Dell to acquire Force10 Networks datacenter networking firm

Dell has signed an agreement to acquire Force10 Networks Inc., in a move intended to enhance Dell’s datacenter product portfolio with Force10 high-performance datacenter networking offerings.

Dell also, over the past three years, has expanded its enterprise portfolio with an integrated stack of server, storage, networking, and services resources designed to help customers streamline operations, reduce IT costs, manage data growth, and simplify management.

Force10 is a nearly $200-million company, with approximately 80 percent of its business in North America and operating in more than 60 countries worldwide. Force10’s Open Cloud Networking is based on open standards, automation, and virtualization.

Dell is committed to maintaining and growing Force10’s channel program. Force10’s customers include Web 2.0 and Fortune 100 companies, Internet portals, global carriers, research laboratories, and government organizations with demanding network environments. Dell and Force10 have enjoyed a partnership for more than six years, providing datacenter customers with open networking systems.

Dell’s intelligent infrastructure management vision enables orchestration of the underlying server, storage, and network resources in an open fashion, agnostic of whether they are physical or virtual, local, or remote, or Dell or ecosystem-provided, says a spokesperson.

Force10 was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with research and development operations based in Silicon Valley. Dell also plans to keep Force10’s existing operations in Chennai, India as it continues to invest in additional engineering and sales capability to grow this business.

The transaction was approved by the board of directors of each company. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction remains subject to customary conditions and is expected to close in late summer.