Bay Networks Inc, the merged Wellfleet and SynOptics, has signed a global sales agreement with Irvine, California-based Sync Research Inc. Bay Networks will recommend Sync’s non-router SNA and wide area network internetworking equipment to its customers, and resell the products to those of its customers that prefer dealing with a single vendor. In return Sync is supposed to refer router enquiries to Bay Networks, although quite when this will happen is far from clear. According Sync Reaseach, the company now has agreements of one sort or another with virtually everybody [in the router market] with the exception of Cisco. While many of these are technology licensing deals, Sync has a similar sales referral deal with Bay Networks’ arch-rival 3Com Corp, following the latter’s investment in the company in May (CI No 2,407). Sync will still not say how much 3Com invested, but the company did say that the equity position entitles 3Com to a seat on Sync’s board. Asked to which company customers would be referred, the company said only that this would be decided on a case-by-case basis, taking specific customer requirements into account. Where these requirements could be equally well met by products from both companies, Sync was unable to say which one would be recommended – although 3Com’s investment in Sync would seem to put that company in a much stronger position.
