Beautifully engraved certificate from Bay Networks issued in 1998. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has a vignette of the Bay Networks company logo. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President and Secretary.
Certificate Vignette On Jun. 15, 1998, Northern Telecom Ltd. (NT) agreed to buy Bay Networks Inc. (BAY) for US$9.1 billion in stock. Under terms of the transaction, Northern Telecom swaped 0.6 shares for each Bay share outstanding. Based on Nortel's closing price of $63.69 at the tiome of the transaction, Nortel would be paying $38.21 a share, a 35 percent premium. Nortel had been chasing a Bay Networks deal for several months, analysts said. Bay's stock had risen substantially in recent weeks on expectation of a buyout, either by Nortel or another telecom-equipment maker. Bay Networks was one of the Big Four data communications companies that include Cisco Systems, Cabletron, and 3com. Bay Networks is a leader in the global Internet-working market, and provides a complete line of products that serve corporate enterprises, service providers and telecommunications carriers. The company offered frame, and ATM switches, routers, shared media, remote and Internet access solutions, IP services and networking management applications. Bay Networks also designs highly scalable and flexible Internet-working solutions that provide a smooth migration for customers to move to the advanced IP-optimized networks of the future without a wholesale replacement of existing network equipment. Before being acquired by Nortel, Bay Networks made several acquisitions . In October 1994, SynOptics Communications, and Wellfleet Communications, effected a strategic combination of the two companies through the merger of a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wellfleet into SynOptics. At that point, the Company changed its name to Bay Networks Inc. Below is a history of Bay's acquisitions. Netsation Corp. / Acquired February, 1998 --A leader in multi-vendor network management, Netsation Corp. will enhance Bay Networks' market-leading Optivity network management system with its award-winning Network Configurator tool. New Oak Communications / Acquired January, 1998 --The acquisition of New Oak Communications, a technology leader in Extranet Access, provides Bay Networks with the broadest and most comprehensive Extranet and VPN solutions. Rapid City Communications / Acquired June, 1997 --As an early innovator in Gigabit Ethernet and routing switch technologies, Rapid City Communications strengthened Bay Networks' switching solutions to meet the demand for high-speed enterprise networks. ISOTRO Network Management, Inc. / Acquired April, 1997 --A leading provider of DNS/DHCP technology, ISOTRO enhanced Bay Networks' IP service offerings by providing the framework for the Bay Networks IP Services Platform. NetICs, Inc. / Acquired December, 1996 -- The acquisition of NetICs strengthened Bay Networks' switching solutions with high-performance, autosensing Fast Ethernet switches based on innovative ASIC technology. Penril Datability Networks / Acquired November, 1996 -- AThe acquisition of the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) modem business of Penril Datability Networks, the data communications division of Penril Datacomm, Inc. and a leading provider of advanced DSP-based modems and remote access products, expanded Bay Networks' remote access leadership with integrated, all-digital DSP modem technology targeted for the growing service provider and enterprise remote access markets. LANcity® Corporation / Acquired October, 1996 -- A pioneer of cable TV modem technology, LANcity extended Bay Networks' open-architecture internetworking solutions to the cable TV industry. ARMON Networking, Ltd. / Acquired April, 1996 -- ARMON enhanced Bay Networks' already strong position in RMON and RMON2 technology for network management. Performance Technology / Acquired March, 1996 -- A leader in LAN-to-Internet access, Performance Technology supports Bay Networks' goal of providing WAN access solutions for a wide range of organizations. Xylogics,® Inc. / Acquired December, 1995 -- By acquiring Xylogics, Bay Networks immediately attained the leading position in the emerging remote access market. Centillion™ Networks, Inc. / Acquired May, 1995 -- The acquisition of Centillion Networks contributed to Bay Networks' strength in Token Ring and ATM switching. SynOptics Communications,® Inc. and Wellfleet Communications,® Inc. / Merged October, 1994 -- The merger of SynOptics and Wellfleet formed Bay Networks, Inc.