ZyXEL Communications strengthens its appeal to European service providers with acquisition of Sphairon Technologies

ZyXEL Communications, a leading supplier of networking and communications solutions, has signed an agreement to acquire the assets of Sphairon Technologies, one of Europe’s leading specialist developers and manufacturers of customer-premises equipment (CPE) and Enterprise solutions.

Sphairon has produced solutions for many leading service providers in Germany and internationally. Customers of the company include Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefonica, NetCologne and Versatel. With its own integrated research and development capability, Sphairon is able to design solutions to meet the exact need of customers.

The company formally entered Debtor-in-Possession status – an official form of insolvency protection in Germany – in March 2013, with a view to restructuring its finances and potentially seeking an acquirer. ZyXEL has now agreed to purchase the assets of Sphairon’s research and development and operations facility, located in Bautzen, in the Dresden area. Terms of the agreement are not being made public.

The company will now be formally known as Sphairon GmbH (a ZyXEL Company) and will continue to service the needs of its customers with the full support and backing of ZyXEL. The Sphairon operation will subsequently play a key role in helping ZyXEL Communications to understand and to meet the specific needs of service providers in Germany, Austria and other European markets.

Karsten Gewecke, Vice President of Service Provider / Key Account Sales Europe for ZyXEL Communications Europe, stated: "Sphairon has an established pedigree and strong reputation for excellence in product design, innovation and quality manufacturing. This acquisition gives ZyXEL an even stronger presence in the European CPE and SMB market. It will enable us to get a deeper understanding of local customer needs, accelerate product development and time to market, and enhance our ability to meet the needs of service providers throughout Europe and beyond."

ZyXEL Communications Corp.
ZyXEL Communications Corp., founded in 1989, is a world-class networking company providing innovative and reliable Internet solutions. As one of the early modem manufacturers, ZyXEL has gone through transformations in the fast-paced networking industry. Today, ZyXEL is one of the few companies in the world capable of offering complete networking solutions for Telcos, small to medium-sized businesses, and digital home users for a wide range of deployment scenarios. Telco solutions include Central Office Equipments, Customer Premises Equipments, Wired and Wireless Access Network Devices, and Carrier Switches. SMB and Enterprise solutions include Unified Security Gateways, LAN Switches, WLAN, and IP Telephony. Digital Home solutions include Network Connectivity Devices and Multimedia Solutions.