Extreme Networks, Inc. has announced that it has completed its acquisition of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.'s data center switching, routing, and analytics business. Brocade's portfolio provides Extreme with an industry leading data center solution used by enterprises and service providers, supports the company's growth strategy to lead the networking industry from the data center to the wireless edge, and secures Extreme's position as a top player in the enterprise networking market. This is the third in a series of acquisitions announced by Extreme in the last year, including its acquisition of Zebra Technologies' WLAN business and Avaya's networking business.

"This is an exciting day for Extreme as we have now significantly strengthened our position in the expanding high-end data center market with the industry leading solution for enterprise customers," said Ed Meyercord, president and CEO, Extreme Networks. "Through a series of synergistic acquisitions, Extreme is now a top player in the enterprise networking industry and expects to generate over $1 billion in annual revenues. Today's announcement is not only a significant milestone for our growth strategy, but it also allows us to assist more customers around the globe with end-to-end software-driven solutions to drive their digital transformation initiatives."

With the close of this acquisition, Extreme acquires customer relationships, personnel and technology assets from Brocade including the SLX, VDX, MLX, CES, CER, Workflow Composer, Automation Suites, and certain other data center related products. The acquisition enhances Extreme's data center solutions used by enterprises and service providers across industries such as education, hospitality, health care, retail, transportation and logistics, manufacturing, and government.

"Our strategic vision has been closely aligned with Extreme Networks' vision throughout this process," said Nabil Bukhari, vice president, data center, formerly of Brocade and now with Extreme Networks. "Extreme's commitment to build on the innovation and momentum that we have achieved, including a completely refreshed data center portfolio over the past year, will provide our new and existing customers and partners with business continuity that enables them to accelerate digital transformation. Extreme and Brocade are excited to work closely together through the integration process to ensure a smooth transition and our world-class data center team is excited to have joined the Extreme family."

Extreme continues to anticipate the transaction will be accretive to cash flow and earnings for its fiscal year 2018, which began on July 1, and expects to generate over $230 million in annualized revenue from the acquired assets.