Tiny communications systems companies command very fancy prices indeed these days, and Fore Systems Inc, the Warrendale, Pennsylvania company that is one of the market leaders in Asynchronous Transfer Mode equipment, has paid about $150m in shares for Cadia Networks Inc of Andover, Massachusetts. Fore says that to date, many of its customers have been individual corporate entities that generally seek local access network switching to give local users access to a corporate-information highway. Cadia’s technology will make ATM adaptable to Internet service providers, Fore says, enabling it to achieve the twin aims of reaching new customers and speeding acceptance of ATM fast packet-switching. Cadia, which has 27 employees, was formed only last March but Fore plans a complete line of products using Cadia’s technology late this year.
