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Sumitomo Reaches Deal With Packet Distribution Accord Could Be Worth Millions For Spokane Firm

Luke Timmerman Staff writer

Packet Engines Inc. announced a deal Tuesday to distribute its high-speed ethernet hubs and network interface cards which could be worth millions.

Company officials said the deal with Sumitomo Electric Industries will make a significant impact on the Asian market for networking devices.

“The distribution of our product is really starting to roll forward,” said Bernard Daines, Packet Engines’ president and CEO.

Sumitomo will purchase Packet Engines’ hubs and network interface cards and put their own company labels on them. It will distribute the products through its existing contacts, and provide front-line customer support, backed by Packet Engines.

The deal does not include Packet Engines’ corporate jewel, the PE-4884 gigabit routing switch, but it may in the near future, Daines said. Christened the “Big Boy” at a trade show last October, the switch costs $50,000 to $80,000 and can transfer data at speeds 10 times faster than now possible.

Hubs such as those being sold to Sumitomo typically retail for $10,000 or less, while the network interface cards sell for $1,000, Daines said.

Sumitomo has an estimated 12 to 15 percent of the Asian local area network market, said Lee Runion, director of original equipment manufacturing.

“We will now be able to provide our enterprise customers leading edge gigabit ethernet solutions via Packet Engines’ market-tested and proven hubs and NIC’s (interface cards),” said Kent Tsuno, a spokesman for Sumitomo.

The two companies have had a deal since May 1997 in which Sumitomo uses media access controllers built by Packet Engines. Those devices can transmit simple data such as text at speeds of 10 megabits per second, or more dense audiovisual material at 1,000 megabits per second.

Packet Engines also recently announced a similar deal with Hirschmann Network Systems of Germany, the leading European provider of local and wide area network equipment. In that agreement, Hirschmann will market and sell the PE-4884 switches, plus hubs and network interface cards.

Hirschmann will also market the devices using Packet Engines’ trademarked product names, rather than using their company labels.

Packet Engines is a privately held company founded by Daines in 1994.

, DataTimes