Nortel Networks Corp. has made a move to enhance its router line by acquiring Tasman Networks, which delivers high-performance wide-area IP routers. Nortel said it will pay $99.5 million in cash for privately held Tasman.

Announced Tuesday, the acquisition will offer full routing and multicast services to small and medium-sized office deployments.

"We anticipate that the Tasman products will complement our enterprise infrastructure solutions and further our ability to provide seamless, feature-rich networks that support critical real-time applications--including voice, video, and streaming multimedia applications," said Nortel's Steve Slattery in a statement. Slattery is president of Nortel's Enterprise Solutions and Packet Networks unit.

Planned to be marketed under the aegis of Nortel's Secure Router line, the Tasman products will augment Nortel's convergence technologies for data and IP multimedia customers. Nortel pointed out that the Tasman products are capable of simultaneously running various services including voice, VPN, firewall, and quality of service--all with wire-speed performance.

In a recent report, analyst Inder Singh of Prudential Equity Group said the acquisition should "improve Nortel's position in next-generation technologies like IPTV and Metro Ethernet."