Marlin to merge Tellabs, Coriant operations, separate access division

Coriant and Tellabs are set to start new lives as their new owner Marlin Equity Partners is merging the two companies and forming one common leadership team.

Under the new company structure, Bob Leggett will serve as chairman of the Board, Pat DiPietro as chief executive officer and Herbert Merz as president and chief operating officer of the unified organization.

Dan Kelly, who will step down from his role as Tellabs' president and CEO, will serve in an advisory role during a transition period.

The new management team comes with plenty of telecom and business experience.

Leggett, a Marlin Operating Partner, has 30 years of experience in launching a number of networking and startup ventures, while DiPietro has extensive executive management and R&D experience in the telecommunications and technology industries, including senior leadership roles at Nortel and Bell Northern Research.

Merz has more than 20 years of executive management and leadership experience, as well as a deep background in account management, services, strategic transformations and operations. Before helping to form Coriant, he served as the head of Nokia Siemens Networks Optical Networks Business Unit and was a member of the executive board of Nokia Siemens Networks.

Marlin has been an active consolidator of the optical market, purchasing not only Tellabs, but also Nokia Siemens Networks' optical business and Sycamore Networks, which created Coriant.

In related news, Marlin is going to establish an independent business for the Tellabs Access product portfolio.

Led by new President and CEO Mike Dagenais, the new company will focus its attention on growing the Optical Local Area Network (OLAN) solutions business for enterprises and government agencies. They will also continue to provide service providers with a line of Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) and related products for last mile network deployments.

For more:
- see the merger release
- and the Tellabs' access release

Related articles:
Tellabs acquired by Marlin Equity Partners for $891M
Sycamore rebrands as Coriant America
Marlin Equity Partners acquires Sycamore Networks for $18.75 million in cash