Tandberg Acquires Ridgeway
May 28, 2004 6:00 AM
Tandberg (www.tandberg.net) has acquired Ridgeway Systems and Software, a privately held company based in Reading, United Kingdom. Ridgeway is a provider of multiboundary traversal solutions for end-to-end Internet protocol (IP) video and voice communication. Terms of the acquisition include $16 million to purchase the company and certain other assets.
Ridgeway’s firewall technology enables ubiquitous IP video and voice communication between any and all IP endpoints by addressing obstacles traditionally associated with firewalls and network address translation.
Ridgeway’s IPFreedom technology will be integrated into Tandberg video endpoints, enabling video callers to transparently connect to other IP networks in a secure and cost-effective way.
“The acquisition of Ridgeway strengthens Tandberg’s leadership position in IP video communication and will accelerate the adoption of video over IP. The majority of video communication over IP takes place within an enterprise, vertical, or government organization, and now it can take place between these organizations,” says Andrew Miller, Tandberg’s chief executive officer. “Enabling secure, cost-effective external visual communication is a major step in removing the barriers around video over IP. Fifty percent of all video calls are projected to be over IP by 2005, and this technology will be a key driver in achieving that growth.”
Tandberg will begin offering IP-video solutions integrated with Ridgeway’s firewall traversal technology in 2005. These solutions will be sold through existing Tandberg channels.
Ridgeway employs six engineers, who will remain with the company following the acquisition.
