Aastra Technologies Limited, formerly headquartered in Concord, Ontario, Canada, made products and systems for accessing communication networks, including the Internet. Its products included residential and business telephone terminals, screen telephones, Enterprise private branch exchanges (PBX), network access terminals and high-quality digital video encoders, decoders and gateways. Residential telephone equipment was sold in the United States as Bell equipment by Sonecor brand, which represented Southern New England Telecommunications.
 | |
| Company type | Public company |
|---|---|
| TSX: AAH | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Defunct | 2014 |
| Fate | Acquired by Mitel Networks Corporation |
| Headquarters | Concord, Ontario, Canada |
Key people | Francis Shen, Chairman & Co-CEO Anthony Shen, Co-CEO, President, & COO |
| Revenue |  $834 million CAD (2009) [1] |
| $45 million CAD (2009) [1] | |
Number of employees | 1,690 (2008)[2] |
| Website | www |
Mitel Networks Corporation announced on November 11, 2013, that it would acquire Aastra Technologies Ltd. in a stock and cash deal valued at about $400 million.[3]
History
editIn 1983, Francis Shen and Hugh Scholaert bought an engineering consulting company, founding Aastra in Toronto in 1983. The company provided services to the defense industry. In 1993, the company started to specialise in telecommunications.[4] Aastra went public in Canada in 1996.
In 2000, Aastra acquired the assets of Nortel Networks Access Solutions Division including the rights to manufacture phones under the Nortel name.[citation needed] Then, in 2001, Aastra acquired Lucent Technologies' Digital Video business[5] and Ericsson Cable Modem. Aastra acquired Nortel CVX & CSG Division in 2002 and the ASCOM PBX System Division in 2003.
In 2005, 75% of Aastra Technologies' sales were made in Europe, following the purchase that year of the Germany-based the EADS Enterprise Telephony Business and the DeTeWe Telecommunication Systems business. Its other sales shares that year included 17% in the United States, and only 5% in Canada.[1]
In 2008, Aastra acquired the enterprise PBX division of Ericsson,[6][7] best known for MD110/MX-ONE Telephony Switch.
In January 2014, Mitel completed its acquisition of Aastra, which has been announced in November 2013.[8] Mitel lists the fate of former Aastra products on its website.[9]
Awards
editIn 2008, Aastra received Internet Telephony's Best of Show Award for 2007 for Best Large Enterprise Solution.[10]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c "Aastra quarterly reports". Archived from the original on December 2, 2010.
- ^ "Company Profile for Aastra Technologies Limited (CA;AAH)". Zenobank. Retrieved October 6, 2008.
- ^ "Mitel buys Aastra in $400M telecom merger". CBC News. November 11, 2013. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
- ^ Oviedo, Dorota (October 12, 2009). "Unified Communications Industry Consolidation – Lessons Learned from Ericsson Acquisition". Frost & Sullivan. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
- ^ "Lucent Sells Video to Aastra". Light Reading. September 28, 2001. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2021.
- ^ "Aastra Technologies to acquire Ericsson's Enterprise Communication Business" (Press release). Aastra. February 18, 2008. Archived from the original on July 4, 2014. Retrieved February 18, 2008.
- ^ "Ericsson to divest its enterprise PBX solutions to Aastra Technologies" (Press release). Ericsson. February 18, 2008. Archived from the original on December 20, 2008. Retrieved November 7, 2008.
- ^ "Mitel Networks buys Aastra Technologies in friendly takeover deal to create bigger high-tech player" (Press release). Aastra. November 11, 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
- ^ "What happened to Aastra's products?". Mitel. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
- ^ Grigonis, Richard (March 2008). "2008 Internet Telephony Best of Show Awards". Internet Telephony. Retrieved January 21, 2009.