Cambrian Systems Corporation of Kanata, Ont. was a DWDM Metro equipment systems company, that was one of Terry Mathews Newbridge Networks affiliate companies. It became a formal Newbridge Networks affiliate on Monday March 17th 1997. It was acquired by Nortel Networks on Dec.12th 1998.
The acquisition press announcement from www.cbc.ca of Dec. 10, 1998 stated:
"Nortel says Cambrian's high-speed Internet technology will be a good fit with future projects.
Nortel will pay up to US $300 million (CAD $460 million) in cash for Cambrian, one of Newbridge Networks Corp.'s best-regarded affiliates.
Nortel hopes Cambrian will make big gains in metropolitan area networks, which are the links between telephone company switching offices, Internet service providers and corporate computer networks. That market has high potential in Europe because of its dense populations.
Nortel, which does very well in the long-distance equipment market, admits it has a weakness in the metropolitan field.
John Roth, Nortel's chief executive, said it had originally looked into developing the technology themselves but decided it would be faster and easier to buy it.
Newbridge owns 40 per cent of Cambrian, while another 20 per cent is owned by Newbridge's founder, Terry Matthews. "*
* http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/nortel-buys-cambrian-systems-1.161709
