[August 17, 2001]
TranSwitch Corporation Announces Agreement To
Acquire Onex Communications Corporation
TranSwitch Corporation (NASDAQ:TXCC)
announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire
privately held Onex Communications Corporation, which specializes in the
development of integrated circuits that enable switching, routing and
transmission of multiple types of voice and data traffic.
Onex's System Silicon solution is able to aggregate, groom, switch and
provision legacy TDM and next generation voice and data traffic over
metropolitan access and transmission networks.
The transaction has a total value of approximately $89 million. The
consideration for the non-TranSwitch interest in Onex will consist of $20
million in cash and approximately 6 million shares of TranSwitch common
stock, valued at approximately $55 million based on yesterday's closing
price. The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter
ending September 30, 2001, subject to customary closing conditions and
requisite regulatory approvals.
The transaction, which will be accounted for as a purchase, is expected
to be dilutive to TranSwitch's earnings per share on a pro-forma basis by
approximately $0.03 - $0.05 per share in the fourth quarter of 2001. Onex,
based in Bedford, Massachusetts, will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary
of TranSwitch.
Onex was founded with TranSwitch technology and TranSwitch was an
original investor in Onex. Other investors include IBM, St. Paul Ventures,
Signal Lake Venture Fund, Star Ventures, TSF Entrepreneurial Roundtable,
and Venrock Associates. TranSwitch has additionally incubated and
partnered with several start-ups with promising technology. These
partnerships are designed to give TranSwitch access to products and
technologies that are complementary to TranSwitch's own product portfolio.
TranSwitch will continue to evaluate acquisitions of strong
entrepreneurial companies that will extend the depth and the breadth of
its product line, intellectual property portfolio and market
opportunities.
"With this acquisition, TranSwitch will be able to offer a
complete range of products and solutions targeted towards the metropolitan
access market, which is estimated to grow in size to exceed $7 billion in
system sales by 2005," stated Dr. Santanu Das, President and Chairman
of the Board of Directors of TranSwitch Corporation. "We are excited
to welcome Onex to our team and look forward to capitalizing on their
technology and resources to further enhance our product offerings in this
market space. In particular, the System Silicon solution approach
developed by Onex, we believe, will set a new standard for the value
proposition offered by semiconductor suppliers. This approach will
simplify the development and integration efforts of system OEMs and
accelerate their time-to-market," concluded Dr. Das.
Onex's high-speed switching, routing, and grooming technology will
seamlessly integrate into the TranSwitch product line. The combined
product portfolio will further enable development of cost effective system
architectures that address both service flexibility and increased
bandwidth requirements of the next generation networks.
Onex vice president of marketing, Paul DeBeasi, said, "TranSwitch's
market presence and its complementary technology will provide us with the
opportunity to fully capitalize on the market potential of our solution in
the metropolitan space. We are excited at the opportunity to further
develop our technology as part of the TranSwitch team."
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