Wide area networking giant Ascend Communications Inc has restructured along the lines it promised back in April, when it acquired telecoms switching specialist Cascade Communications Inc for $3.7bn. Ascend has restructured into four business units, and released an across the board network management package to prove that its products all fall under one umbrella. But Ascend will maintain two distinct sales channels; Ascend’s old channel selling to internet service providers and large corporates, and Cascade’s channel selling to telecommunications carriers. Two business units – end user products and remote access concentration – represent Ascend as it was. Cascade’s core business is represented by a business backbone switching division, headed by the firm’s former chief executive officer, Dan Smith. The fourth division is a crossover switching and routing unit, made up from both Ascend and Cascade products and personnel. The newly launched network management package, NavisXtend, is a combination of Ascend’s recently launched NetClarity package (CI No 3,186) and Cascade’s View/UX. The new package is split into a variety of independent applications. Statistics Server and Customer Network Management Server ship now for $7,875 each. Fault Server and Accounting Server ship now for $10,500 each, and the Report Generator and Standby Server are due to ship by year end for $15,750. Ascend predicts that by the end of the calendar year, the total revenues for the company as a whole will be $1bn, compared with projected revenues for 1997 of $845m for the companies when independent, an increase of 17.6%.
