ECI Acquires Chinese Optical Business

PETAH TIKVA, Israel, April 15 -- ECI Telecom announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the optical activities and technology of Eastern Communications Co. Inc. (Eastcom), of China, for an undisclosed amount. ECI said the acquisition broadens its multiservice provisioning platform (MSPP) product line. The operations of the acquired unit will be merged with ECI's existing joint venture, Hangzhou ECI Telecommunications Co. Ltd.

"With this acquisition, ECI now adds a cost-effective R&D and manufacturing operation in China," said Doron Inbar, president and CEO of ECI Telecom. "This is part of ECI's strategy to expand and diversify its global development resources and augment its focused product line. The acquired operations, combined with ECI's design and development expertise, will shorten our time to market and enable us to meet the needs of our worldwide customer base."

ECI, which is based in Israel, specializes in metro optical networks, broadband access, bandwidth management and carrier-class VoIP.

For more information, visit: www.ecitele.com