Newbridge cashes in on ACC sale

Newbridge Networks has offloaded its remote access affiliate ACC to Ericsson in an attempt to strengthen its links with the telecoms market.

The networking vendor maintained that the sell-off of its 68 per cent stake in the Canadian-based company for $285 million will not affect its channel and it will continue to sell ACC products.

But the sale has prompted mixed reactions from the industry. One source said: 'While this may be the best decision now, Newbridge may regret the day it agreed to sell.'

However, Steve Northedge, vice president and general manager of the UK and Ireland at Newbridge, argued: 'The deal gives us cash in the bank and opens up the market to us.'

Phil Keddie, channel sales director of UK and Ireland at Newbridge, added: 'The internal view was that ACC was an affiliate and if the circumstances were right it should be sold off.'

Newbridge originally formed an alliance with ACC in October 1992 and increased its stake in the company up until the time it was sold.

According to Hubert Whyte, president and chief executive of ACC, the vendor's 250 employees will move to an IP operation set up within Ericsson which he will head.

He added: 'It will mean ACC can devote technology to the enterprise side of the market.'

Newbridge had previously announced an alliance - the Carrier Scale Internetworking initiative - with 3Com and Siemens Nixdorf, which offered a full set of products to telephone service providers, including ACC technology.

The Ericsson sale means Siemens will be selling rivals' products, but Northedge said ACC had already established a relationship with Siemens before the sell-off.