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Avocent Corporation

Type	Public
Founded	2000
Headquarters	Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.A.
Products	KVM switches, Serial Consoles, IT infrastructure products
Revenue	▲$657 Million (2008)
Employees	1,971 (2008)
Website	www.avocent.com

Avocent Corporation (NASDAQ: AVCT) is an information technology products manufacturer headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama. Avocent was formed in 2000 from the merger of the world’s two largest KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) switch manufacturers: Apex and Cybex Computer Products Corporation. As of August 2006, the company employs more than 1,800 people worldwide.

On October 6, 2009, it was announced that Emerson Electric would buy Avocent for $1.2 billion USD. The tender was finalized on December 11 to become Avocent part of Emerson Network Power, division of Emerson Electric.

Product Ranges

Avocent focuses on out of band infrastructure management solutions within 8 major fields:

• Server Management
• Power Management
• Service Processor Management
• Console Server and KVM Management
• Desktop Management
• ITIL market
• IT Service Management
• Service Desk

The evolution of Avocent's product development can be divided into three eras: (1) The growth of the analog KVM switch paralleling the growth of server architecture in the data center; (2) The growth of the digital KVM switch enabling the remote control of geographically dispersed data centers; and (3) The diversification and “management” phase (revolving around the acquisition of LANDesk and Touchpaper software and the capabilities it brings).

Acquisitions

Avocent's history of acquisitions includes:

• 2001 - Equinox Systems, the makers of various serial communications devices.
• 2002 - 2C Computing, who focused on PCI-bus extension, suitable to remotely connect office users to datacenter-housed PCs.
• 2003 - Soronti, Inc., makers of KVM over IP technology.
• 2004 - Crystal Link Technologies, OSA Technologies, Inc.^[1], and Sonic Mobility, Inc.
• 2006 - Cyclades Corporation and LANDesk Software.
• 2008 - 1 July 2008, acquired Touchpaper Software, to further bolster the companies vision of covering all aspects from the data center to the desktop as well IT services and merge within its LANDesk division. Also acquired Ergo 2000, an LCD rack-based console maker.

References