The former Tellabs facility at Shannon, Co. Clare, which employed 400 people in the area until it closed last September, has been bought by telecoms equipment company Avocent for $6.5m.
The deal will strengthen Avocent’s current presence at Shannon as the Tellabs site is twice the size of the company’s current facility in the region. Avocent is not expected to make full use of the space for some time, as it said that employment numbers would grow by 20 per cent over three years, depending on global market conditions.
Avocent, which sells KVM (keyboard video mouse) switching and network connectivity appliances, generated $260m in sales globally in 2002, of which 35 per cent of these sales were generated through the Shannon facility. It established its current facility in Shannon in 1996.
In its recent financial results, Avocent reported a 15 per cent increase in first quarter sales, accompanied by increased operating income and net income for the first quarter ended March 28, 2003.
The Shannon division of Avocent International is run up by Kieran MacSweeney, and is home to a number of functions, including customer care, international finance, corporate marketing, technical support, and research and development. Customers include the University of Limerick, Dell Computer, EMC and Motorola. The company’s resellers and business partners in Ireland include WestLan Solutions, Enterprise Solutions, Fujitsu Services, DCB Group and Plannet 21.
The chairman, president and CEO of Avocent, John Cooper, said of the acquisition: ‘it is a significant development which further underpins our investments and achievements in Ireland to date’.
30/06/2003
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers