Stratus Buys Emergent to Build Out Telecom Expertise

Published: September 26, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Fault tolerant computer maker Stratus Technologies has announced that it has paid $11 million to acquire Emergent Network Solutions, a provider of telecom equipment.

Emergent Technology builds systems and applications that provide wireline, voice over IP (VOIP), and IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) switching services for telecom companies. Emergent Technology has 32 employees and subcontractors and is, compared to Stratus, pretty small. But Emergent Technology has deployed telecom software at more than 100 wireline carriers in 130 installations--mostly at small and midrange companies--and is a big asset to Stratus because it can now go into those accounts and deploy its fault tolerant Linux and Windows servers.

The acquisition actually closed on August 11, and because Stratus is a private company (it was taken private by some venture capitalists a number of years ago after being public for a long time), it didn't have to say anything about the deal immediately. Nathan Franzmeier, Emergent Technologies' former chief executive officer, will be a vice president at Stratus and will lead the company's telecommunications strategy. He will report to David Laurello, who is president and CEO at Stratus. Both men put the converged network solutions market at a conservative $2 billion opportunity, and with Stratus now having hardware and software beyond the traditional voice line SS7 signaling software, it can get a bigger piece of the action.

Although Stratus is privately held, the company reports that its annual sales are around $275 million a year. About a quarter of that comes from telecom companies.

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