Bay Networks was a network hardware vendor formed through the merger of

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara (; Spanish for " Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in the Bay Area. Located in the southern Bay Area, the cit ...

based

SynOptics Communications SynOptics Communications was a Santa Clara, California-based early computer network equipment vendor from 1985 until 1994. SynOptics popularized the concept of the modular Ethernet hub and high-speed Ethernet networking over copper twisted-pair a ...

and

Billerica, Massachusetts Billerica (, ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 42,119 according to the 2020 census. It takes its name from the town of Billericay in Essex, England. History In the early 1630s, a Praying Indian ...

based

Wellfleet Communications Wellfleet Communications was an Internet Router (computing), router company founded in 1986 by Paul Severino, Bill Seifert, Steven Willis and David Rowe based in Bedford, Massachusetts, and later Billerica, Massachusetts. In an attempt to more e ...

on July 6, 1994. SynOptics was an important early innovator of

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

products, having developed a pre-standard twisted pair 10Mbit/s Ethernet product and a modular Ethernet hub product that dominated the enterprise networking market. Wellfleet was an important competitor to

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

in the router market, ultimately commanding up to a 20% market share of the network router business worldwide. The combined company was renamed Bay Networks as a nod to the legacy that SynOptics was based in the San Francisco area and Wellfleet was based in the Boston area, two cities well known for their bays.

Logo

File:BayNetworks.jpg, 1994–1998

Acquisitions

Bay Networks expanded its product line both through internal development and acquisition, acquiring the following companies during the course of its existence: * Centillion Networks, Inc. (May, 1995) - Provided

Asynchronous Transfer Mode Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a telecommunications standard defined by American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and ITU-T (formerly CCITT) for digital transmission of multiple types of traffic. ATM was developed to meet the needs of ...

switching and

Token Ring Token Ring network IBM hermaphroditic connector with locking clip. Screen contacts are prominently visible, gold-plated signal contacts less so. Token Ring is a computer networking technology used to build local area networks. It was introduc ...

technology. * Xylogics, Inc. (December, 1995) - Remote access technologies. * Performance Technology (March, 1996) - LAN-to-WAN access technology. * ARMON Networking, Ltd. (April, 1996) - RMON and RMON2 network management technology. * LANcity Corporation (October, 1996) - Cable modem technology. *

Penril Datability Networks Penril DataComm Networks, Inc. was a computer telecommunications hardware company that made some acquisitions and was eventually split into two parts: one was acquired by Bay Networks and the other was a newly formed company named Access Beyond. ...

(November, 1996) - Dial-up modems and remote access products based on Digital Signal Processing technology. * NetICs, Inc. (December, 1996) - ASIC-based Fast Ethernet switching technology. * ISOTRO Network Management, Inc. (April, 1997) - DNS and DHCP technologies. * Rapid City Communications (June, 1997) - Gigabit Ethernet switching and routing technology. * New Oak Communications (January, 1998) - Provided VPN technology to Bay Networks product line. * Netsation Corp. (February, 1998) - Technology was used to augment Bay Networks Optivity network management system. * NetServe GmbH (July, 1998) - VoIPX technology

Acquisition by Nortel

Bay Networks was acquired by

Northern Telecom Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

in June 1998 for

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

9.1 billion, broadening Nortel's reach from its traditional carrier customer base into enterprise data networking. Reflective of this expanded product set and market, Nortel renamed itself Nortel Networks after the merger. In December 2009, as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, Nortel sold its Enterprise Networking equipment and software business to

Avaya Avaya Holdings Corp., often shortened to Avaya (), is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, that provides cloud communications and workstream collaboration services. The company's platform includ ...

. The sale included a few remaining Bay Networks products that were still active in

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, ...

's portfolio at the time of the sale, such as the Ethernet Switch 450 and Backbone Concentrator Node (BCN) router. The Bay Networks product

Small office/home office Small office/home office (or single office/home office; sometimes short SOHO) refers to the category of business or cottage industry that involves from 1 to 10 workers. In New Zealand, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) ...

line survives to this day as the Netgear products that are widely sold by electronics retailers. Example products include Gigabit Ethernet switches, cable modems, print servers, and similar inexpensive, consumer-oriented networking equipment. Bay Networks had originally launched Netgear as a product line/division in January 1996, but the product line was not core to the newly formed Nortel Networks operations and so was spun out as a standalone company in September 1999.

References

{{Authority control Defunct networking companies Nortel Netgear Companies based in Santa Clara, California Companies based in Billerica, Massachusetts