Sycamore inks $400 million pact with Williams Communications

Sycamore Networks (Nasdaq: SCMR) inked a four-year deal with Williams Communications (NYSE: WCG) where Williams will buy $100 million of Sycamore products each year.

Shares of Sycamore, a recently public maker of optical networking maker, were up 3 3/4 to 267 Monday morning. The stock has been on a steep climb since its IPO, despite reporting a loss in its first publicly reported quarter.

Shares of Williams Communications, down 1/8 to 28 7/16, have also been on the rise since the company beat estimates in its third quarter. Williams Communications has the fourth-largest fiber-optic network in the U.S.

The Sycamore-Williams agreement covers the full range of Sycamore's optical networking products including the SN 6000 transport node, SN 8000 network node and SILVX optical network management system.

Williams Communications has already been using Sycamore's products and said its use of Sycamore's products will enable it to extend its services to many less-populated cities as well as to all major markets around the country within weeks, not months.

"Sycamore's products have far surpassed our expectations and enabled us to deliver new services almost as quickly as the systems are installed," said Matthew Bross, senior vice president and chief technology officer for Williams Communications

The Williams Multi-Service Broadband Network(TM) is an integrated fiber-optic network whose architecture couples ATM core switching with advanced optical networking technologies to provide carriers with data, voice, video and Internet services over the platform they choose.