Turin Networks and Force10 Networks announced a merger agreement. The deal combines leading equipment suppliers for the service provider and enterprise data center markets.
Turin Networks is a leading provider in the wireless backhaul aggregation market with products deployed in more than 60 thousand North American cell sites. Force10 Networks has the industry’s second highest revenue share for total 10 Gigabit Ethernet, as ranked by the Dell’Oro Group. 
Industry analyst firm IDC projects two million 10 GbE ports will be deployed in data centers worldwide next year, while data center Ethernet switching revenue will grow at a CAGR of 8% to reach $6.4 billion in 2012. The combined companies will have more than 1,300 customers worldwide, including a number of top-tier service providers and premier enterprise data centers.
The merged company will operate under the name of Force10 Networks and be based in San Jose, California. Henry Wasik, president and CEO of Turin Networks, will become the president and CEO of the combined entity. Current Force10 Networks president and CEO James Hanley will assume the role of president, field operations with responsibility for sales, marketing, services and business development. The merger is expected to be finalized by March 2009, pending the completion of legal and regulatory filings.
http://www.force10networks.com/http://www.turinnetworks.com
