Bay Networks
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Predecessor | |
| Founded | July 1994 |
| Fate | Acquired by Northern Telecom |
| Successor | Nortel Networks |
| Headquarters | |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
| Products | Router Products Technology, Network Management, Remote Access Servers, Internet/Intranet CPE & Applications, Data Over Cable Products, Digital Signal Processing Technology |
| Members | Dave House, Ex-CEO |
| Website | baynetworks.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 1996-10-29) |
Bay Networks, Inc., was a network hardware vendor formed through the merger of Santa Clara, California, based SynOptics Communications and Billerica, Massachusetts based Wellfleet Communications on July 6, 1994. SynOptics was an important early innovator of Ethernet products, having developed a pre-standard twisted pair 10 Mbit/s Ethernet product and a modular Ethernet hub product that dominated the enterprise networking market. Wellfleet was an important competitor to Cisco Systems in the router market, ultimately commanding up to a 20% market share of the network router business worldwide. The combined company was renamed Bay Networks, as SynOptics was based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Wellfleet in Greater Boston, nearby to Massachusetts Bay.