. Cisco held a 9.5 percent stake in the privately held Atlantech, which will become part of the Cisco Communications Software and Network Services Group.
MCI WorldCom Inc. has agreed to pay Cable & Wireless USA $200 million to settle a lawsuit filed last April. Vienna, Va.-based Cable & Wireless had charged WorldCom with failing to provide important information about MCI's Internet business when Cable & Wireless acquired it in 1998. Cable & Wireless agreed to drop its complaint as part of the settlement.
Tera Computer Co., a Seattle-based producer of high-end computers, agreed to purchase Silicon Graphics Inc.'s (SGI) Cray supercomputer business for an undisclosed price. Following the purchase, Tera will create a new combined company called Cray Inc., which will have annual revenue of more than $200 million and about 900 employees. Tera will take over the Cray brand and SGI's Cray supercomputer product line and service contracts. SGI bought Cray in 1996.
Centripetal Inc. in San Diego will introduce this month its Data Services Suite, an Internet storage utility service that allows companies to outsource data storage on a pay-as-you-grow basis. The first location for the storage data centers will be in San Diego, followed by San Jose, New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Seattle. Pricing starts at 2 cents per MB per month.
Smartcard vendor E-Pass Technologies Inc. in Dublin has filed suit in U.S.
District Court against 3Com Corp., charging that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company infringed on E-Pass' 1994 patent for a "multifunction credit-card-size computer" when it developed the PalmPilot electronic organizer. Separately, 3Com said that America Online Inc., Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. agreed to buy stakes in 3Com's Palm Inc. spin-off at the asking price of $38 per share when the unit goes public.
Consumers subscribing to New York-based Time Warner Inc.'s broadband cable services after it merges with Dulles, Va.-based AOL won't be locked into using AOL or an affiliated Internet service provider, the companies said. . . .
MICROSOFT CORP. said it would buy PEACH NETWORKS LTD., an Israeli provider of enhanced TV services technology for digital television, for $43 million.