Ascend Communications Inc, Alameda, California is to buy highspeed Ethernet and Asynchronous Transfer Mode network switching products developer Whitetree Inc for about 1.1 million new shares, valuing the transaction at about $68.2m. Ascend reckons that Whitetree has clearly established itself as a leader in building local and wide area network Gigabits per second switching technology, and has expertise in cell switching and ASIC development. Ascend also announced that it has completed acquisition of InterCon Systems Corp, a developer of client software for the corporate and Internet access provider markets and a former subsidiary of PSINet Inc, paying $12m and assuming about $9m liabilities. The acquisitions will require unspecified onetime charges against operating profit this quarter.