Sytek Inc, the Mountain View broadband local area network designer that was nearly consigned to oblivion by IBM’s decision to terminate its OEM contract two years after it adopted the Sytek LocalNet as the preferred local network for the AT, has found a safe haven in the arms of General Motors Corp’s Hughes Aircraft Co. It has definit ively agreed to be acquired by Hugh es, and will become Hughes LAN Sys tems, reporting to Hughes Network Systems, which is in the wide area networking business, doing very small aperture satellite and X25 packet switched communications syst ems. Hughes sees the acquisition – on undisclosed terms – of Sytek as enabling it to offer enterprise wide networks carring speech, data and video for large organisations. As well as its broadband network – der ived from cable television technolo gy, Sytek does Ethernet, twisted pair and fibre optic boards and equipment, and it now claims an installed base of more than 2,000 networks connecting over 450,000 devices. The controlling sharehold er in privately-held Sytek has until now been General Instrument Corp.
