In a deal approved by both company's boards, Redback will issue about 5.2 million shares for Vancouver-based Abatis, a supplier of networking technology and products. The deal is expected to exponentially boost Redback's capacity to add Internet-protocol (IP) services over its networks. Nasdaq-listed Redback, founded by Gaurav Garg in Sunnyvale, California in 1996, builds networking equipment that allows telecommunication carriers and Internet service providers to offer high- speed Net access, such as digital subscriber lie (DSL) and cable, and its software helps them offer billing options and other services to individual customers.

Garg is the company's vice president of business development and strategy. Redback's chief executive officer and president is Chennai-born Vivek Ragavan, a 20-year veteran of the telecommunications industry. The company reported a 340 per cent rise in sales, to $48 million over the previous year. Redback shares, which traded at $113 at the time of the deal, have risen 127-fold since it went public last year.

Abatis, a two-year-old company with 130 employees, makes equipment that is said to cut the cost and complexity of installing networks carrying Internet traffic. Ragavan said the acquisition gives the company the technology to allow service providers to offer and manage Web-based services. These include movies, music and games on demand for consumers, as well as video conferencing IANS