NEWS BRIEFS
Palo Alto, CA — Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced that it made strategic investments in AccessLine Communications Corporation, Manage.Com and ONI Systems Corp., targeting the areas of hosted voice communications, eManagement solutions, and optical telecommunications as key sectors for extending the reach of the Internet.
The three investments are:
— AccessLine Communications Corporation, founded in 1998 and located in Bellevue, Washington, delivers hosted voice communications services, ranging from voicemail and conference bridge services to virtual PBX and fully integrated telephony/web communications services, including customer provisioning and billing. The services are hosted at AccessLine’s nationwide network of communications centers and seamlessly integrated with customers’ existing voice communication systems with 24X7 service and support;
— Manage.Com, founded in 1997 to develop and market eManagement solutions for eBusiness, offers a new class of web-based products that manage eBusiness performance and availability within and across the extended enterprise. Manage.Com’s FrontLine e.M managed services software platform, based on open standards such as Sun’s Java technology and XML, lets service providers and eBusinesses extend management beyond physical enterprise boundaries to reliably deliver managed services to customers, partners, suppliers and employees.
— ONI Systems Corp. (ONI), founded in January of 1998 and based in San Jose, is a provider of optical telecommunications solutions. ONI Systems develops, markets and sells all-optical networking equipment specifically designed to address bandwidth and service limitations of regional and metropolitan networks. Its products allow communications service providers to rapidly build high-capacity networks that are flexible, scalable and able to support multiple services on a single platform.
“A common characteristic of our venture portfolio companies is a business strategy focused on extending and accelerating the adoption, quality and performance of the Internet,” said Brian Sutphin, senior director of the Venture and Strategic Investment Group at Sun. “AccessLine, Manage.Com and ONI Systems are excellent examples of companies extending the breadth, accessibility and manageability of network services on a foundation of scalable, reliable and open systems.”
Since its inception eight months ago, Sun’s venture group has invested in more that 30 companies, with the total amount invested and committed approaching $400 Million. Sun works with leading venture capital firms and investment banks to identify minority investment opportunities in companies fueling the next generation of Internet development. Visit http://www.sun.com for more information.
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