VoIP Gateways

Excel Switching Corp. reeled in Brooktrout, Inc. after Brooktrout shareholders voted yesterday to adopt a merger agreement proposed in August.

EAS Group, Inc. the privately held parent of Excel Switching Corp. acquired Brooktrout after holders of 74% of Brooktrout common stock approved the merger agreement. This announcement comes on the heels of an August 18, 2005 agreement under which EAS Group agreed to pay $13.05 in cash for each outstanding share of Brooktrout common stock. The estimated cost is expected to be $173 million. Both Massachusetts companies expect to complete the transaction on Monday, October 24.

Brooktrout, a leading provider of innovative hardware and software platforms that enable applications for the New NetworkTM – a Network spawned from the marriage of telephone and data networks was founded in 1984 and has 295 employees.

Excel Switching Corp, founded in 1988 is a leading provider of carrier-class media gateways, media servers, signaling gateways, and enhanced service platforms for original equipment manufacturers. By purchasing Brooktrout, Excel hopes to broaden their portfolio of equipment. The company has 170 employees.

The merger of Brooktrout and Excel Switching are expected to create a leading company for enabling technologies for both traditional and next-generation communication networks. Excel Switching considers the acquisition to be a big catch leading to new applications, enhanced services and cost effective solutions for migrating to and leveraging new IP architectures. Brooktrout’s reputation and expertise in media processing, call control, signal processing and fax communications combined will Excel’s multi-protocol open-services gateway and server technology will offer cutting edge technology and one-stop shopping to their customers.

Marc Zionts, CEO of Excel said the merger will help Excel create “one of the largest, broadest, and deepest enabling technology product lines in the communications equipment industry. Together, Excel Switching and Brooktrout will be better able to address customers’ needs, providing them with a wide variety of choice from a single, world-class vendor. Our increased scale will hasten the development of new features and platforms and better serve the efforts of our partners to quickly and efficiently bring new products and services to market.”

Zionts will serve as CEO of both Brooktrout and Excel.

Brooktrout, Inc. is a gold sponsor and exhibitor in this fall’s INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & Expo, which runs October 24-27, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Be sure to catch the debut of the Service Provider Summit at this fall’s INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & Expo, which runs October 24-27, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, focusing on key issues number portability, ENUM, QoS, next-generation OSS and much more.

You can find more information about the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & Expo by visiting http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/