Kagoor Buy Gives Juniper VoIP Smarts

Router vendor Juniper Networks Inc. said Tuesday it would acquire Kagoor Networks for $67.5 million, a purchase that adds Voice over IP smarts to Juniper's portfolio of service-provider oriented products.

The San Mateo-based Kagoor sells the VoiceFlow session border controler (SBC) family of hardware products. SBCs are devices that optimize voice-based traffic over an IP network, and can ensure secure connections between carriers, as well as between service providers and customers. Competitors in the still-nascent field include NexTone Communications, Jasomi Networks, Veraz Networks, Netrake Corp. and Sonus Networks.

"With Kagoor, Juniper gains best-in-class SBC technology and an acknowledged center of excellence invoice," said Kittu Kolluri, general manager of Juniper's security products group, in a statement announcing the deal. Juniper also said that Kagoor's technology would help advance the company's Infranet Initiative, a coalition of companies seeking to develop advanced communications standards for service provider networks.

Kagoor, which also has research labs in Israel, will be acquired with a combination of cash, "plus options and certain other incentives and equity compensation," according to Juniper.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2005, Juniper said. Kagoor, which claims to have more than 100 service-provider customers for its products, had less than $5 million in 2004 revenue, according to Juniper.