| Unisphere Networks | |
| Foundation: | 1999 |
| Location Country: | United States |
| Products: | Network security, Workstations and Microprocessors |
| Homepage: | www.unispherenetworks.com (archived) |
| Fate: | Acquired |
Unisphere Networks (formally Unisphere Solutions) was a Westford, Massachusetts-based networking equipment manufacturer and subsidiary of German corporation Siemens AG. Formed in 1998 at a cost of roughly US$1 billion, Unisphere was later sold to Juniper Networks in May 2002 for between $585 million and $740 million, as $375 million in cash and 36.5 million shares of Juniper stock.
Long known for their expertise in the circuit-switched realm of public-switched telephone networks (or PSTNs), Siemens embarked on a market strategy that held, as a primary goal, entry into the North American packet-switched market arena. Unisphere Solutions (changed to Unisphere Networks in late 2000) was an essential element of this strategy as it leveraged existing technology in, at the time, three critical and growing areas of the Internet: edge-networking/BRAS, voice mediation, and core routing.
Following the acquisition of Redstone Communications, CEO and founder James Dolce, joined the Unisphere management team and for a time reported to then Unisphere CEO Martin C. Clague. Dolce replaced Clague in January 2000 when the former was appointed as Unisphere's president and CEO.[1]
The following acquisitions made up the majority of Unisphere and were distinct BUs within the new company:
Two groups within Siemens Information Communication Networks were added to the above acquisitions to complete Unisphere Networks:
Despite the tech bubble pop in April 2001, Unisphere did plan to launch their IPO in the 2002 timeframe. However, as management waited for favorable IPO conditions, the above-mentioned purchase by Juniper dashed any IPO plans.
The only products (original or evolved) still in production are Juniper's SRC product line (formerly the SDX-3000), Nokia Corporation softswitch application Servers hiQ8000 and hiQ4200 respectively, and Unify's OpenScape line (formerly the SRX-3000 and HiPath 8000). Juniper's ERX line was available for about 12 years after acquisition until it reached EOL (end-of-life) in 2014 with EOS (end-of-support) scheduled in the 2019 timeframe.