|
Press Release
Laurel Networks Closes $20 Million Third
Round of Funding;
Signs Reseller Agreement with Primary Investor CIENA
September 10, 2003 - Pittsburgh, PA —
Laurel Networks, Inc., the first provider
of high-performance service edge routers, today announced that it
has closed a $20 million third round of funding, bringing total
investment in the company to $102.3 million. The new participant
in the third round is primary investor CIENA® Corporation (NASDAQ:
CIEN). This fund raising is inclusive of funds raised under a separate
transaction between Optovation Corporation and Laurel Networks.
Existing investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Trinity Ventures
and Worldview Technology Partners also participated in this latest
round of funding.
In addition to CIENA's investment in Laurel, the companies also
jointly announced that they have entered into a worldwide reseller
agreement that gives CIENA the ability to market, sell and support
Laurel's ST200™ Service Edge Router to service providers across
the globe. (See today's press
release: CIENA Signs Reseller Agreement with Laurel Networks).
"Laurel's ST200 Service Edge Router uniquely
supports applications experiencing growth in key global markets,
such as IP VPNs and next-generation broadband deployment,"
said Jim Collier, CIENA's senior vice president, corporate development.
"Their IP edge capabilities provide a significant complementary
addition to our growing LightWorks™ portfolio, further expanding
our ability to support efficiency and profitability for new and
existing services on carrier networks."
"This is a key milestone for Laurel. We have a leading product,
a growing list of customers and now the further investment and
strategic partnerships required to rapidly grow our market presence
in the service edge router market category we created," said
Atul Bansal, president and CEO of Laurel Networks. "This
latest round of funding coupled with our global reseller and support
agreement with CIENA puts us in a strong position to further expand
our global sales, support and manufacturing presence."
About the ST200 Service
Edge Router
The flagship product of Laurel Networks, the ST200
Service Edge Router is the only router designed from the ground
up with the features required at the edge of a service provider
IP/MPLS backbone. The ST200 combines Internet-class routing, complete
multi-service support, integrated service management and unprecedented
architecture flexibility to support current and evolving service
provider requirements - all at wire speed.
About Laurel Networks
Laurel Networks is leading the
creation of The New Service Delivery Architecture to enable profitable
delivery of data and IP services at the edge of carrier IP/MPLS
networks. Laurel's service edge routers and service management
software are evolving carrier architectures from multiple data
networks to a single packet-switched architecture with minimal
capital investment. Combining carrier-class routing, data switching,
advanced QoS and high availability, Laurel service edge routers
support both routed and switched services. This unmatched service
agility allows carriers to evolve their service portfolio to meet
changing market requirements. Laurel Networks was founded in 1999
and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For more information,
visit www.laurelnetworks.com.
About CIENA
CIENA Corporation delivers innovative network solutions to the
world's largest service providers, increasing the cost-efficiency
of current services while enabling the creation of new carrier-class
data services built upon the existing network infrastructure.
Additional information about CIENA can be found at www.ciena.com.
|
|
