In a striking diversification, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Bolt, Beranek & Newman Inc is to acquire the Internet services provider for Silicon Valley, the Barrnet Bay Area Regional Research Network, from Stanford University. Bolt, Beranek declined to disclose terms of the deal or annual revenue of Barrnet, but the business has Stanford, Apple Computer Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co among its customers. The company has also cut by more than half the price it charges businesses for access to the World Wide Web on the New England access provider it acquired last year from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nearnet. The access fee was cut to $3,950 from $8,450, but annual fees, starting at $7,600, are unchanged. Customers of Nearnet include the Massachusetts Institute, Lotus Development Corp, Harvard University and individual access provider Delphi Services Inc. The company is going back to its roots in a big way with the acquisitions because it built and operated the pioneering Arpanet for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. IBM Corp alumnus George Conrades, now president and chief executive of Bolt, Beranek said Combining two of the premier regional Internet Services is an important milestone toward our goal of becoming the leading provider of high-quality, value-added Internet services US-wide.Nearnet’s revenue is currently about $5m a year, and Barrnet’s is less.
