Nortel has picked up Tasman Networks in a bid to boost the performance of its networking gear to better handle bulkier data loads.

Nortel will pay $100m for the San Jose-based Tasman, which has been in business since 1997. The deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2006, gives Nortel a maker of high-performance routers. In particular, Tasman likes to claim that its gear outperforms hardware from Cisco and Adtran.

"We anticipate that the Tasman products will complement our enterprise infrastructure solutions and further our ability to provide seamless, feature-rich networks that support critical real-time applications - including voice, video, and streaming multimedia applications," said Steve Slattery, president of enterprise products at Nortel.

Tasman's products will be slotted into Nortel's Secure Router line that targets SMBs and branch offices.

You can find more information on Tasman's performance claims here. ®

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