Alcatel-Lucent acquires NetDevices

has announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held

, a developer of services gateway products for enterprise branch networks, based in

.

According to Alcatel-Lucent, NetDevices delivers an enterprise networking platform called Unified Service Gateway, which is designed to reduce the cost and complexity of managing branch office networks. NetDevices was founded in 2003 and has 45 employees located in Sunnyvale and Bangalore, India.

‘Enterprises are quickly evolving to a converged communications infrastructure of data, voice, and security services running with high reliability and serviceability,’ said Hubert de Pesquidoux, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s enterprise activities. ‘Traditional architectures lack the flexibility and programmability to deploy these new converged infrastructures in a cost-effective way. A fresh approach based on the innovative enterprise platform from NetDevices combined with our core strengths of voice and switching helps to deliver best in class enterprise networks.’

Upon close of the transaction, the NetDevices team and products will be integrated into Alcatel-Lucent’s Enterprise Business Group, reporting into Tom Burns, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s Enterprise Solutions activities.

The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions, including applicable regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the second quarter of Alcatel-Lucent’s fiscal year 2007. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.