SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Lucent Technologies Inc. outbid L.M. Ericsson in the auction of Ethernet developer Riverstone Networks Inc.’s business. Riverstone said Lucent’s final bid was $207 million in cash along with certain modifications to the Asset Purchase Agreement originally signed by the two companies in early February.
At that time, Lucent offered to pay $170 million for Riverstone’s assets. About one month later, Ericsson submitted a competing offer of $178 million for Riverstone.
Under Lucent’s proposal, most of Riverstone’s employees are expected to join Lucent in its Multimedia Network Solutions business. The two companies previously had cooperated on delivering carrier-grade Ethernet routers to service providers.
“Riverstone’s people and products will play an important role in advancing Lucent’s end-to-end converged Ethernet/optical solutions and helping us in our efforts to take share of a growing carrier Ethernet market,” stated Ken Wirth, president of Multimedia Network Solutions at Lucent.
Terms of the agreement are subject to final approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which is scheduled for March 23, 2006. Lucent and Riverstone said they expect the transaction to close in early April.
