Aastra Technologies Limited, formerly headquartered in

Concord, Ontario Concord is a suburban industrial district in the City of Vaughan in York Region, located north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. According to the 2001 Census, Concord has 8,255 residents. It is accessed by two provincial highways: Highway 407 a ...

, Canada, made products and systems for accessing communication networks, including the Internet. Its products included residential and business telephone terminals, screen telephones, Enterprise private branch exchanges (PBX), network access terminals and high-quality digital video encoders, decoders and gateways. Residential telephone equipment was sold in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

as Bell equipment by Sonecor brand, which represented

Southern New England Telecommunications Southern New England Telecommunications Corporation (SNET) started operations in 1986 as the holding company for The Southern New England Telephone Company. Prior to 1986, The Southern New England Telephone Company had been a minority holding of ...

Mitel Networks Corporation Mitel Networks Corporation is a Canadian telecommunications company. The company previously produced TDM PBX systems and applications, but after a change in ownership in 2001, now focuses almost entirely on Voice-over-IP (VoIP) products. Mitel ...

announced on November 11, 2013, that it would acquire Aastra Technologies Ltd. in a stock and cash deal valued at about $400 million.

History

In 1983, Francis Shen and Hugh Scholaert bought an engineering consulting company, founding Aastra in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

in 1983. The company provided services to the defense industry. In 1993, the company started to specialise in telecommunications. Aastra went public in Canada in 1996. In 2000, Aastra acquired the assets of Nortel Networks Access Solutions Division including the rights to manufacture phones under the

Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in Montreal, Quebec, ...

name. Then, in 2001, Aastra acquired Lucent Technologies' Digital Video business and Ericsson Cable Modem. Aastra acquired Nortel CVX & CSG Division in 2002 and the ASCOM PBX System Division in 2003. In 2005, 75% of Aastra Technologies' sales were made in Europe, following the purchase that year of the Germany-based the EADS Enterprise Telephony Business and the DeTeWe Telecommunication Systems business. Its other sales shares that year included 17% in the United States, and only 5% in Canada. In 2008, Aastra acquired the enterprise PBX division of

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...

, best known for MD110/MX-ONE Telephony Switch. In January 2014,

Mitel Mitel Networks Corporation is a Canadian telecommunications company. The company previously produced TDM PBX systems and applications, but after a change in ownership in 2001, now focuses almost entirely on Voice-over-IP (VoIP) products. Mitel ...

completed its acquisition of Aastra, which has been announced in November 2013. Mitel lists the fate of former Aastra products on its website.

Awards

In 2008, Aastra received Internet Telephony's Best of Show Award for 2007 for Best Large Enterprise Solution.

References

External links

Aastra Corporate
{{Telecommunications Companies formerly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Canadian companies established in 1983 Telecommunications companies established in 1983 1983 establishments in Ontario Telecommunications companies of Canada Electronics companies of Canada Companies based in Vaughan VoIP companies of Canada Teleconferencing 1996 initial public offerings 2014 mergers and acquisitions Telecommunications companies disestablished in 2014 2014 disestablishments in Ontario

History

Awards

See also

References

External links