Cascade Communications

Cascade Communications Corporation

Company type	Private
Industry	Communications hardware
Founded	1990
Founder	Gururaj Deshpande
Defunct	1997
Fate	Acquired by Ascend Communications
Headquarters	Westford, Massachusetts , United States
Key people	Dan Smith (CEO), Mike Champa (Vice President of Sales), Paul Blondin (CFO)
Products	Compact switches for Frame Relay and Asynchronous Transfer Mode technologies

Cascade Communications Corporation operated as a manufacturer of communications hardware headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts.

History

Established in 1990 by Gururaj Deshpande, the company’s executive team included CEO Dan Smith, Vice President of Sales Mike Champa, and CFO Paul Blondin.

Cascade specialized in producing compact switches for Frame Relay and Asynchronous Transfer Mode technologies, which were distributed worldwide to telecommunications providers. During the mid-1990s, Frame Relay served as the dominant data service for secure corporate networks, with Cascade’s devices managing approximately 70% of the global Internet traffic at that time.

The company’s primary rival was StrataCom, which was purchased by Cisco Systems in 1996 for US $4 billion.

In 1997, Ascend Communications acquired Cascade for US $3.7 billion to enhance its market share in ATM and Frame Relay sectors. Subsequently, Ascend was bought by Lucent Technologies in 1999 for US $24 billion, marking one of the largest consolidations in the communications equipment industry. Lucent placed greater value on Cascade’s operations compared to Ascend’s modem termination business.

Legacy

The acquisition proved financially rewarding for Deshpande, Smith, and numerous Cascade staff members. Additionally, Cascade significantly contributed to the growth of Massachusetts’ telecommunications startup environment during the mid-1990s. Former employees went on to establish or lead prominent Boston-area enterprises such as Sycamore Networks (co-founded by Deshpande and Smith) and Omnia Communications (founded by Champa), who later assumed the CEO role at Winphoria Networks.