Top dogs swap Cabletron seats as peace reigns

Cabletron has reshuffled its top management team as the in-house fighting between former Digital colleagues and the vendor appear to have been resolved.

Since Cabletron bought Digital's networking division in November 1997, there have been disputes between the two camps as each struggles to gain the upper hand in the operation (PC Dealer, 26 November 1997).

The management changes saw Joe Solari back in his role as head of EMEA and vice president Guy Buyst heading the Digital reseller agreement. Solari was previously president of international operations for Asia/Pacific.

Solari said: 'When the acquisition went through, we had to integrate the companies, which is what Guy was responsible for.' According to Solari, Buyst will head a deal forged at the time of the $400 million acquisition in November 1997.

But it was believed Cabletron senior management was reluctant to place former Digital employees in senior European roles.

Solari hit back by denying Buyst had been demoted due to political issues within the company, stating: 'This is absolutely not the case. We needed someone who knows the Digital business well.'

An industry source said: 'Buyst has been pushed to the side to look after this side of the business while the company continues to move functions like operations and product management back to the US.'

Solari will now report to Craig Benson, Cabletron chairman and CEO, while Buyst's point of contact is Giulio Gintuco, who heads Digital's product group in the US.

Meanwhile, Azlan has been named as Cabletron's second distributor to join Ilion, which announced its appointment as pan-European partner in March.

Ray Sangster, UK MD of Cabletron, said he was in talks with other distributors, one of which was believed to be Metrologie, to fill two spaces in its channel structure.